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Authors: Geremie Barme

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76. See Shmuel Eisenstadt, "Innerweltliche Transzendenz und die Strukturierung der Welt. Max Webers Studie über China und die Gestalt der chinesischen Zivilisation," quoted in Schram, "Party Leader or True Ruler?," p. 228. In this context, see also Thomas A. Metzger,
Escape from Predicament,
pp. 121 and 233, also quoted in Schram, pp. 226 and 228.
77. As the government's campaign against corruption widened in 1995, many people seemed unimpressed by all the storm and fury. One typical comment was: "All the Beijing officials are corrupt. Chairman Mao wasn't a good man, but at least he knew how to deal with corruption." Graham Hutchings, "China's Anger with Leaders Bursts Out."

 

Page 60
78. See Mayfair Mei-hui Yang,
Gifts, Favors, and Banquets,
pp. 257-58.
79. For the memoirs of the two most prominent of Mao's "personal secretaries," or
shenghuo mishu
as they were commonly referred to, see Zhang Yufeng,
Mao Zedong yishi,
and Meng Jinyun's recollections as published in Guo Jinrong,
Mao Zedongde huanghun suiyue.
80. Zhisui Li,
The Private Life of Chairman Mao,
pp. 358-59.
81. Quoted in Simon Leys, "Aspects of Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976),"
Broken Images,
p. 64.
82. See also "Mao Zedong zui chongbaide xiake shi shei?" pp. 54-57, in which the three martial heroes the young Mao admired most are listed. They were Yuan Yuan (1635-1704), Li Gong (1659-1733), and Tan Sitong (1865-1898).
83. Li Zhisui also notes that, in his last years, Mao particularly enjoyed watching kung fu movies from Hong Kong. Li,
The Private Life of Chairman Mao,
p. 574.
84. See the chapter "The Stalin in Us" in Hochschild,
The Unquiet Ghost,
pp. 115-27.
85. See "Chairman Mao as Pop Art" in Orville Schell,
Mandate of Heaven,
pp. 281-82 and 284. In 1987, the life of a Fujian woman was reportedly saved by a Mao portrait. Suffering from a "fox-cat curse," the woman was fearful that her vital essence would be sucked out by a rampant "fox-cat spirit" (
hulimao
). On the advice of friends she hung a Mao portrait on her front door. Mao's image was presumably so powerful that the spirit did not dare enter the house, and the woman was saved from certain death. See Liu Xuesong, "Mao Zedong shaoxiang ke `baoan pixie' ma?'' pp. 96-97.
86. Meisner, "The Cult of Mao Tse-tung," p. 179.
87. See Reuter News Service, "Chinese Officials Ponder Temple to Mao Tsetung," and Zeng Ni, "Zhongguo Hunan jiancheng shouzuo Mao Zedong shenmiao, gedi xiangke dapi yongshi ride wuwan ren."
88. The "Four Greats," or
sige weida.
Mao rejected these accolades and on 18 December 1970, remarked to Edgar Snow that the personality cult had gone too far.
89. Karl Dietrich Bracher,
The German Dictatorship,
p. 424.
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