scholarly journals MAO ZEDONG IN PRESENT-DAY CHINA – FORMS OF DEIFICATION

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-197
Author(s):  
Joanna Wardęga
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Character ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Personality Cult

The purpose of this paper is to present how in China, a country combating religious beliefs, Mao Zedong has become a cult object and how the fondness towards the “Great Helmsman”, often adjacent to deification, is manifested in the present-day country. During his life, Mao Zedong was the central character of the political and social sphere of the People’s Republic of China. Admiring and, to some extent, identifying himself with the First Emperor of China, Mao was to become his contemporary version. The height of the personality cult occurred during the Cultural Revolution and was manifested in mass adoration of the Chairman. After his death and reckoning of merits and faults (in a 7:3 ratio, with dominance of the first ones), Mao seemed to be evanescing in the shadow in the modernizing China. The Maoists were fighting against religion, the feudal superstitions, however in recent years, in the officially atheist China, some beliefs in supernatural beings, power of religious rituals and offerings for ghosts reappear, as well as the interest in Buddhism, Taoism, syncretic sects and Christianity. Among the hope bringing powers there appears also deified Mao, as the creator of powerful China. The places connected with the Chairman, located on the route of the “Red Tourism” are visited by masses of the Chinese. Talismans with his image are supposed to provide security, good fortune and even prosperity. Mao is becoming a deity in the nationalistic pantheon of the power gaining China.

The Witch-Hunting Vanguard: The Central Secretariat's Roles and Activities in the Anti-Rightist Campaign

2011 ◽  
Vol 206 ◽  
pp. 391-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-lin Chung
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
The Political ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The People ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Witch Hunt

AbstractWhen the king went astray, the people suffered for it. Just as a wayward king needed loyal and capable courtiers to implement his wishes, so too did Mao Zedong in the People's Republic of China. The Anti-Rightist Campaign was one of Mao's controversial policies, and involved him delegating his trusted followers to implement his political initiatives. This article examines how the Central Secretariat, led by Deng Xiaoping, effectively implemented and strictly supervised the process, as well as the negative influences of the Central Secretariat on this witch-hunt-like campaign. It thus provides a case study of how the Central Secretariat operated and functioned as a powerful political apparatus in the political processes of the Chinese Communist Party during the pre-Cultural Revolution period.

The influence of the “cultural revolution” (1966—1976) in China on the development of the political, socio-economic and spiritual spheres of the country’s public life

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (12-1) ◽  
pp. 98-109
Author(s):  
Ilya Kolesnikov ◽  
Konstantin Kasparyan ◽  
Nikolai Nikolaenko ◽  
Marina Rutkovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
The Political ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

The article is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the “cultural revolution” carried out in the People’s Republic of China in 1966-1976 The article comprehends the reasons for the “cultural revolution”, studies the nature of the relationship between the leader of the country and his entourage, examines the change in the position of Mao Zedong in the PRC and abroad, as well as the transformation of the Chinese economic system and the spiritual sphere in the period chosen for study.

Przywódcy polityczni: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De – przestrzeń współpracy i rywalizacji

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Marian Tadeusz Mencel
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
The Political ◽  
Synthetic Approach ◽  
National Liberation ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Political Reality

This lecture includes an attempt to answer the question: what the connection of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De was, and what conditions contributed to the fact that both Zhou Enlai and Zhu De did not share the fate of the political opponents of Mao Zedong, inter alia Liu Shaoqi, Wang Ming, Gao Gang and others. Recognizing the political reality of China of the period from the creation of the CPC to the death of the heroes, the synthetic approach shows their resumes, and an attempt was taken to involve the most important facts to answer the questions, inter alia about civil, war of national liberation, domestic and foreign policy of China implemented in accordance with the provisions of the Communist Party of China and the role of the heroes in shaping the cultural and civilisation order after the declaration of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Political Socialisation and Parental Values in the People's Republic of China

