The Inexplicable Cult of Chairman Mao

The Chinese seem to have an ambivalent relationship with Mao Zedong. This is curious, given Mao's record as a mass murderer. Nonetheless, even skeptical academics, who seem on the whole glad for Mao to be gone, every so often like to quote on of his aphorisms (it has happened several times so far on this trip). Kitsch with Mao's visage is all over the cluttered market stalls in the alleyways of the huton (I think I am using that phrase right, thought the huton might be the alleyways themselves). One woman tried to sell me a "Mao bag" (a kind of messenger bag the style of which I was enamored) with the old man's picture and one of his pronouncements and when I demurred, she apparently thought my problem was not with Mao but rather with the bag, so she tried to seell me a Mao t-shirt. I told her that I try to limit my clothing depicting rapacious murdering thugs. She tried to sell me a Mao watch. And so forth.

One of my professors back in graduate school had a bust of Stalin in his office. It was for ironic effect. I could not pull the same off with a Mao bag (or t-shirt or watch) largely because I think some things might be beyond ironic kitschiness. Somehow I doubt that the same folks who think Mao was on to something but just went too far (yes, I've heard that assessment in recent days) would be quite so sanguine if I walked in wearing, say, board shoirts with Hitler across the ass and "work will set you free" beneath his picture. One man's irony is another country's very real symbol of the crushing of millions. Call me humorless, but I can do without that sort of irony.

From all that I can tell, the real hero for most people here is Deng Xiaoping, the leader who carried China into an era of reform and away from Mao's Great Leap into the Chasm and the Cultural Revolution. Deng was not exactly Franklin Roosevelt, but he undeniably allowed for an openness that China desperately needed and laid the groundowrk for today's China which, while still autocratic, is far from what it once was. If anyone might warrant a healthily skeptical ambivalence and a place at the table, one would think it would be Deng and not Mao.

So why is Mao not a universally hated figure throughout China? After all, even the Soviets, who continued Stalin's draconioan system with some modification, turned Stalin into a model from which to flee after the despot's death. The short answer is that I don't know. A longer answer is that the Chinese tend to think of history in far longer cycles than much of the rest of the world does, and that many still have not gotten to grips with just what Mao meant. I hinted yesterday that one of my colleagues -- a very sharp Australian professor who is a China experts, whose language skills carried me through a wonderful afternoon and evening shopping, people watching, wandering, eating, and chatting with a couple of other Aussies -- has, if not defended Mao, at least has consciously minimized his atrocities (she argues that he could only have killed ten million, an awful figure, she acknowledges. I am highly skeptical of this assertion). Some of the Chinese speakers we have encountered seem to speak of Mao in the sorts of hushed, swooning tones that one might mention a religious figure or dreamy rock star even while celebrating market reforms, openness, a spirit of debate, and improved relations with the west that would have been anathema to the humble old constipated despot (That same Aussie professor had a rather interesting story about Mao involving his almost chronic bowel blockages, a pair of chopsticks, and a lackey with a very, very unpleasant job).

I dig kitsch. Maybe a messenger bag with Deng, or, better yet, Yao Ming, would do the job. I'd definitely buy and wear a watch with Yao staring out at me with that goofy smile. But I still believe that Mao was directly responsible for the death of tens of millions, ruined the lives of exponentially more, and set China's development back by decades. As a consequence, I don't find him cute, funny, or ironic. I don't find his aphorisms worth repeating, his example worth citing, or his "excesses" worth diminishing. A China I am quite coming to like but will never get to know is a far worse place because of his influence. Lady, you can keep the messenger bag, t-shirt, and watch.