Mao Zedong's cult of personality
Mass media, propaganda and a series of other techniques were used by the state to elevate Mao Zedong's status to that of an infallible heroic leader, who could stand up against the West, and guide China to become a beacon of communism.
[1][2][3][4] During the period of Cultural Revolution, Mao's personality cult soared to an unprecedented height, and he took advantage of it to mobilize the masses and attack his political opponents such as Liu Shaoqi, then Chairman of the People's Republic of China.
[13][14] After the victory of the CCP in the Civil War, posters, portraits, and later statues of Mao began to appear in city squares, in offices and even in citizens' apartments.
In 1964, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, commonly known as the Little Red Book, was published for the first time, which later became one of the most famous symbols of the Cultural Revolution.
"[21] Mao had agreed to the CCP Central Committee circulating Lin's speech as an official document and commented in his July 1966 letter, "This is the first time in my life that, on an important point, I have given way to another against my better judgment; let us say independently of my will.
[23] Mao's cult was significantly elevated during the Cultural Revolution, despite the major failures of his Great Leap Forward campaign only years prior.
On 5 August, Mao Zedong published his own dazibao (big-character poster), a short but pivotal document titled "Bombard the Headquarters", which called out leading figures who were purportedly trying to suppress the Cultural Revolution.
In this report, one of the closest associates of Mao Zedong, Marshal Lin Biao, ensured praise is focused on the "great helmsman", whose ideas were called "the highest stage in the development of Marxism–Leninism".
In propaganda writings, such as PLA's legendary communist soldier Lei Feng's Diary, loud slogans and fiery speeches significantly elevated the cult of Mao.
We tear and destroy calendars, precious vases, records from the USA and England, amulets, ancient drawings and elevate above all this the portrait of Chairman Mao.
"Academic Dongping Han writes that during the Cultural Revolution, rural villagers used the personality cult surrounding Mao Zedong as a political instrument to pursue their goals.
[2] In the first few years of the Cultural Revolution, Mao took advantage of his personality cult to mobilize the populace, especially the Red Guards, to achieve his goals, including destroying the "Four Olds" and attacking his political opponents such as Liu Shaoqi.
[31] Russo thinks that Mao's study initiatives in the last few years of his life were an effort to prompt mass intellectual engagement to rethink the problems raised by the Cultural Revolution.
Instead this was replaced with government made art that supported Maoism,[37] and redirected efforts towards agriculture, industry and national defense, as well as concerns such as hygiene and family planning.
[40] Images of Mao's face appeared everywhere, from portraits in schools and government buildings, to street signs and wall murals, even small shrines within private homes were not unusual.
[41][40] Guided by Maoist thought, the contents of the propaganda were militant, with messages of proletarian ideology, communist morale and spirit, and revolutionary heroism.
His image was considered more important than the occasion for which a particular work of propaganda art was designed: in a number of cases, identical posters dedicated to Mao were published in different years bearing different slogans.
This book contained a series of political and cultural statements from Mao Zedong's speeches and writings, which campaigned the slogan from the Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, "Workers of the world, unite!".
Failure to produce a copy when requested would often result in a punishment from the Red Guard, which varied from verbal harassment and beatings, to a prison sentence.
[46] The simplification of Mao's writings also finally gave access to the thoughts and ideas of communists to peasants and lower-class citizens, this helped to further solidify support for his cult of personality.
[48] In the late 60s, during the Cultural Revolution, Mao's cult of personality reached new heights, with citizens performing a "Loyalty Dance" (忠字舞; zhōngzì wǔ) to express their love to the chairman.
It was frequently accompanied by revolutionary songs including "Beloved Chairman Mao", "Golden Hill of Beijing" or "Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman".
[51] The loyalty dance (忠字舞; zhōngzì wǔ) was an everyday fixture of life in the late 1960s, which was practiced in order to display one's lifelong devotion to Mao Zedong and exercise total discipline.
[50] In August 1968 Mao presented members of a 30,000-strong propaganda team, who had been sent to pacify a Red Guard insurrection at Tsinghua University, with four dozen mangos as a sign of appreciation.
[53] Mao had been given the mangos from a delegation from Pakistan, headed by foreign minister Mian Arshad Hussain, and sent them to a range of student groups in the capital.
"[54] Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Ye Jianying in 1979 described the time of Mao Zedong's reign as a "feudal fascist dictatorship".
However, the current cult of Mao among ordinary citizens, especially young people, should rather be attributed to the manifestations of modern pop culture, and not to a conscious worship of this person's thinking and deeds.
The crippled fate of tens of millions of people throughout China who have suffered from senseless and brutal campaigns should be considered a particularly serious legacy of the Mao regime.
The reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and continued by his followers de facto made the Chinese economy capitalistic, with corresponding consequences for domestic and foreign policy.
"[71]: 29 Trading markets of Chairman Mao badges were common during the Cultural Revolution, particularly during the chuanlian movement in which Red Guards travelled for free around the country to "exchange revolutionary experiences".