1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee C. Lee ◽  
Ginny Q. Zhan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
The Political ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Parental Values ◽  
Parent Questionnaire ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
The 1950S

The present research addresses the question of whether the political socialisation of one's youth is related to personal values during adulthood and how such acquired values in turn influence one's socialisation ideals for the next generation. Specifically, it examines the content of societal mandates of the People's Republic of China as conveyed in the mass media during the 1950s and early 1960s and the expressed values of a group of parents who grew up during that period, experienced the Cultural Revolution during their late teens and early twenties, married during the post-Cultural Revolution period, and had a child in daycare or preschool in 1981 and 1982. The mandates of political socialisation was assessed by content analyses of an official youth magazine published during the 1950s and early 1960s. Parental values were attained from responses to a 1981-82 parent questionnaire. The results were examined within the societal contexts of the two periods under study. The findings indicate that parents of this study, on the whole, expressed values that differentially reflect the content of political socialisation of their youth. Moral and work/study values, particularly those that are rooted in traditional China and those that were apolitical appeared in the lexicon of values during adulthood, whereas the political values mandated by the leadership of their youth were absent from the parents' lexicon of values. Included in the lexicon of parental values were items that were not linked to any of the values of the 1950s and early 1960s era but appear to reflect the changing context of contemporary China. The societal changes in the 1980s People's Republic of China appear to have also influenced parents' expectations for their children.

Creating From Ashes: Huang Zhongyang’s Memories of The Shadow of Mao

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 234-255
Author(s):  
Gail Chin
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
History Painting ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Cultural Workers ◽  
Oil Paintings ◽  
New Immigrants ◽  
Communist Leader ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Popular Images

As new immigrants to Canada, Regina painter Huang Zhongyang and other cultural workers add to our diverse visual heritage. Although he left the People’s Republic of China after the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, his memories of senseless violence, with Communist leader Mao Zedong pitting neighbor against neighbor, son against father, scarred his psyche, which he has turned into oil paintings. These paintings of Huang’s memories of the Cultural Revolution rarely are displayed publicly, except occasionally. The intent of this article is to discuss his paintings in relation to actual events during the 1960s to 1970s. History painting, a 19th Century European genre, has become a bygone category of art, but in the hands of Huang, memory, a postmodern concern, is aroused by these very poignant images often created after popular images taken from newspapers and television, thus reflecting the contemporary interest in photographs.

The Limits of Cataclysmic Change: Reflections on the Place of the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution‘ in the Political Development of the People's Republic of China

1986 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 613-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart R. Schram
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Political Development ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
The Political ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China

Few episodes in history have been the object of such widely divergent interpretations as the events of Mao Zedong's last decade. For the sake of convenience, I shall refer to the movement launched in 1966 by the name Mao gave it, but disputes have raged since the beginning as to whether it was in fact either cultural or revolutionary, let alone proletarian.

Religious Regulation in China

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence C. Reardon
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Religious Organizations ◽  
Moral Standards ◽  
Party Elites ◽  
Party State

Establishing a totalitarian state after 1949, Chinese Communist Party elites formulated religious regulations that ensured strong national security and guaranteed the Party’s hegemonic control of the state. The party state eliminated all foreign religious connections and established Party-controlled religious organizations to co-opt the five recognized official religious beliefs. By the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong prohibited all religious beliefs except in himself. As the post-totalitarianism of the 1980s evolved into consultative authoritarianism of the 1990s, Communist elites resurrected the Party-controlled religious organizations and implemented a new series of religious regulations in 1994 and 2005 that permitted the operation of officially recognized religions to strengthen moral standards and to supplement the state’s social welfare functions. Facing perceived challenges from foreign religions and fearing the growing popularity of religious belief, the party state adopted a third set of religious regulations in 2017 to strengthen Party hegemony.

