Reformist Propaganda Czar Dies

Information Services Librarian Zehao Zhou was quoted in a story on the death of Zhu House, former czar of China's propaganda ministry:  

Zhou Zehao, professor of information science at Pennsylvania's York College said that the central propaganda department had played an "inglorious role" in the history of the People's Republic of China ever since it was founded. 

"It is still playing that role today," Zhou said. "But Zhu Houze and [deputy] Deng Liqun managed to do the exact opposite. Their attitudes and their methods were very relaxed -- a bright spot in the history of the central propaganda department," he said. 

He called on current propoganda department officials to take a leaf out of Zhu's book, so the organization could start to leave its "palace in the underworld."

"Reforms can happen both from within and outside the system. What Zhu did was to start changing the system from within," he said.