Mao, Revolution, and Memory

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511781476.003

1 - Mao, Revolution, and Memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012

Timothy Cheek

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Timothy Cheek

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Timothy Cheek: Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver

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Summary

I think my first impression – dominantly one of native shrewdness – was probably correct. And yet Mao was an accomplished scholar of Classical Chinese, an omnivorous reader, a deep student of philosophy and history, a good speaker, a man with an unusual memory and extraordinary powers of concentration, an able writer, careless in his personal habits and appearance but astonishingly meticulous about details of duty, a man of tireless energy, and military and political strategist of considerable genius.

Edgar Snow, Red Star Over China (1937)

Psychologists of mass behavior might have an explanation for what went wrong in China in the late summer of 1958. China was struck with a mass hysteria fed by Mao, who then fell victim himself.… Mao's earlier skepticism had vanished. Common sense escaped him. He acted as though he believed the outrageous figures for agricultural production. The excitement was contagious. I was infected, too.

Li Zhishi, The Private Life of Chairman Mao (1994)

Beijing relies on the [Party] Center,

Shanghai on its connections,

Guangzhou leans on Hong Kong,

The drifting population lives by Mao Zedong Thought.

Popular ditty in China among working poor, 1990s

Mao Zedong has always come to us through stories. Some reflect fragments of personal experience, some seek to weave a sensible historical narrative, and some promote a myth that serves other interests. The stories began in the 1930s, and they keep coming today. The stories do not match generally because different authors seek to demonstrate different conclusions.

Type: Chapter
Information: A Critical Introduction to Mao , pp. 3 - 30

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511781476.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2010

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