A typically upbeat article in Xinhua tells us that Mao, the mass murderer who more than any other force helped initiate the brain death of China during his reign, is still revered by China’s university students, who continue to treasure his teachings:
Chinese university students are caught up in the trappings of modern life – discussing the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs, idolizing Taiwan pop band F4 and flaunting their cellphones – but they still “swear by Chairman Mao.”
In fact, the influences of the late Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, who was born on December 26, 1893, on modern youth are not limited to the language of discourse.
Cheng Haowen, a student of astronomy at Nanjing University in eastern Jiangsu Province, said Mao’s realistic approach, characterized by testing and improving theories in the course of practice, distinguished him from many Chinese figureheads, who were satisfied with being sage and detached from social reality to show their superiority.
You have to wonder whether the reporter was actually keeping a straight face as he wrote that. Realistic approach? Testing and improving theories? Like, the Cultural Revolution was a tested improvement over the Great Leap Forward? (If Conrad were around he’d reply with something like, “Jesus H. Christ on a rubber pogo stick!”)
A socialist whose inspirational sources can be traced back to Chinese classics such as the works of Sun Zi, an eminent ancient military strategist, Mao left a spiritual legacy of pragmatism, depending on the masses of people and solving problems without resorting to foreign forces, which have an impact on the attitudes of a new generation of university students, said Cheng.
What can one say? I’ve heard Mao accused of many things, but pragmatism isn’t one of them. And “depending on the masses”? Mao screwed the masses monumentally, and more than a quarter of a century after his death they are still reeling from his certifiably insane policies that devastated the environment and robbed a generation of its critical faculties.
Although Mao erroneously initiated the “cultural revolution” (1966-76) in his later years, fostering cult-like admiration for himself, he and his spiritual legacy still deserve to be studied objectively, said Cheng, who was born in 1985.
“Erroneously initiated.” How is that for bland language? It makes it sound like a frigging accounting error. And even though he left China a basket case, we still love his spiritual legacy and want to study it objectively quack quack quack.
I suppose I should resign myself to the fact that Mao worship isn’t going away anytime soon. But I want to believe that most students today don’t really believe there’s anything worth studying in Mao’s “spiritual legacy.” Nearly all my friends in China told me that Mao is someone they simply ignore, and that all the government’s BS about his greatness is recognized as a pointless show. I sure hope they’re right.
A university student works lovingly on his statue of The Great Helmsman
UPDATE If you think this Xinhua article is nauseating in its swooning over Butcher Mao, try this.
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By bill
Mao was a rebel. Young people
need a symbol of rebellion and they find it in Mao. What Mao did is no longer important to them.
December 18, 2003 @ 11:55 am | Comment
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By richard
I have to admit I find that odd — “what he did is no longer important to them.” Don’t we choose our heros based on “what they did”? Hitler was a rebel too, but the things he did overshadow everything else about him (he loved dogs and children, for example). Liu Di (the Stainless Steel Mouse” is a rebel, too. Maybe it’s time for some serious rebel-switching. (Said in humor; as I said in my post, the Mao cult isn’t going away so soon.)
December 18, 2003 @ 1:32 pm | Comment
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By Andrew Friedman
Anyone who thinks that Chairman Mao is some kind of hero is completely. He was nothing more than a psychopathic viscious murdering bastard with the blood of over 60 million innocent chinese men women & children — including Tibetan children on his hands. He’s the great Disgrace of Chinese history, whom has stopped at nothing to dishonor & disgrace the peace-loving people of China. He’s the worst criminal since the days of Adolf Hitler. Caring nothing of human life, he has fabricated lies & made up his own sick twisted reasons to invade Tibet, & manipulated millions of his own people through his published little red book of bullshit. The “Great Leader” is considered by many to be the ‘asian Hitler,’ but by a lot of people all cought up in there arrogance & ignorance, considered to be the “Great Leader.” The only good thing that Chairman Mao’s done for his country, was to DROP DEAD!
China has at least tried to make a change for the better over the years though,by reforming some of it’s policies, which was a smart thing. So all you people who are putting this psychopathic maniac on a pedistal, knock it off, you morons! — Wake up! — You know deep down inside that he’s a mass murdering bastard, so come to your senses & condemn him for the inhuman criminal that he was! All this talk about religion being the “opiate” of the people …” — Ha! What a crock’a shit! He’s nothing but some wackjob who should have been tried & executed for crimes against the chinese & Tibetan people; the stupid manipulating sunovabitch!
February 10, 2004 @ 7:52 pm | Comment
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By Andrew Friedman
Anyone who thinks that Chairman Mao is some kind of hero, simply does not know the crimes of the “Great Leadrer.” He was nothing more than a psychopathic viscious murderer, with the blood of over 60 million innocent chinese men women & children — including those of the Tibetan people, on his hands. He’s the great Disgrace of Chinese history, whom has stopped at nothing to dishonor & disgrace the peace-loving people of China.
He’s the worst criminal since the days of Adolf Hitler. Caring nothing for human life, he has fabricated lies & made up his own sick twisted reasons to invade Tibet, & manipulated millions of his own people through his published little red book of bullshit. The “Great Leader” is considered by many to be the ‘asian Hitler,’ but is still thought by many Maoist loaylists in there blind allegiance to this asshole, considered to be the “Great Leader.”
In the end, the only good thing that Chairman Adolf-Mao’s done for his country, was to DROP DEAD! He gave the chinese people the idea that following his twited lies & deception in that little red book, that he’d lead there country into a new era of enlightenment, when he really led the chinese people into 40 years of slavery, & invited many millions of helpless others into an orgy of the worst cases of mass murder, the world has ever learned. Any Maoist statue ought to be torn down & memorials ought to be erected to denote areas of murder that he & the “PLA” have tortured to death, innocent civilians.
Since the “Great Leader’s” death, China has at least tried to make a change for the better over the years though reforms, which was a smart thing. Although China stil has a long way to go on the human rights thing, I still give the later Chinese regimes a little credit, in that sense.
So all you people who are putting this psychopathic maniac on a pedistal, — knock it off, you morons, & wake up! You know deep down inside that he’s a mass murderer, so come to your senses & condemn him for the inhuman criminal that he was! All this talk about religion being the “opiate” of the people …” — Ha! What a crock’a shit! He’s nothing but some wackjob who should have been tried & executed for crimes against the chinese & Tibetan people; the sick twisted communist rat that he was! He has done nothing but bring shame on the Chinese people, as well as the Tibetans, as well. I’m ashamed to be American after finding out that we did absollutely nothing to help Tibet during the “Great Leader’s” inhuman purge of the peaceful Tibetan people. It’s a cry’n ass shame that we still leave people like that in power — even today, to some degree.
February 10, 2004 @ 8:10 pm | Comment
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March 24, 2005 @ 5:00 am | Comment