terms. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Film and Television, an actor on loan [to another studio] should receive four times their usual wage. But all that money goes to their film studio, in my case, the 1 August Studio. I don't make any extra money. My monthly wage is about three hundred
yuan.
Many other famous actors can get seven or eight times their basic wage when they work for another studio, but I do it for nothing. At most, I get an extra living allowance. To play a leader you have to be prepared to make some sacrifices. What can I do about it? If you play a hero, you have to act the hero in real life. If I haggled about such things, I could damage Mao's image.
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Q: Has there been any adverse effect on your family life?
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A: No. My wife and I still make more than most people. We do okay. But, of course, we can't compare to movie stars overseas.
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 | 1. See "Zhongyang xuanchuanbu zhuanfa wenhuabu dangzu `Guanyu xiju, dianying fanying weida lingxiu Mao zhuxi he Zhou zonglide guanghui xingxiangde qingshi baogao' (Zhongxuanfa [1978] 2 hao)," Zhongyang xuanchuanbu bangongting, ed.,
Dangde xuanchuan gongzuo wenjian xuanbian (1976-1982),
vol. 2, p. 607.
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| 2. See the chapter "Mingxing chuchangjia" in Yin Jindi,
Zhongguo wenhua getihu dasaomiao,
pp. 260-61 and 253 respectively.
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| 3. The Four Basic Principles are: to support the leadership of the Communist Party; to support Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought; to support the dictatorship of the proletariat; and to support the socialist path.
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| 4.
Sing Pao
(Xingbao) is a Hong Kong-based daily newspaper.
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| 5. That is, Jiang was sentenced to life imprisonment for her "counterrevolutionary" crimes.
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| 6. Zhang Yufeng was Mao's chief "personal secretary" (
shenghuo mishu
) during the Cultural Revolution. She enjoyed such a privileged position that she was even shown walking in front of the Chairman in official photographs. See, for example, issues of
The Liberation Army Pictorial
(Jiefangjun huabao) from the early years of the Cultural Revolution. Not surprisingly, Zhang sank into relative obscurity after the Chairman's demise, although from the late 1980s, like so many others (including Meng Jinyun, another of her ilk), she attempted to cash in on the Mao Cult. See also Zhisui Li,
The Private Life of Chairman Mao
for details of Zhang's relationship with Mao.
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| 7. Li Zhisui claims that Mao was impotent by this time and incapable of fathering a child.
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| 8. The Three Great Campaigns were the Liao-Shen, Huaihai and Ping-Jin Campaigns launched by the PLA against the Nationalist army from September 1948 to early 1949.
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| 9. From what has been said in the introduction in regard to Mao's authorship of such documents, this may now be a fairly contentious claim.
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| 10. In 1995, it was widely rumored that Oliver Stone was still interested in Mao, but was thinking of doing a screen version of Li Zhisui's bedside memoirs.
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