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

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CHALLENGING THE HEGEMONY II previous monopoly of the media by the political and elite intelligentsia has been broken. The third reason has much to do with the legacy of Maoism. The ideas of Mao and the staging of the Cultural Revolution actually trained and prepared many people, who were young and idealistic at that time, to think and reflect critically about political and social issues. Some of this ‘Cultural Revolution-generated thinking generation’ have become dissidents and anti-communists. But there are some who do not oppose communism for the sake of opposing and do not embrace capitalism as an ideological crusade. These are the people who have begun to raise their voices by questioning every accepted aspect of the manufactured truth. Conclusion: voices from the bottom for a battle that has just begun The e-media have provided a space for voices that cannot be heard through the conventional media. As I have acknowledged, many of the claims by the e-media debate participants may be erroneous and many of their arguments are unsubstantiated. For instance, recently a person using the pen-name Zuo Ke (2006) went as far as to argue that the Mao era was the golden period for China’s development of the computer industry. To fully engage in this issue alone would require a booklength study. By presenting their voices I do not intend to argue that only their voices represent the truth. Instead, I wish to show that the hegemony of the official discourse on the Cultural Revolution and the Mao era has been challenged by these voices. If we don’t want to listen to these voices, many Chinese will. Apart from uncoordinated contributions along these lines in various blogs, bulletin board systems, websites and chatrooms, there are a number websites that are specifically designed to counteract the Chinese political and elite intelligentsia’s monopoly of the mainstream conventional media and interpretation of history. In the resurrected Chinese Workers Net, for instance, most of the published pieces were positive about the Mao era and critical of the post-Mao reform. Here are few headlines as illustrations: • Whose is thorough democracy? Of course it was Mao’s big democracy. • Compared with now, the pre-reform welfare was great. • Forever remembering. • Regarding workers from rural China and care for work injuries: the collective had the strength to protect us. • Memory of an old coal miner: we had the best of times in production and coal mining safety. [ 157 ]
THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST • Healthcare during my childhood. • How did we develop collective enterprises: the economic basis for us being masters. • Re-appearance of the plague: the snail fever disease spreads again. • Worship of Mao was not a phenomenon of brainwashing. • What have transnational companies brought to us? • Are the American media objective and neutral? • Who is bearing the cost of China’s reform? • Is private ownership necessarily democratic? How does the elite hegemonize the discourse of reform? • Liberated peasants will never forget Mao: stories by grandma. • We would elect Mao again. This challenge to the elitists has not gone unnoticed or unchallenged. Some websites were not allowed to operate for long. The Chinese Workers Net was shut down only a few months after its appearance. The website Shiji Zhongguo (Century China) was also shut down in 2006 after a few years of operation. But there are some websites that are still in operation at time of writing such as Mao Zedong qizhi wang (the Mao Zedong Flag net), http://www. maoflag.net/, Wuyou zhixiang (Utopia), http://www.wyzxwyzx.com, Sannong Zhongguo http:// www.snzg.net/default.asp, Gong nong tian di (Space for the workers and farmers) https://www.fsurf.com/index. php?q=aHR0cDovL3d 3dy5nb25nbm9uZy5vcmc per cent3D, Huayue luntan (Huayue forum) https://w7.spetra.net.ru/dmirror/http/69.41.162.74/HuaShan/ GB2.html. The Gansu site of Xinlang launched a migrant worker blog page in 2007. In its first issue, the two pieces of short writing in a simple style by migrant workers gave a very positive evaluation of Mao (http://blog.sina.com.cn/m/hongbie#feeds FEEDS 1261878412 (accessed on 18 January 2007). In 2005, when there was some indication that the Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao leadership was re-orientating China’s development priority for the first time since the 1980s, and when Wen Jiabao was reported to read the e-media regularly, the neoliberal elite was alarmed. Professor Zhang Weiying, the Oxford-trained economist, appealed to the Chinese leadership not to be pressurized by the populist voices of the e-media. Another neoliberal, Gao Changquan (2006), found it incredible that Wuyou zhixiang had the audacity to publish pieces that attack Deng Xiaoping and praise Zhang Chunqiao for his theoretical articulation of the proletarian revolution. These are calls to battle, and the war in China between the capitalist model and an alternative may yet be won by either side. [ 158 ]
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’S PAST
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First published 2008 by Pluto Press
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Contents Acknowledgements xi Introd
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CONTENTS History as doctored by the
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Acknowledgements This book has been
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST posi
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST and
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Thro
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Anhu
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST More
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Cult
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST lead
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST in E
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST been
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Mima
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memory? Who is able to tell her/his
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Ther
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST irre
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literally means ‘beautiful countr
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST beca
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST posi
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST It i
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST anti
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3 Constructing history: memoirs, au
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Chin
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Lin Biao. Recently, however, Liu Yu
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST exam
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Zhou
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST only
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST West
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST I be
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Whether it’s the news that Mao ne
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Mao even shed tears (Gong 1978: 550
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Chan
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST sour
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST auth
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Red Army let go by Chiang THE BATTL
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST pers
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST comp
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such a scale take place simply as a
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the Great Leap hype. By doing this
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST can
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST In 1
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST fini
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST has
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clergy, bourgeoisie, peasants, arti
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST But
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST does
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struggle that ultimately aimed at f
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was written by Li himself. In an Op
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Page 119 and 120: Cultural Revolution radicals in Bei
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Page 147 and 148: the broad masses of people. The pro
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Page 151 and 152: was in a chaotic situation (hunluan
Page 153 and 154: Debates on comparisons Ever since t
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Page 161 and 162: content of newspaper reports of tha
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Page 173 and 174: economically or both)? Obviously th
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Page 181 and 182: destruction of the collective syste
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Page 199 and 200: Social stratification THE BATTLE FO
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Page 215 and 216: Notes Chapter 1 This chapter is an
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST (whi
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST 6. T
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Chun
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Jian
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Ma Y
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST suzh
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST yi k
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Bibliography Ai Ming (2007), ‘Shi
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST the
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST save
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Deng
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Feng
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST faes
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Tony
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Kahn
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST -- (
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Li Z
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST reco
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Mill
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Ping
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Schm
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Spen
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST are
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Cult
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST mile
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Yang
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST lunt
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THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST Zhen
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Index agriculture, 14, 19, 24, 36,
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Halliday, Jon, 2, 4, 10, 11, 65-73,
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Vietnam War, 40, 145 Wang Dongxing,
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