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

THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
Throughout the book I argue that our conceptualizations may frame
our research methodology and our selection of evidence; however I am
not saying that there should not be methodological conventions or that
one method may not be more rigorous than another. Nor am I
suggesting that there are not undisputed facts. It is an undisputed fact
that the Great Leap Forward contributed towards a famine. Nor is
there any dispute that the Cultural Revolution victimized many in
terms of personal humiliation, physical assaults, arbitrary detention,
loss of property and even death. But I do argue that there are other
facts that should not be ignored and need to be included in any
balanced account of China’s history.
Parallel to the understanding of the Cultural Revolution as a total
disaster is the belief that the post-Mao reforms, supposedly designed
by the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, have achieved economic
miracles in China. This claim has been repeated in so many different
versions that it has become a cliché. However, a counter-narrative is
available from some who know Chinese society well. Lau’s (2004: 230)
comments are an example of this: ‘Now, what can they offer their children?
If they make enough money, they hope to send their children
abroad so that they have a better life in the United States and never
come back to China, because China is going to be hell.’
Through in-depth analysis of memoirs, autobiographies and biographies,
by presenting the debate over the Cultural Revolution between
liberals and the New Left, and with information gained from fieldwork
in rural China and the e-media, the book provides the following:
• a critique of the contemporary discourse concerning the Mao era,
with an emphasis on the Cultural Revolution and a re-evaluation
of the man and his legacy
• documentation of the various narratives, and debates, especially in
the increasingly important e-media, concerning this period
• analysis and evaluation of these narratives and debates
• a general evaluation of the post-Mao reforms in relation to the
legacy of the Mao era
• a conceptual framework which shows that our present values and
beliefs frame our memories of the past.
The book is therefore not just about memories of the past, but also
about what is happening in the present. It is not just about the Cultural
Revolution, Mao the man and the Mao era. It is also about contemporary
China. On a deep level it is about liberalism versus revolution and
about continuity versus change. It is about alternative models of development,
and in a word, it is about our quest for betterment and our
understanding of human existence.
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