History Roadshow

1. Mao Zedong
– national
hero?
History Roadshow
14 August 2015
Rebecca Cairns
Deakin University
rcair@deakin.edu.au

2. Learning
Intentions
To consider
contemporary Chinese
perspectives on the
legacy of Mao Zedong
To consider why Mao is
still considered a
national hero and
connect this with your
own evaluations and
historiographical inquiry
To develop knowledge
of the CCP’s
achievements and
compromises after the
1949 revolution
To develop skills in
primary source analysis

3. Let’s look at some recent representations of
Mao Zedong in China…

4. Youth Mao Zedong Statue Changsha, Hunan Province (built 2007 – 2009)

5. The 42nd International River Crossing Festival, July 16 2015 in Wuhan, Hebei
Province, which commemorates Mao’s swimming of the Yangzi River in1966.

6. The sixth ‘Mao Zedong’ train was
unveiled to celebrate Mao’s 121st
birthday in December 2014.
People paying their respects on
Mao’s 121st birthday in his
hometown, Shaoshan.

7. Mao the celebrity?

8. Examples of Red tourism sites in
Nanjing and in Shaoshan, Mao’s
ancestral village in Hunan Province.

9. Government censorship of contemporary art has relaxed somewhat.
Artists who have played with images of Mao include Yue Minjun, Wang Gungyi,
Zheng Fanzhi, Wang Guangyi and Yu Younan.

10. Mao’s presence still
dominates in Tiananmen
Square in Beijing.

11. Mao’s portrait on the Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace)

12. Chinese people are well
aware of Mao’s failings.
Why does Mao’s image
remain on the Tiananmen?
Why is Mao still revered as a
national hero?

13. 1919

14. 1925?

15. Why are Chinese like a sheet of loose sand?
What makes them like a sheet of loose sand? It
is because there is too much individual freedom.
Because Chinese have too much freedom,
therefore China needs a revolution.... Because
we are like a sheet of loose sand, foreign
imperialism has invaded, we have been
oppressed by the commercial warfare of the
great powers, and we have been unable to
resist. If we are to resist foreign oppression in
the future, we must overcome individual freedom
and join together as a firm unit, just as one adds
water and cement to loose gravel to produce
something as solid as a rock.
Sun Yixian (1924) Three Principles of the People

16. 1945 - 1948

17. 1949

18. 1953

19. “…the Tiananmen portrait
turned out to be only the
beginning of a much larger
effort to ‘rebrand’ China and
the Chinese Communist
Revolution with himself as its
grand progenitor an his visage
as its logo. It would become
one of the best-known
trademarks on the planet.”
Schell, O. & Delury, J.
(2013).p.230

20. Part of your task in VCE
Revolutions is to analyse
the extent to which
revolutionary ideals were
compromised as the CCP
consolidated power, and
to analyse the contribution
of Mao and the CCP to the
development of the new
society
Avoid focusing only on
what went wrong from
1957-1976. Look at some
of the successes during
the liberation period and
connect back to the ideals
of Mao Zedong Thought
pre-1949 for more
complex responses.
Mao’s On New
Democracy (1940)
provides a good
source of his vision
for the new society.

21. Mao Zedong (1940)
On New Democracy
“The Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference,
representing the will of the people of the whole country,
proclaims the establishment of the People’s Republic of China
and is organizing the people’s own central government. The
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference unanimously
agrees that New Democracy, or the People’s Democracy, shall
be the political foundation for the national construction of the
People’s Republic of China”
Document 13.1: Excerpts from The Common Program of the Chinese People’s
Political Consultative Conference, September 1949. Retrieved from
http://chinasince1644.cheng-tsui.com/sites/default/files/upload/13-1.pdf
Why is On New Democracy
such an important founding
document of the PRC and
Mao Zedong Thought?

