The Passion of the Mao Quotes

[fa2991]

I'm watching The Passion of the Mao and am wondering if some of those quotes attributed to Mao are real, particularly


I wash my prick with c(I remembered that this word is banned on RevLeft)

or if they're jokes I just overlooked.

[Il Medico]

I'm watching The Passion of the Mao and am wondering if some of those quotes attributed to Mao are real, particularly



or if they're jokes I just overlooked.
The one you quoted is real.

[fa2991]

:lol: Mao was a dirty old man, huh? There was another one, something to the effect of


If you have to shit, shit, if you have to fart, fart. You'll feel better.

[Chimurenga.]

The one you quoted is real.

No. It is not. None of these were real. They all come from Random House's version of The Private Life Of Chairman Mao by Li Zhisui.

Mobo Gao devotes an entire chapter on this very subject (and pretty much destroys it I might add) in his book The Battle For China's Past.


"The Private Life Of Chairman Mao is supposedly written by Mao's personal physician of 22 years and close confidant. Simultaneously published by Random House in English and the Chinese Times Publishing Company of Taipei in Chinese, the book purports to reveal Mao's private life, and to denounce the Mao era as an unmitigated disaster under the dictatorship of an evil monster"...(pg. 99)



"At any given time of human history, scholarly research has been orientated or even dictated by a particular ideology, or by strategic nation interest. This is not only a question of the intention of individual scholars but also a question of resources that are available (Dirlik 1996). Furthermore, seemingly non-political values and beliefs influence research agendas and approaches. More of this is discussed in other chapters. Finally there is commercialism. Publishers like Random House want to make profits and therefore there is a motive for Random House to 'sex up' Li's memoirs for the market"....


..."One is particularly struck by the peculiar fact that both the Chinese and English versions of Li's book are products of translation. The English version is acknowledged to be translated by Professor Tai Hung-chao while the Chinese version is acknowledged to be translated by Li himself. One wonders what the original manuscript was. According to Tai, it was Random House the publisher who wanted to add more 'juicy bits' such as Mao's sex life to the book, to attract a larger readership. Li was in disagreement with this line of approach but was eventually overruled by Random House (Tai Hung-chao 2000)."(pg. 101)



"In an Open Letter (for the English text of the Open Letter, see DeBorja and Dong 1996) published in the Asian American Times in New York, Wen hui bao in Hong Kong and the Straits Review in Taiwan in February 1995, the signatories of the letter denounced the book and pointed out the discrepancies between the English and Chinese versions. In the Chinese version, claims such as that the memoirs were based on Li's diaries, that Li was the best doctor in China, and that Li could recall Mao's words verbatim are absent. Absent in the Chinese version are also claims about Mao's womanizing behaviour spreading venereal disease, statements like' I [Mao] wash myself inside the bodies of my woman' or Mao was 'devoid of human feelings'." (pg. 102)


The film itself is decent. It should be followed up with The Battle For China's Past to fix the inconsistencies and fabrications.

[fa2991]

No. It is not. None of these were real. They all come from Random House's version of The Private Life Of Chairman Mao by Li Zhisui.

I suspected as much. Thanks for the info, comrade.