women. Historical Context The film was released during the Mao era at the end of The Great Leap Forward. During this time mobilizing women to work for collective tasks was central to the party's efforts to raise agricultural production. Before this point rural communities often faced difficulties surviving the harvest season with enough to eat. The Great Leap Forward intended to change that by merging production units into vast communes. Communes in the countryside were so large they could include up to several hundred thousand people. Consequently many of the rural men left their villages to accomplish infrastructure projects far from their hometown. With so many of the men away rural communities were faced with an extreme labor shortage. Thus the party mobilized rural women to take action and accomplish the agricultural work that had historically been left to the men. Exemplary workers could be selected as labor models where their good deeds would be publicized and touted as a way of motivating other women to mobilize and work hard for their commune. In addition to being talented laborers they had to maintain the domestic sphere as well. Li Shuangshuang illustrates a perfect example of what is expected of women during this time period. However, she differs from traditional labor models in one key way, she was not free from scandal. Traditional labor models had to be well liked by everyone in their community and free from any kind of gossip or impropriety. Chinese Cinema The CCP has had a long history of utilizing film as a way to disseminate propaganda throughout the nation. As early as 1950 the government created a quota system to ensure that the content of film productions aligned with the parties current concerns. By 1953 the distribution of “rural feature films'' that would cater to the peasant population became a top priority of government policymakers. Thus “stories about agricultural successes in agriculture and industry” were promoted during The Great Leap Forward. Political Message Production Mode The story of Li Shuangshuang first appeared in People’s Literature in 1960, was later adapted into a film, and eventually turned into a lianhuanhua, or an illustrated storybook. This was not uncommon in the Maoist era for the apparent political efficacy of this mode of literary production. Not only was the same narrative repeated multiple times, enough to make an impact on people’s perception of a Party-led life, but it