The 'new things' pictured here heavily feature rusticated educated youths as working in the countryside, as barefoot doctors and as students of Mao Thought. They are pictured alongside workers, intellectuals, soldiers and a revolutionary opera character all firmly behind the cultural revolution. The opera heroine is symbolic of that revolution and the image also contains both a gun and a pen as weapons of the struggle. The imagery of fresh flowers is repeated in the red flower worn by the young woman in the centre, the badge of honour given to those who exceled in their work and commitment to the revolution. More women than men appear in the scene, and the woman in the foreground is praised by being shown holding a red book. Yet it is the male worker who is the strongest, largest amongst them and wields the propaganda brush.