Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader (47 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

BOOK: Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader
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Page 147
Crazed Critics:
Two Views of Li Jie
Ying Congying and Meng Fei
I
"The Mao Phenomenon" is a pernicious work that launches an open and reckless attack on Mao Zedong Thought, as well as Comrade Mao's achievements, while also indulging in character assassination. At one point, the author, a "famous young critic," compares Comrade Mao Zedong to Qin Shihuang
1
and plays on this theme in the most incoherent language. He says: "If we take Qin Shihuang to be the progenitor of this style of feudal culture, then Mao Zedong is its historical conclusion. He marks the completion of a perfect historical cycle. Mao Zedong used the most extreme methods to bring an end to this form of historical extremism." Then he likens Comrade Mao to Adolf Hitler, the leader of international Fascism, and makes the wild claim that: "We can compare the significance of Mao Zedong in Chinese history to the importance of Hitler in world history."
At the end of a process of absurd reduction and extrapolation this "critic" declares that Mao Zedong was a schizophrenic and, in his last years, "mentally unbalanced." As proof the author cites Mao Zedong's strategy to "entice" all of China's intellectuals into a trap so he could "eliminate" them. The fact that Mao never wore a Western-style suit is presented as evidence that he "despised'' "leading intellectuals and institutions of higher learning."
The article moves from its attack on Mao Zedong to a denunciation of the Party, the People, as well as Socialism. The author fulminates that: "The phenomenon of Mao Zedong has not disappeared; on the contrary, its covert influence continues to inveigle itself into the society and the soul of every Chinese." He vilifies the whole Chinese nation when he claims that Chinese people are suffering from "collective imbecility."
Can any Chinese citizen possessed of normal powers of judgement remain unmoved when they read these vicious slanders against Comrade Mao Zedong, the Communist Party of China, Socialism and the Chinese People?
Ying Congying, March 1991

 

Page 148
II
It is accepted wisdom that after the Chinese walked out of the mists of the personality cult Mao once more became a man. He is no longer a god. The author of "The Mao Phenomenon," however, applies his "perspicacity and sensitivity" in an attempt ''to make Mao into a Chinese once more." This is hardly a creative endeavour worthy of comment.
When one has plodded through this article what manifests itself in the mind's eye is certainly not the image of an endearing and lovable Chinese. What we are presented with is "a violent father," a Qin Shihuang-esque autocrat, "a genius of strife," a master of internal attrition, a "political leader drunk on power," a "willful child," "a peasant boy spoilt by mass adulation," an abnormal individual who was "mentally unstable." . . .
But enough of all that! We can't tolerate quoting any more of this stuff. No matter what people say, Mao Zedong is a Proletarian Revolutionary Leader who, in the final analysis, deserves the respect of the whole nation and should be a source of pride. Are all of these deprecations, satirical slurs, slanders and attacks typical of the "scientific attitude" of a serious scholar?
At the very outset, the author makes it more than clear that he thinks the "Mao phenomenon" is nothing more than an "academic exercise." The reader hardly need bother picking up the political subtext of the author's argument, however, since the text is strewn with provocative expressions like those quoted in the above. Rather than claiming this to be academic research, let's call it what it really is: an expression of political disgruntlement.
Meng Fei, April 1991
Note
1. Mao once made the comparison to Qin Shihuang himself. "So what's the big deal about Qin Shihuang? He only buried 460 Confucians alive; well, we've buried 46,000. . . . We're a hundred times greater than Qin Shihuang." At the time the comparison was regarded as risible, although both Lin Biao's followers and the Li Yizhe group in Guangzhou were to make the same comparison, for somewhat different reasons, in the 1970s. See Mao Zedong, "Zai bada erci huiyishangde jianghua, di yici jiang hua (1958 nian 5 yue 8 ri)," in
Mao Zedong tongzhi shi dangdai zui weidade Makesi-Lieningzhuyizhe,
p. 195.

 

Page 149
From Sartre to Mao Zedong
Hua Ming
Published in the
People's Daily
in early 1990, this article is typical of the positive interpretation that the authorities gave the Mao Cult as it developed from mid 1989.
The "Sartre craze" first swept Beijing University in 1979, and over the following ten years, along with the "fad for Freud" and the "vogue for Nietzsche," it swelled and subsided, leaving everyone quite dizzy. Cool reflection reveals that below the surface of these crazes was a cargo cult for all manner of foreign import. But university campuses are places that are forever trying to come up with something different. And as we enter the 1990s, a new message is emanating from them.
Now, university students are "Mao-crazy."
On 26 December [Mao's birthday] 1989, more than ten universities in the capital organized a "rediscover Mao Zedong" seminar at the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Tiananmen Square;
Mao Xinyu, Chairman Mao's grandson, an undergraduate in the History Department of the Chinese People's University, is increasingly popular with his fellow students, who crowd around to hear his stories about his granddad;
Whether it's at schools in the capital like Beijing University, the People's University, Beijing Normal University, China Youth Political College, or in the border regions like Jishou University, or Luzhou Medical College in the southwest. . . . Mao Zedong's philosophical writings and poems have been exhumed from under layers of dust, and are once more attracting attention. Books like
A Biography of Mao Zedong
and
Mao Zedong's Family History
are particularly popular.
Shaoshan, Mao Zedong's birthplace, an unpopular destination for so many years, hosted more than 1.8 million visitors in 1989, 70 percent of whom were young people, and the majority of those were middle school and university students;

