Do Chinese Schools glorify Mao Zedong?

[RedMarxist]

I was just wondering, do Chinese Schools(spec. High Schools) glorify Mao Zedong to the point where he is almost a cult symbol in the nation?

I was talking to a person who recently moved to our school from China and they told me that "Mao was a really good person", and that "We learned a lot about Mao throughout our schooling", and "He made China the great nation it is today." or something along those lines.

They said they learned everything from his 'good personality' to when he said that 'The Chinese People have stood up' in 1949/post 1949.

It sounds to me as if this person was fed propaganda about Mao constantly to the point where they naturally were enamored by Mao as a person.

Interestingly, they knew jack about his writings, which I know plenty about. I even had the honor to show some interesting articles by Mao. This person actually found it very interesting and said something about wanting to read them.

[Sensible Socialist]

It sounds exactly the same with American students and George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. We're taught to revere these figures, yet most students couldn't identify a piece of writing from either one. I'd say it's pretty normal for certain historical figures to be taught in a positive light in their respective countries. I wouldn't call it cultish, just something that tends to happen.

[bietan jarrai]

Weird that he likes Mao so much considering he's moved from China to whatever country you live in. I know China today is not what Mao meant, but if he doesn't really know anything he wrote...

[Rafiq]

I suppose it's more of a nationalist thing than a Marxist one.

[RedMarxist]

That's the thing. It sounded as if this person was fed propaganda their whole lives. Its just the way they glorified Mao, I don't know.

Ya, this person also told me the schools are much better then American schools. Wow. if the school they went to in China couldn't even pick ONE piece of writing from Mao in their lesson plans then that casts doubt on it's superiority when it comes to teaching history.

IMHO, the schools in America fail at teaching history and making it interesting to study. The best way I learned the Civil War period and the "Communist Period"(the early 1900's through 1991 in my terms) was by independently reading biographies, historical texts, and books on specific time periods.

Plus I don't have to fear getting a ZERO for being a 'bad student' and the like. I can learn history at my own pace.

I actually knew Mao's exact quote-or mostly exact('The Chinese People Have Stood Up.') before they did, which they found amusing. Again, I guess they like Mao so much for the same reason I'm actually interested in George Washington or Lincoln-I heard about those guys my whole life.

[Rafiq]

Perhaps, and to note as well, Both George Washington and Mao Tse Tung are seen as glorified heroes of two reactionary idealogies: Libertarianism and Maoism

[RED DAVE]

I teach in a language school in the USA, and i have many students from China, from the upper-middle class and the upper class. They have only the vaguest idea who Mao was and his role in the history of China.

RED DAVE

[RedMarxist]

How is Maoism reactionary?

I'd imagine that in China they teach about him more then George Washington here just because isn't the CCP trying to drill Mao into people's heads already, ever since they moved away from Maoist ideology and towards Market reforms?

I'd be embarrassed if the American student knew more about my nation's 'founder' than I did, and actually read his works more extensively then I did.

[piet11111]

Instil the masses with an image of a strongman that supposedly made the country great remove all context from that strongman and then put that mantle of great leader onto Hu jintao.
And all of a sudden invoking Mao works in favor of a clear capitalist leader.

Obviously you would need to avoid actually teaching about Mao's theory's but judging by the OP they did exactly that.

[manic expression]

Perhaps, and to note as well, Both George Washington and Mao Tse Tung are seen as glorified heroes of two reactionary idealogies: Libertarianism and Maoism
Slightly off-topic, but how in the hell is Washington seen as a hero of libertarianism? He favored Hamilton's federalism over Jefferson's politics constantly.


Ya, this person also told me the schools are much better then American schools. Wow. if the school they went to in China couldn't even pick ONE piece of writing from Mao in their lesson plans then that casts doubt on it's superiority when it comes to teaching history.
I think that claim could be very valid. American public schools are usually quite hopeless, and history at pre-college levels isn't as much about reading ideological writings anyway.

[Nox]

"He made China the great nation it is today."

That's pretty much bang on.

[Kamos]

It appears to me that many ex-communist countries are trying to turn the former communist leaders into symbols of nationalism as a further anti-communist tactic.

[RedMarxist]

Ya I know. All context has been stripped from Mao-I know he was a dictator but it is really sad that for propaganda purposes he has been watered down considerably.

The #1 problem with actually teaching his ideology in schools there is that if they do that, it will raise some glaring questions about China today. Maoism is 100% incompatible with modern China .

