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

Faxian (2006), appear occasionally on the e-media and in writings that
appear in areas outside the political control of China.
19. Though the Women’s Federation leadership was under attack during the
Cultural Revolution, as all bureaucratic institutions were, genuine efforts
were made to promote women’s status. Those efforts and the success they
produced can be confirmed by numerous documents and statistics. One
of the examples cited in this chapter is the partial list of ordinary women
who were promoted to positions in the central leadership.
20. For a reappraisal of China’s economic performance during the Mao
period and the Cultural Revolution see Bramall (1993), Endicott (1989)
and Law (2003).
Chapter 5
1. One mu is about 0.0667 hectare and one jin is half a kilogramme.
2. Marc Gellman and Tom Hartman (2002), in their piece published in the
widely circulated Reader’s Digest, are more inventive. They not only
place Mao alongside Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, but with Osama bin
Laden as well.
Chapter 6
1. By Chinese I mean those who were born and brought up in China
before and during the Cultural Revolution but now may live either in
China or abroad. Writers residing in Hong Kong and Taiwan may also
be included in this category.
2. The questionable claims and discrepancies that have been raised by
Teiwes are not discussed in this chapter.
3. One mu of land equals 0.0667 hectare.
4. For those who are not familiar with Chinese history it should be noted
that the 460 so-called scholars who were reportedly executed were not
killed because they were Confucian scholars but because they were
considered to have cheated Qin Shihuang in the matter of finding the
elixir of life and then have spread rumours against him.
Chapter 7
THE BATTLE FOR CHINA’ S PAST
1. According to Latham (2007), SMS is the most widely used e-medium
in China and has created an unprecedented ‘public sphere’. In the 2007
Xiamen demonstration against the government approval a massive
new paraxylene chemical plant, for instance, MSNs and QQs played
an important role. On 1 June 2007, residents were invited though MSN
and QQ by friends and family members to go for a ‘walk’ with a
yellow band on one arm to a particular place at some particular time.
That was how the demonstration was organized (Xie 2007, Cody
2007).
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