 

Page 150
At Beijing University students are organizing themselves into special groups for the study of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong's writings.
What are we to make of the new craze? Everyone is talking about it. Most people are of the opinion that university students have now found the answers to China's problems in the treasury of Mao Zedong Thought. To build a new China one has to understand China's national characteristics. . . . This writer believes this is the root cause of the MaoCraze.
What was the greatest lesson taught to us by the disturbance in the spring and summer of 1989? Intense and profound reflection has led university students to the conclusion that Western remedies cannot provide cures for China's ills. . . . Over the past century of change . . . when it comes to understanding the realities of China, no one can compare to Mao Zedong; and no one has achieved such successes. Mao Zedong's call to "adapt the universal theory of Marxism to the practical situation of China," together with Deng Xiaoping's formulation to "build socialism with Chinese characteristics," represent the crystallization of the living essence of Mao Zedong Thought. Following last year's [1989] disturbance, university students have spoken of "searching for Mao Zedong, and being ashamed of [their] attitude to Deng Xiaoping." This is a sign of their determination to discard all Western philosophy and political thought and soberly confront the realities of China.
Over the past decade, a generation of young Chinese intellectuals have traveled the path from Sartre to Mao Zedong. It has been a tortuous journey and much time has been spent in deep thought, but they have now found the road that leads from vacuousness to relative maturity.

 

Page 151
Permanently on Heat:
An Interview with Comrade Deng Liqun
Deng Liqun, or Little Deng
(Xiao Deng)
as he was called to distinguish him from Old Deng
(Lao Deng),
Deng Xiaoping, was a leading ideological watchdog from the late 1970s. He honed his political skills as a disciple of Chen Boda, a prominent Party "ghost writer" and ideological hack, during the Yan'an purges of the early 1940s. By the early 1990s, Little Deng played the role of token Maoist in Party Central, one of his concerns being to concoct an official history of the People's Republic. In 1994, he was involved in the founding and publication of the very PC journal,
Research Into Contemporary Chinese History (Dangdai Zhongguoshi yanjiu).
Deng's was the voice of ideological rectitude and stability. His comically stilted language exudes a certain nostalgic charm for those familiar with the heyday of the wooden language of Chinese Communism. This interview first appeared in the December 1991 issue of
Zhongliu,
a magazine established by ideological revanchists following the 1989 purge.
Question: As a social phenomenon the MaoCraze has been the center of both Chinese and international attention, study, and analysis for some time. . . . As an Older Comrade who has worked for many years at the front line of ideological and theoretical work, you have devoted considerable energy to discussing this issue.
1
In your comments you have expressed the concern typical of Older Comrades in developments among the young and have evinced your keen interest in the fate of socialism. It is not surprising, then, that so many young people are deeply impressed with your stance. Many of our readers hope that you will take advantage of this forum to discuss your views at length.
Answer: During the high tide of Bourgeois Liberalization a few years ago [from 1987 to 1989] there was a tendency to negate, undervalue, vilify, and attack Comrade Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought, and under this

 

Page 152
guise these attacks aimed at denigrating Comrade Deng Xiaoping, as well as other members of the Older Generation of Revolutionaries. Things came to a head when it became fashionable to act in this way. Similarly, a general ambience called the "three belief crisis"
2
developed in the society.
Following the political turbulence that occurred in Beijing in 1989, particularly after the setbacks suffered in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there has been an unprecedented international wave of anticommunism. Some have even declared that "communism is dead." It is noteworthy that given this situation China is experiencing a MaoCraze, particularly among sensitive young intellectuals. It is a Craze that is, if anything, becoming more pronounced. It is a remarkable development not only for socialism in China but also in terms of the history of the communist movement. It is out-of-the-ordinary and worthy of reflection and study. It calls for a Marxist interpretation.
Q: I recall that at a symposium of young intellectuals organized by the Beijing magazine
University Student
in January 1990, a number of young people spoke up about this and attempted their own analysis of it. At that meeting Xin Ming, a research student at Beijing University (and the author of the article "Discovering Mao Zedong"
3
), responded to a question about what had led to the MaoCraze by quoting from a poem by the Chairman to the effect that "Today, a miasmal mist once more rising, / We hail Sun Wukung, the wonder-worker."
4
And, when replying to a question related to how he saw the setbacks suffered by socialism in Eastern Europe, he used another line from Mao: "Plum blossoms welcome the whirling snow; / Small wonder flies freeze and perish."
5
Such thoughtful explanations fascinated other participants and were subsequently commented on and repeated by many people in public speeches and articles.
A: Such responses and explanations [like that of Xin Ming] are indeed very descriptive as well as being quite à
propos
and fairly incisive. What is more significant is that a young person should formulate such responses. It is also evidence that the MaoCraze is no longer being seen in a superficial way, simply in terms of the Craze itself, but that there are those who are analyzing it from a broader and deeper historical perspective that attempts a rational and theoretical level of analysis. Indeed, with the unprecedented international wave of revisionist thought, coupled with the tide of Bourgeois Liberalism in China, we have indeed seen "a miasmal mist once more rising." This is the historical root-cause of the MaoCraze we have been witnessing of late.
Regardless of whether we see the MaoCraze in terms of a social phe-

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