It also sickens me that what began as a rural and largely equality-based revolution in China in the early 20th century turned into...a polluted cesspool of a totalitarian state that follows Capitalism an waters down it's founder.

[CommunityBeliever]

Maoism isn't reactionary. They teach about Mao in China but they always leave out his later life and the struggle against revisionism, or when they talk about that they do so in a very negative light.

http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/66095/4468893.html


However, at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee in September 1962, he overestimated, in absolute terms, the scope of class struggle that existed only within certain limits in socialist society and further developed the idea he put forward after the anti-Rightist campaign in 1957 that the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie remained the principal contradiction in Chinese society.

Between 1963 and 1965, Mao Zedong carried out the socialist education movement in the rural and urban areas and pointed out that the main target of the movement should be "those Party persons in power taking the capitalist road." From the 1950s, he led the CPC in firmly combating the great-power chauvinism advocated by leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and their attempts to interfere in China's affairs and bring the country under their control.
So apparently the CPC is claiming that Mao overestimated the scope of class struggle by targeting revisionists in the party, despite the fact that capitalist roaders like Deng Xiaoping later took the capitalist road.


It is true that Mao Zedong made gross mistakes in his later years, but when his life is judged as a whole, his indisputable contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweigh his mistakes, and his merits are primary and his errors secondary.
The further claim here that he "made gross mistakes in his later years" despite the fact that, that is when there was a struggle against the revisionists like Deng Xiaoping.

[RedMarxist]

WOW, talk about blatant propaganda. They claim to be wholly democratic(democratic centralist to be exact, which I guess justifies totalitarianism), claim to be "Socialist", claim to be "building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics", and claim that "They can reach Communism in a hundred years."

Does anybody in China actually buy this shit!?! And, I don't think Lenin had in mind a totalitarian state when he came up with all his own theories. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

All of it is propaganda...they cannot reach communism if the world doesn't, they can try for a thousand years but if the planet doesn't follow socialist revolution than all their efforts will be in vein.

As for Lenin...I think he made many "totalitarian" policies, but am not sure.

[bietan jarrai]

(off-topic)


which I guess justifies totalitarianism


I don't think Lenin had in mind a totalitarian state when he came up with all his own theories.

Neither do I, but democratic centralism is a caracteristic of marxist-leninist parties and ideology. Personally I don't think it has anything to do with totalitarianism, just thought I'd point out the contradiction in your post.

[RedMarxist]

[Off-Topic]

In Lenin's influential State And Revolution, It is highly apparent that he never had totalitarianism in mind. IMHO he truly was striving for democracy and reaching Communism, and at the time many people not only followed Socialism, but tried to overthrow their reactionary regimes.

Yet outside pressure in the form of foreign invasion(which many people, esp. many "anti-Communist" people here in America seem to forget is, our nation invaded Russia to stop the potential creation of a worker's state, along with 13 other nations), internal pressures(Civil War), and the natural Russian inclination to totalitarianism shaped the future one-party state that would become the USSR.

[On-Topic]

This person was spoon fed fed propaganda. I'm convinced. It sounds like Mao Zedong was glorified to the point where he, in their eyes, is a God among men. Never in my life have I seen anyone more obsessed with a founding Father of any one nation.

Just to see their reaction, I'm printing off some influential Mao Zedong texts and offering them to this person. I want to see what they think about China after the realize Mao's real intentions for China were.

[bietan jarrai]

[Off-Topic]

In Lenin's influential State And Revolution, It is highly apparent that he never had totalitarianism in mind. IMHO he truly was striving for democracy and reaching Communism, and at the time many people not only followed Socialism, but tried to overthrow their reactionary regimes.

Yet outside pressure in the form of foreign invasion(which many people, esp. many "anti-Communist" people here in America seem to forget is, our nation invaded Russia to stop the potential creation of a worker's state, along with 13 other nations), internal pressures(Civil War), and the natural Russian inclination to totalitarianism shaped the future one-party state that would become the USSR.


I don't think you got it. I was talking about the way you said democratic centralism justified totalitarianism, when democratic centralism was pretty much founded by Lenin.

[RedMarxist]

sometimes I hate the internet. I was being sarcastic, as in "how can they use Democratic Centralism to justify Totalitarianism"

[bietan jarrai]

sometimes I hate the internet. I was being sarcastic, as in "how can they use Democratic Centralism to justify Totalitarianism"

fail. sorry, didn't get it. more used to sarcasm in my first language.

[RedMarxist]

is there anyone from China on this website or who knows people from China who can clarify whether or not Mao is propagandized in High Schools?