22. What did new did New Democracy promise?
See handout
 Progressive culture instead of old backward culture
 A new national culture
 An end to colonialism and feudalism
 Big banks, industry and commercial enterprise owned and
administered by the state
 Confiscate land from landlords and redistribute it to peasants
 All share in the eating, work and access to education
 Not push aside those who are revolutionary unless they want to push
aside the CCP
 Alliance with Russia
 People’s co-operation with the CCP
 Assistance to peasants and workers
 Give peasants rights
 Uphold the dignity and independence of China
 No construction without destruction
 Spoken language brought closer to the people

23. Visual Analysis Activity
• Identify two symbols that represent the
ideals of New Democracy.
• To what extent does this representation
provide an accurate description of the
reconstruction of China up to 1965?
Images sources:
• Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Museum
(2013). Chinese Propaganda Poster Collection.
• Chinese Posters:
http://chineseposters.net/index.php
• Also see timeline of propaganda images:
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2014/10/china
s-65-years-of-sloganeering/

24. What sort of China did the
CCP inherit?

25. Early Successes? NATION BULIDING
• Introduction of a new currency and other economic measures helped bring inflation
under control by 1950
• Restoration of railways and waterways
• National income grew by nearly 9% and industrial input by 18.9% annually
• Tough action by PLA, such as martial law and removal of weapons, was needed to
bring violence under control
• Building and infrastructure programs: bridges, dams, hydroelectric plants, canals
and reservoirs
• Agrarian Land Reform Law (1950): by 1951 40% of the land was in the hands of
60% of the population but the Speak Bitterness campaign also caused great
suffering , with two million people killed between 1947- 1952
• The three and five antis campaigns addressed corruption, tax evasion fraud but
was also a witch-hunt that divided families and communities and had negative
economic impact
• The First Five Year Plan 1953-1957: economic and industrial targets were met,
however, the gap between rural and urban populations widened
• Steel production exceeded targets

26. Early Successes? QUALITY OF LIFE
• Equality for women and the Marriage Law 1950
• Banning of concubinage, footbinding, polygamy and child marriage
• Illiteracy was at 85% prior to 1949, the introduction of putonghua
(common speech), pinyin (alphabetised system for characters)
and simplified characters saw a drastic improvement in literacy
rates
• Life expectancy increased from 36 to 57 years
• Opium smoking was banned
• Urban incomes rose by 40%
• Urban housing standards and availability improved
BUT…..
• The countryside suffered, cotton and grain production failed to
keep pace with population growth
• In the 1953 census the government was shocked to discover the
population was nearly 600 million, much higher than expected,
which led to the development of some of the policies of the Great
Leap Forward

27. “Mao had restored
pride”
van de Ven, H. (2012).
p.109
“Mao has been
demoted but never
officially
repudiated…The
CCP sees itself as
continuing the work
Mao started in the
1930s but
acknowledge it went
astray from the mid
1950s to late 1970s.”
Dirlik, A. (2012)
“The Chinese Communist Party refers to its
victory in 1949 as a ‘liberation’…but in China the
story of liberation and the revolution that followed
is not one of peace, liberty and justice. It is
foremost a history of calculated terror and
systematic violence.”
Dikotter, F. (2013). P. 1
“Despite his tragic
errors, the CCP under
Mao led China from a
war-torn, divided, and
impoverished
collection of provinces
to a stable nation-
state and world
nuclear
power.”Cheek, T.
(2010). p.15
“But to this day Mao’s
still substantial appeal
seems to derive, at
least in part, from his
ability to project a
commanding sense of
fearlessness and
strength… Being
bullied by your own
new ‘emperor’ was
better than being at
the mercy of arrogant
foreign powers.”
Schell, O. & Delury, J.
(2013). p.199
Historians’ Perspectives

28. Official CCP Perspectives
“When we write about his mistakes, we should not
exaggerate, for otherwise we shall be discrediting
Chairman Mao Zedong, and this would mean
discrediting our Party and state.”
Deng Xiaoping 1980 cf Dirlik, A. (2012). p.18
“Comrade Mao Zedong was a great Marxist and a
great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and
theorist. It is true that he made gross mistakes
during the Cultural Revolution, but, if we judge his
activities as a whole, his contributions to the
Chinese revolution far outweigh his mistakes. His
merits are primary and his errors secondary.”
1981 Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our
Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China.
https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/documents/cpc/histo
ry/01.htm
Chairman Mao’s
contributions are
70 % positive, 30 %
negative

29. Mao was “a great
patriot and a national
hero” … his “greatest
contributions led the
Party and the people
to find the correct
path of New
Democratic
Revolution,
completed the anti-
imperialism and anti-
feudalism tasks,
established the PRC
and the basic
socialism system.”
President Xi Jinping
on Mao’s 120th
Birthday
See http://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/xi-mao-and-chinas-search-
usable-past
Revolutionary leaders are not gods,
but human beings; [we] cannot
worship them like gods or refuse to
allow people to point out and correct
their errors….

