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

7 Challenging the hegemony:
contrary narratives in the
e-Media (I) – Mao and the
Cultural Revolution
Introduction: emerging contrary narratives
Discussions of various biographical and memoir writings in previous
chapters clearly show that the dominant narrative is a total denigration
of the Cultural Revolution and almost instinctive denunciation of the
Mao era, either explicitly or implicitly. I have argued that this hegemonic
narrative, in many ways methodologically similar to traditional
Chinese historiography, does not only purport to serve the present (in
Chapter 3) but is also framed by the present (in Chapter 2). This
construction of an anti-Maoist (Chapter 4) and anti-revolutionary
(Chapter 5) history went hand in hand with the collapse of existing
socialism and ascendance of neoliberalism in China (Wang Hui, 2004).
Hegemony can never be total and there have been dissenting voices
from the very beginning when the anti-Maoist and anti-revolutionary
were forming alliances in and outside China. The dissenting voices in
China have gathered pace since 1997 after the American bombing of
the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, as represented in the journals Dushu
and Tianya (Wang Hui, 2004). There have, however, also been
dissenting voices from another source, and that is the e-media, both
inside and outside China. These dissenting voices have been getting
louder and louder as the consequences of post-Mao reform have been
more and more visible and more keenly felt.
The issue that draws most attention in the e-media is the evaluation
of Mao the man. Very much related to that evaluation but often
discussed separately is the issue of assessing the Cultural Revolution.
For a long time in China it has been taken for granted that the Cultural
Revolution had nothing positive to talk about and ‘the ten-year
disaster of the Cultural Revolution’ had become the accepted wisdom,
just as it was once accepted that the sun revolved around the earth.
However, the wisdom is increasingly being questioned now in the emedia.
In May 2007, a familiar e-media participant with the pen name
of Jingan Jushi (2007) proclaimed: ‘China should objectively and
historically evaluate the merits and demerits of Mao.’
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