Grafitti for History

In Higher Level History, Year 13 students have been studying the People’s Republic of China. Following the death of Mao, Deng Xiaoping introduced sweeping reforms to open up the economy. As China modernised, expectations for political reform grew and in the late 1970s students gathered at the ‘democracy wall’ in Beijing to express their hopes for more freedom of speech.

Having studied Deng’s rule, Year 13s have the chance to recreate the democracy wall and express the feelings and desires of those wanting change. Once their messages are completed, students will examine them to explain what aspects of Deng’s rule each message relates to and link the role of the wall to the origins of the democracy movement.