30. Since his death, Mao’s image has begun to
be taken down from the sacred alter.
However, if he is removed completely from
the sacred alter, this will involve too many
practical interests. The ruling party needs
Mao in order to guarantee a legitimate base
for itself to hold power. The army, the state,
and other fundamental institutions, in order
to guarantee their authority and
continuation, also require Mao.”
Jiang Yihua, Fudan University, Shanghai
(2010)

31. Reconstructing Chinese Marxism: Dirlik, A. (2012)
Stage 1 Gone astray…. Stage 2
1930s – mid 1950s
New Democracy
historical and ideological
foundation
Mao’s “correct” thought
mid 1950s to late 1970s
Ideology went astray
Now viewed as a “negative
example” from which to learn
what not to do
Leftist errors and radical policies
“It is true that he made gross
mistakes during the Cultural
Revolution” 1981 Resolution
post 1978 - period of reform and
opening up
“Chinese Marxism”: the most
advanced form of Marxism
Socialism with Chinese
characteristics is constituted by
Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Three
Represents, and the Scientific
Outlook
Reinterpretation and restoration
of the the “correct” line of Mao
Zedong Thought

32. Recent Chinese Mao Scholarship
1. Official ideology: the CCP’s interpretation which controls political discourse in
Chinese Mao scholarship; although Mao’s thought and image are still a
sensitive areas, in the framework of the official ideology, Mao Zedong Thought
seems merely to be a symbol for political legitimacy.
1. Liberal school: critical of Mao, especially his later years; Li Rui, a famous Mao
scholar in China, is typical of this school: “He contributed to China’s Revolution,
made mistakes in his reign, and committed a crime in launching the Cultural
Revolution.”
1. New Left scholars: are critical of Western liberalism and the new economic
reforms which need to be remedied by “the real spirit of Mao.”
1. Historical school: believe historical interpretation must be based on fact and
evidence and disapprove of ideological power intruding on historical narratives
Xiao, Y. (2010). ‘Recent Mao Zedong Scholarship in China’ in Cheek, T. (Ed.) A
Critical Introduction to Mao. New York: Cambridge University Press.

33. References
Cairns, R. (2014). First Five Year Plan. Alpha History. Retrieved from
http://alphahistory.com/chineserevolution/first-five-year-plan/
Cheek, T. (2010). A Critical Introduction to Mao. New York: Cambridge University Press
CCP (1981) Resolution on certain questions in the history
of our party since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 1981. Retrieved from
https://www.marxists.org/subject/china/documents/cpc/history/01.htm
Dirlik, A. (2012). Mao Zedong in Contemporary Chinese Official Discourse and History. China Perspectives. 2. 17-
27.
Dikotter, F. (2013). The Tragedy of Liberation. London: Bloomsbury.
Gerwirtz, P. (2014). Xi, Mao, and China’s Search for a Usable Past. China File. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.chinafile.com/xi-mao-and-chinas-search-usable-past
Li, H. (2012). Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press.
Mao, Z. (1940) On New Democracy. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-
works/volume-2/mswv2_26.htm
Schmidt-Glintzer, H., Mittag, A., & Rüsen, J. (2005). Historical Truth Historical Criticism and Ideology : Chinese
Historiography and Historical Culture From a New Comparative Perspective. Leiden: Brill.
Smith, S. A. (2011) Recent historiography of the People’s Republic of China, 1949-76. Twentieth Century
Communism. 196-216
Schell, O. & Delury, J. (2013). Creative Destruction: Mao Zedong Part II. Wealth and Power: China’s Long March
to the Twenty-First Century. London: Little Brown.
Shanghai Propaganda Poster Art Museum (2013). Chinese Propaganda Poster Collection. Shanghai
Van de Ven, H. (2012). War, Cosmopolitanism, and Authority: Mao from 1937 to 1956. Cheek, J. A Critical
Introduction to Mao.
Xiao, Y. (2010). ‘Recent Mao Zedong Scholarship in China’ in Cheek, T. (Ed.) A Critical Introduction to Mao. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Wang, Zheng (2012). Never Forget National Humiliation. New York: Columbia University Press.