Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader (33 page)

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Authors: Geremie Barme

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Page 73
Register-Guard,
Eugene, Oregon, July 28, 1995; also reported in the Chinese
Shijie ribao,
28 July 1995. My thanks to Richard Kraus for this gem.
277. Camille Paglia, "Introduction,"
The Revival Handbook,
p. 1, quoting from her essay "Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders." Paglia's introduction is reprinted as "The Artistic Dynamics of `Revival'" in her
Vamps & Tramps,
pp. 341-43.
278. In regard to this process in the case of the Soviet Union, see Stephen Wheatcroft, "Unleashing the Energy of History, Mentioning the Unmentionable and Reconstructing Soviet Historical Awareness: Moscow 1987,"
Australian Slavonic and East European Studies
1, no. 1 (1987), referred to in Unger,
Using the Past to Serve the Present,
p. 270, n. 31; and David Remnick,
Lenin's Tomb,
pp. 30-35, 36-41, 60-69, and 398-411.
279. The cult of Napoleon, for example, has flourished for more than 150 years. See Pieter Geyl,
Napoleon For and Against,
trans. Olive Renier; and Karl Marx, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte," in Marx and Engels,
Selected Works,
vol. 1, pp. 221-311. Nancy N. Chen, who has done work with Chinese mental patients, tells me that while the mentally ill in the West may suffer from Napoleonic delusions of grandeur, in China some patients believe themselves to be Mao Zedong. Similarly, Mao is reported to appear as a spirit guide in shamanistic rituals.

 

Page 75
Illustrations
Unless otherwise captioned, all photographs were taken by Richard Gordon.

 

Page 77
Figure 1.
The Six Worthies: (from right to left) Deng Xiaoping, Liu Shaoqi, Mao
Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, and Chen Yun.
Oil painting by Liu Xiqi.

 

Page 78
Figure 2.
Pulp magazine cover: 
True Tales of the Adventures of Mao Zedong
Commemorating the Centenary of Mao Zedong's Birth:
Revealed for the First Time Ever:
The Dramas Surrounding the Early History of the People's
LeaderMajor Depictions of the Extraordinary Secrets of
this Great Man's Life
Mao Zedong Loses Control Over the Army
Mao Zedong Causes an Uproar at Xinhua Gate
Mao Zedong was a Casual Laborer
Mao Zedong Established "The Republic of Hunan"
Originally Mao Wanted to Be a Policeman
Mao Zedong Gives a Loutish Soldier a Knuckle Sandwich
(Published in Sichuan, November 1993)

 

Page 79
Figure 3.
Mao talisman: Purchased at Jinshan Temple, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu in 1992.
This talisman bears a portrait of an elderly Mao in military garb housed in
a temple frame with the words "May [we] come and go in safety"
under it. The character 
fu,
 "good fortune," hangs from the superstructure
with a tassel and bells attached to it. On the reverse side the words
"May the winds fill your sails" are printed in black on an
auspicious red background.

 

Page 80
Figure 4.
"Chairman Mao Is the Sun in Our Hearts Which Will Never Set."
Propaganda painting by Gu Gang circa 1977.

 

Page 81
Figure 5.
"Eternal Glory to the Great Leader and Great Teacher Chairman
Mao Zedong": Mao's Funeral, Tiananmen Square, September 1976.

 

Page 82
Figure 6.
Entrance Chamber, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall,
Beijing. Behind a Lincoln-like statue of Mao
is a massive picture of the rivers and mountains
of China created by the artist Huang Yongyu,
the man on whose life story Bai Hua based his
scenario "Unrequited Love." The painting is entitled
"This land so rich in beauty," the first line of
Mao's poem "Snow." This picture was produced
on the cover of 
Giant of a Generation,
 an illustrated
set of propaganda materials.
Figure 7.
"The Loom Links Us to Beijing; the Weavers Are Joined to Chairman Hua
by the Heartstrings." Watercolor by Chen Mingjun and Wu Ziqiang.

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