In an attempt to provide the people with an alternative for the political slogans that had dominated popular discourse for decades, in an attempt to provide the people with an alternative for the somewhat discredited Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought of the past, nationalism - or patriotism - was stressed very much in the 1980s.

The title of the book reads 'Modern and Contemporary History of China' (中国近代现代史 - Zhongguo jindai xiandai shi). The images of past revolutionary struggle in the background are from the Monument to the People's Heroes on Tian'anmen square in Beijing.