Chinese Textbooks, Fourteen Years on

1980 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 535-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. F. Price
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Chinese Classroom ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

This paper is intended to serve as a contribution to the study of school textbooks in the People's Republic of China, and, in particular, as a first look at such books since the Cultural Revolution and the death of Chairman Mao Zedong. Because of the nature of the sample it makes no claim to being definitive. But the near-impossibility of obtaining such books abroad and the dominant role they play in the Chinese classroom give the subject some importance.

scholarly journals Oil Paintings and Politics: Weaving a Heroic Tale of the Chinese Communist Revolution

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 783-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang-Tai Hung
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Oil Painting ◽  
Tiananmen Square ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Art And Politics ◽  
Oil Paintings ◽  
New Nation ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

“In my entire life I did not produce a single painting that was uppermost in mind to create,” the celebrated painter Dong Xiwen (1914–1973) reportedly lamented on his deathbed. Dong may not have produced the dream piece that he would truly cherish, but he did create, albeit unwillingly, a deeply controversial work of art in his 1953 oil painting The Founding Ceremony of the Nation (Kaiguo dadian) (Figures 1 and 2), for it epitomizes the tension between art and politics in the People's Republic of China (PRC). In this famous piece, Dong portrays Chairman Mao Zedong (1893–1976) in Tiananmen Square on 1 October 1949, with his senior associates in attendance—Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969), Zhu De (1886–1976), Zhou Enlai (1898–1976), Gao Gang (1905–1954), Lin Boqu (1886–1960), and others. They are surrounded by huge lanterns, a Chinese symbol of prosperity, and a sea of red banners that declare the founding of a new nation. When first unveiled in 1953, the painting was widely hailed as one of the greatest oil paintings ever produced by a native artist. In just three months more than half-a-million reproductions of the painting were sold. But the fate of this work soon took an ominous turn, and the artist was requested to make three major revisions during his lifetime. In 1954 Dong was instructed to excise Gao Gang from the scene when Gao was purged by the Party for allegedly plotting to seize power and create an “independent kingdom” in Manchuria. During the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s Liu Shaoqi was accused of advocating a “bourgeois reactionary line” and subsequently was purged, and Dong was ordered in 1967 to redo his painting again and erased Liu from the inauguration scene. Then, in 1972, also during the Cultural Revolution, the radicals, commonly labeled the “Gang of Four,” ordered a third revision, namely, that Lin Boqu be eliminated from the painting for allegedly opposing the marriage of Mao and Jiang Qing (1914–1991) during the Yan'an days. By this time Dong was dying of cancer and was too ill to pick up the brush, so his student Jin Shangyi (b. 1934), and another artist, Zhao Yu (1926–1980), were assigned the task. These two artists, afraid of doing further damage to the original piece, eventually produced a replica of the painting, with the ailing Dong brought from the hospital for consultation on his embattled work. Though Dong died the following year, the ill-fated story of The Founding Ceremony of the Nation did not end: in 1979, with the demise of the Gang of Four and the Party's official rehabilitation of Liu Shaoqi, the images of Liu, Gao Gang, and Lin Boqu were restored in the painting. Because Jin Shangyi was on a foreign tour, Yan Zhenduo (b. 1940), a graduate of the Department of Oil Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), was called upon to help reinstall the three leaders.

The Politics of Destabilization and Confrontation: the Campaign against Lin Biao and Confucius in Zhejiang Province, 1974

1986 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 433-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Forster
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Socialist Society ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Political Scene

In the five years between the disappearance of Lin Biao in 1971 and the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 the Chinese political scene was highly volatile. Mass campaigns erupted regularly, disrupting and diverting efforts to normalize political, economic and social activities, which had originally been thrown into chaos during the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution. After the 10th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in August 1973 the question of succession to the ageing Mao and ailing Premier Zhou Enlai became a matter of urgency to the political elite. At issue was the direction China would take in the post-Mao era, central to which was an assessment of the validity of Mao's thesis concerning the continuation of class struggle in socialist society, and his attempt to put into operation the conclusions he drew from this analysis.

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