Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader (86 page)

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Authors: Geremie Barme

Tags: #History, #Asia, #China, #Literary Criticism, #Asian, #Chinese, #Political Science, #Political Ideologies, #Communism; Post-Communism & Socialism, #World, #General, #test

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suffered at the time, and they didn't shy from the issue, they saw their sufferings as being due to errors made by a collective leadership. One retired woman teacher said: "Chairman Mao may have made mistakes but at least he wasn't corrupt. His intentions were good, and no one can avoid making mistakes."
Most middle-aged people have a far more complex relationship with Mao. Over half of them admitted that they had mixed feelings about him and it was impossible to characterize their attitudes by saying that they either "loved" or "hated" him. The rest have considerable respect for Mao but they rarely used such terms as "adore'' or "love" to express their feelings.
2
When asked to evaluate Mao's achievements and failures, however, they revealed a rational and dispassionate stance. Of this group, 67 percent gave Mao a fairly high score.
One man was born into a landlord's family and was branded a counterrevolutionary when he was 16. He suffered a great deal and was later refused university entrance a number of times. He said: "I feel very ambivalent towards Mao. In personal terms, the Mao era was one of suffering for me. But historically speaking, Mao was a remarkable giant. He managed to flow with the course of history and brought an end to decades of internecine strife and division. He unified China and for a time after 1949 he let the people enjoy a good life. These were all remarkable achievements."
A 45-year-old intellectual said: "Mao laid waste to my generation. By isolating China from the outside world he also delayed the development of our nation. But Mao did allow the Chinese people to stand up and achieve a sense of dignity. We have him to thank for that."
Many middle-aged people also showed considerable understanding of the mistakes Mao made in his later years. One man who spent a decade as a rusticated youth in northern Shaanxi and is now an employee in a small company said: "Being sent to the countryside destroyed my life. But that wasn't Mao's fault. It was caused by the system as a whole."
Another interviewee who has done research on Mao offered the following analysis: Mao tried throughout his life to find a developmental model for the East that was different from that of the West. He hoped thereby to put China in the centre of the international stage so that we would become the model for others. But he was not all that careful or mindful of just how each step should be taken or what consequences they might have. As he got older he became increasingly lost in a world of his own.
Middle-aged and older intellectuals, regardless of their profession, revealed two completely different attitudes in their evaluation of Mao: they were either very mild or very extreme. These groups were also the most thoughtful in their analysis and evaluation of Mao, whether it be positive or extremely critical.

 

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We were completely unprepared for the discovery that younger people, that is the group from 25 to 35 years of age, generally praised Mao highly and in many cases openly worshipped him. They most often used words like "worship" to describe their attitude. Some 57 percent of those interviewed used the word "worship" in their responses.
Older people saw Mao in terms of his historical and political influence. Younger respondents tended to evaluate Mao in more personal terms. They often prefer to discuss their admiration for him in regard to his individuality, character, talents, courage, and political ability rather than in relation to concrete historical and political events.
Many young people said that they were deeply moved by books that depicted details of Mao's private life. Generally, they were very much impressed by the fact that he combined greatness with a common touch, that he was frugal and strict in his own life. They were also fascinated by his odyssey, to have started out as a peasant's son and end up as a major world figure.
Some were completely uninterested in discussing his political career. They had their own insights into the interior world of a man with whom "no normal mortal could compare" and had the deepest admiration for him.
A university graduate said: "Mao is one of the people I admire most." A book vendor said he was incredibly impressed by the man who hundreds of millions of Chinese had worshipped. A woman reporter said: "Mao was the type of leader who suits orientals. You need a figure like that, someone who will stand at the apex of the pyramid and keep everything together."
Although most of these people had little direct experience of Mao, or remembered the errors of his later years, most of them had heard a lot about that time. Apart from a few individuals who were still critical of Mao because their families had suffered under him, the majority felt that things like the Cultural Revolution, the Anti-Rightist Movement and the Great Leap Forward were very distant historical incidents. Some even expressed doubts about the suffering they'd heard people had gone through during the Cultural Revolution. They commented that malcontents were exaggerating things for personal reasons. Others were so enamoured of Mao that they said they wished they'd lived in the 1950s or 1960s.
Respondents under 25 provided a striking contrast to this slightly older group. Apart from a general respect and admiration for Mao among most university students, a considerable proportion of respondents in this groupsome 40 percentwere virtually completely ignorant of Mao and the historical, social, and political developments that surrounded him. They were therefore unable to comment on him. Many middle school and primary school students responded to questions about why Mao's portrait

 

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hangs from Tiananmen and who founded the People's Republic of China by saying: "I don't know." Asked whether they were interested in knowing more about Mao, many of them said "not particularly," ''don't have the time," or "not interested."
The majority of Chinese, however, hold Mao Zedong in the highest regard. This would have been unimaginable only a few years ago when Mao's prestige had hit rock bottom. There are complex socio-political reasons for the re-emergence of Mao Zedong. But the fact of the matter is that although there is widespread respect for Mao, things are very different from the past. For many younger Mao worshippers the Chairman is no longer an ideological or political symbol, rather he has a charisma that is related to outstanding personal qualities and his profound influence and authority. This is the essential difference between today's MaoCraze and the political fascination older people once had for Mao. A tendency for people to become divorced from history and politics has meant that young people can be free to admire Mao's personality. The complete ignorance [about the past] among people in their early 20s and adolescents is proof that this tendency is becoming more evident.
The survey indicated that people in the 25-35 age bracket were the main consumers of Mao-related popular publications with some 75 percent of them having read such books. Some 90 percent of university students under 25 as well as 43 percent of other young people in this age group were also readers of these books. Most young people got their information about Mao's personal life and his history from these books.
The American academic Ross Terrill's
Mao: A Biography
3
was the most highly regarded of the Mao books among university students and other relatively well-educated people. Readers felt that Terrill's account was "accurate," "compelling," and "the most outstanding." We can therefore conclude that many young people have a view of Mao Zedong that is based on the perceptions and analyses of foreigners.
4
Other books popular among young people include
Memoirs of a Bodyguard, China's First Man
and
Mao Zedong Quits the Altar.
But most surprising was that many young respondents mentioned having heard certain myths and superstitious tales about Mao. They claimed, for example, that at the time of his birth a flash of red light was seen in the sky; again, a comet fell from the heavens when he died . . . many of the respondents half believed such stories. One Master's student said that he was completely convinced by the absurd tales found in
Mao Zedong and His Hometown.
5
In striking contrast to all of this was the fact that most of the people under the age of 35 were relatively unfamiliar with Mao's own writings. One third of young people (most of whom have had a tertiary education)

