During his reign, and especially during the Cultural Revolution, Mao became the center of a cult of personality that China's most ambitious emperors could not have rivaled.  This painting of Mao and his supporters--youth waving the "Little Red Book" of Mao's sayings--during the Cultural Revolution represents a dramatic change in Chinese art.  Traditionally, individuals played a minor role in Chinese paintings, but during the Communist period, and especially under Mao's direction, that changed.  One of the goals of the Cultural Revolution was to attack everything associated with pre-revolutionary China and to replace traditional Chinese art and culture with a new "revolutionary" style, of which this painting is an example.  Source:  Instructional Resources Corporation, The World History CD-Rom (non-European history).