Chairman Mao (1893-1976)
Chairman Mao (Mao Zedong or Mao Tse Tung) is the founder of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and one of the founders of the Chinese Communist party in 1921. He is recognized as one of the most prominent Communist theoreticians. He is also known as a great poet.
Here is a brief biography of Mao Zedong.
Mao Zedong was a very practical person before 1949. He did many thorough investigations about China and he developed his theories based on his studies. He was so successful in his early years that people worshipped him and everyone loved him.
Things changed after 1949. Mao was a great thinker, but he had no respect to any existing laws. Basically he was the law and he could not allow anybody else to chanllenge him. He challenged and destroyed the traditional Chinese culture, good and bad. He gave woman the same right as man, but destroyed the traditional value of woman. This also made him very unrealistic, as he said in a poem, “Ten thousand years is too long, seize the day.” The Great Leap Forward (1958) is a direct result of such thinking.
During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), everything took a very long pause except constant class struggle and population growth. Inflation was zero and salary freezed for everyone. Education was badly damaged. Mao developed his fighting (or struggling) philosophy in his late years, as he said, “Fighting with heaven, fighting with earth, and fighting with human being, what a great pleasure!” China was isolated from the rest of the world and nobody knew the outside world at all.
Chinese people love Chairman Mao, though many people hate him. He gave himself a 7/3 score, i.e., he thought he had done more good than bad to Chinese people in his lifetime with a ratio of 7 to 3.
If you go to Chairman maps memorial hall,you will know how much the locals love him!
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