 

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claim to have read
Selected Works
and they can name a few articles like "On Protracted Warfare," "On Contradiction" and "On Practice.'' But on closer questioning most of them admitted that they had "only flicked through" or "read the opening lines of" these essays. Some didn't have a clue about the contents of these works, though they could name them. They certainly had not "studied" them. Others were not even sure whether Mao had authored "The Communist Manifesto" or
How to Be a Good Communist.
6
Only 6 or 7 of the 56 young people interviewed had any concept of Mao Thought. Some university students said they felt Mao's ideas were so divorced from reality that they couldn't be bothered to read him. One young man who held forth on the subject of Mao admitted that he had never read anything by him but that "it didn't matter since Mao Thought has been so widely propagated that everyone knows what it's all about."
Do our young people have an adequate knowledge of the essence of Mao Thought? The answer to this question reveals whether the spiritual heritage of Mao Zedong is intact. According to our survey, over half of the young people questioned were completely ignorant of the detailed contents of Mao Zedong Thought. Some could readily spout abstract slogans like "Mao Thought is the crystallization of collective wisdom"
7
that they had learned by heart. The Master's student mentioned above remarked that: "The only Mao quotes I know are ones I saw written up on slogan boards. . . . I learned a few for my politics exam, but have forgotten the lot. The only one I remember is `study hard and you'll improve every day'."
8
Surprisingly, five primary school students whom we interviewed had no idea where this quotation came from.
Because of a patchy understanding of Mao plus a general ignorance of politics and history, the adulation for Mao among young people often amounts to little more than blind worship. Furthermore, most young people draw a complete blank when it comes to Mao Thought itself. This is a clear indication that mainstream ideological propaganda, which has spared no effort in promoting Mao Thought, is in crisis.
Time does indeed march on. So what elements of Mao Thought have survived; which aspects of it are still relevant to the social and political realities of China today?
In response to these questions, 60 percent of middle-aged and older people said it was the concept of "serving the people."
9
Some were quite emphatic and added: "That's the main element [of Mao Thought]."
One old worker became quite animated as he spoke: "Chairman Mao said you have to `serve the people wholeheartedly.' I might not be capable of wholehearted service, but even if you're half-hearted and don't serve yourself wholeheartedly then I think you've got a pretty good grasp of Mao Thought."
A middle-aged cadre who works for a state organization said: "Mao

 

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made `serve the people' the central platform of the Communist Party, that's how they won popular support and came into power. If they still want the people to support them then they'd better stick with this policy."
A 45-year-old intellectual opined: "The best thing about Mao's theories was the line `serve the people.' All that stuff about combining theory with practice has nothing to do with us. But `serving the people,' that's a theory for the masses, everyone can arm themselves with it."
This wide-ranging survey left us with a very strong impression that 17 years after his death Mao Zedong still has a place in the hearts of the Chinese people. This is not only because of the massive impact he had on the development of China during his lifetime, and because of the power of his thought and personality, but also because he continues to exert an influence on Chinese life today. We were particularly struck by the fact that Mao led the Chinese out of internecine strife and forged unity in what was a poor and backward nation to achieve a sense of national dignity. These are the reasons why people now still have such a high regard for him.
It is evident that for the Chinese strength and unity, as well as national dignity, are extremely important factors in political life. These are and will remain central to the feelings and actions of the Chinese. From what we heard about Mao it is also obvious that the Chinese hold out expectations for a strong political leader and rely on such figures. Political strength and authority are still central features of life in China today.
Notes
1. Yang Ping, "Miandui Mao Zedong."
2. The terms in Chinese are
chongbai
and
reai. Reai,
literally "hot-love," is a term that has been used to describe popular adulation of Mao for many decades.
3. Ross Terrill,
Mao: A Biography.
4. Not all university students were fans of Terrill's work, however. Mao Xinyu, Mao's grandson and a student in the Department of History at People's University in Beijing at the time, was highly critical of "the works of Americans regarding my granddad. Those books [he names Terrill and Schram's work] are biased and ridden with errors." He preferred the more "reliable" memoirs of Mao's bodyguard Li Yinqiao and the works of other Mainland writers like Quan Yanchi and Wang Hebin which all conform with official dogma on Mao. See Zhao Zhichao, "Yingmian zoulai Mao Xinyu," part 1, pp. 11-12.
5. For this material, see "Mao Zedong he tade xiangqinmen" in Liu Jianguo,
Shaoshande zuotian yu jintian: Mao Zedong zhi gen.
6. This latter work,
Lun Gongchandangyuan xiuyang,
was written by Liu Shaoqi. See Liu Shao-ch'i,
How to Be a Good Communist.
7. A Party formulation that kept the vehicle of Mao Thought intact while its dated contents were effectively jettisoned. See "Mao: The Body Corporate" above.

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