Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader (17 page)

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Authors: Geremie Barme

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BOOK: Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader
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27. Liu Jintian and Wu Xiaomei,
Mao Zedong xuanji chubande qianqian houhou,
p. 171.
28. Xinhua News Agency, 6 September, 1993, "Jing Zhonggong zhongyang pizhun
Mao Zedong wenji
niannei chuban."
29. These included volumes of photographs of Mao at various stages in his career. One of the most extraordinary of these books, however, is a collection of photographs of Mao memorabilia from Zhongnanhai. See Zhongnanhai huace bianji weiyuanhui, ed.,
Pingfan yu weidaMao Zedong Zhongnanhai yiwu yishi.
The contents of this book are discussed below.
30. Adam Hochschild in
The Unquiet Ghost,
p. 66, describes in similar terms the impact of Stalin's personality on the citizens of the Soviet empire.
31. Jan Wong, "Around Mao's Centennial," quoting from the magazine
Daxuesheng.
32. In this context, see Hochschild,
The Unquiet Ghost,
pp. 58-59.
33. The surveys were conducted by the Party Department of Propaganda, the Central Policy Research Office, the Academy of Social Sciences, and the State Education Commission. See Luo Bing, "Jinian Mao mingshou zao feiyi," pp. 8-10.
34. Chan Wai-fong, "Mao Outstrips Deng in Popularity Poll." In a 1988 survey,

 

Page 57
Zhou had received 49.7 percent of the vote to Mao's 10 percent. In the 1994 survey, Mao got 40.1 percent to Zhou's 26.6 percent. Deng scored merely 9.6 percent, up from the 9.2 percent he got in 1988.
35. In May 1995 it was reported that there was a village of exiles living in the mountain wilds of Shaanxi who had no contact with the outside world. When one of them was asked what he wanted to know about current events, he said: "Who's Chairman Mao these days?" See "Heihu buluo."
36. In regard to the original Cult, see, for example, Robert W. Rinden, "The Cult of Mao Tse-tung," and George Urban, ed.,
The Miracles of Chairman Mao.
For a comparison of the two Cults, see Zhou Qun and Yao Xinrong, "Xinjiu Mao Zedong chongbai," pp. 36-43. For a useful comparison of the Stalin and Hitler cults, see Moshe Lewin,
Russia/USSR/Russia,
pp. 209-29 and 241-44.
37. See Deng Xiaoping, "Dui qicao `Guanyu jianguo yilai dangde ruogan lishi wentide jueyi' de yijian,"
Deng Xiaoping wenxuan (1975-1982),
pp. 255-74.
38. As the official Xinhua News Agency eulogy for Chen said: "Comrade Chen Yun vigorously supported Comrade Deng Xiaoping's idea of scientifically establishing Comrade Mao Zedong's historical position and of upholding and developing Mao Zedong Thought. He repeatedly stressed: Comrade Mao Zedong's merits are primary and his errors are secondary. Comrade Mao Zedong made a unique contribution; that is, he trained a generation of cadres, including ourselves." See Xinhua News Agency, "Eulogy on the Glorious Life of Chen Yun."
39. See, for example, speeches made by Chen Yun and Peng Zhen in Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi zonghezu, ed.,
Lao yidai gemingjia lun dangshi yu dangshi yanjiu,
pp. 191-94 and 229-30.
40. See Hu Qiaomu,
Hu Qiaomu wenji,
vol. 2, pp. 130-87; and Deng Liqun, "Xuexi `Guanyu jianguo yilai dangde ruogan lishi wentide jueyi' de wenti he huida," pp. 162-74.
41. The Lenin/Stalin dichotomy remained an important element of both Soviet and Western "revisionist" views of Soviet history until quite recently. With the opening of the Soviet archives and work of such writers as Richard Pipes and Dmitri Volkogonov, however, Lenin can be more clearly seen, as the historian Steven Miner puts it, as "the progenitor of modern revolutionary violence and radical, bloody social change . . . [who] gave the world a blueprint for the ideology-based terror state." See Steven Merritt Miner, "Revelations, Secrets, Gossip and Lies," p. 20.
42. Edgar Snow,
The Other Side of the River,
p. 151.
43. See, for example, Li Honglin,
Lilun fengyun,
pp. 39-57; Tao Kai et al.,
Zouchu xiandai mixinguanyu zhenli biaozhun wentide dabianlun,
pp. 3-98; Wu Jiangguo et al., eds.,
Dangdai Zhongguo yishi xingtai fengyunlu,
pp. 477-97; and Michael Schoenhals, "The 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy," pp. 243-68.
44. For a study of this process, see Helmut Martin,
Cult & Canon: The Origins and Development of State Maoism,
pp. 50-139; and Laszlo Ladany,
The Communist Party of China and Marxism, 1921-1985,
pp. 386-440.

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