Battle for China's Past : Mao and the Cultural Revolution

THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
does not have. The main aim of this chapter is, by a case study, to
demonstrate that we are well advised not to take at face value the
accounts by former Chinese who now reside in the West. We
have to be aware of their backgrounds, their personal interests and
prejudices in the production of our knowledge of history.
Memories and the politics of knowledge production
As an indication of personal interest in constructing history we may
first take Yuan Ming as an example. The fact that Yuan (1994) idealizes
Hu Yaobang, the General Secretary of the CCP during the first years of
post-Mao reform, should not be surprising since the latter was his
patron and protector at the height of their careers.
That one’s personal past is at stake is only one aspect of the production
of knowledge. There is also another aspect of knowledge
production: what is expected to be well received. We have to be aware
of the politics of the market. Writers such as Jung Chang may turn
‘their experience into recognizable stories that satisfy the expectations
of a Western public’, and a ‘literature of suffering’ that ‘moulded
through outraged victimization and a broad generational consensus,
and simultaneously as an affirmation of a superior Western way of life’
(Zarrow 1999: 166–67). Like the film Raise the Red Lantern directed By
Zhang Yimou, which invented scenes of Chinese tradition to suit the
West’s curiosity – the kind of scenes that would puzzle the Chinese
themselves – the tendency of the post-Mao literature and arts professionals
to commercialize Western voyeurism of the Orient is too
obvious to ignore.
Though Li’s memoirs have been widely reviewed (Mirsky 1994,
Young 1994, Bernstein 1994, Link 1994, Wills 1994, Elegant 1994,
Buruma 1995 and Teiwes 1996), Li deserves a case study for two
reasons. The first is that the image of Mao propagated in the book
needs to be corrected. The second is that we need to look at the production
process to reveal at least some aspects of how knowledge of
contemporary China is manufactured in the West.
Let us start with the academics. Two of the Western scholars
involved in the production of the book are not just obscure academics
working at some obscure topic in isolation but influential public intellectuals
propagating ways to change China. One of them is Andrew
Nathan who has served:
on the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch, Asia, and
on the board of Human Rights in China. He is frequently interviewed
about East Asian issues in print and electronic media,
and he has served as an advisor to several film documentaries
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