While the more studious might peruse books about Mao, the general reading public relied for their information on the tabloid press and magazines with eye-catching covers and headlines which were sold at bookstalls that dot the cities and at train and bus stations throughout the country.
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Below is the editorial note and contents page of one such publication, a special issue of
On and Off the Silver Screen (Yinmu neiwai),
published in Chengdu, Sichuan, in November 1993. Entitled
True Tales of the Adventures of Mao Zedong,
it was ostensibly produced "to commemorate the Mao Zedong Centenary."
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The prose used is the doggerel classical style favored by martial arts novelists, storytellers, writers of tales of court intrigue and popular Republican-period histories further peppered with the revolutionary bravado of Party propaganda. This bastardized style can be contrasted with Wang Shuo's comic use of Party language (see "MaoSpeak" above).
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The translation is literal and no attempt has been made to explain the numerous historicaland in some cases hystericalreferences in the piece. The obsequious sincerity of the editors is in striking contrast to the sensational contents of the actual magazine.
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One hundred years ago, in the land where the Emperor Shun heard the music of Shao,
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a baby boy was born. Who would have thought that the peasant lad who left behind the hills of His homeland would be the Greatest Man of His generation, a man who initiated a new age?
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Did history produce Him, or did He write history?
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Suddenly, seventeen years ago, Mao Zedong took His leave. However, His majestic body, His resonant Hunanese voice, like His name and the enterprise on which He embarked, are today still as lustrous as the sun and moon regardless of whether He is living or dead.
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It is for this reason that we cherish His memory and commemorate Him.
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