Back Culto a la personalidad de Mao Zedong Spanish Mao Zedongin henkilökultti Finnish Culte de la personnalité de Mao Zedong French Kultus individu Mao Zedong ID Maov kult osobnosti Slovak Mao Zedong'un kişilik kültü Turkish Sùng bái cá nhân Mao Trạch Đông Vietnamese 毛澤東崇拜 Chinese

Mao Zedong's cult of personality

Mao Zedong in front of a large crowd of people

Mao Zedong's cult of personality was a prominent part of Chairman Mao Zedong's rule over the People's Republic of China from the state's founding in 1949 until his death in 1976. 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.[citation needed]

Mao Zedong himself recognized the need for personality cult, blaming the fall of Khrushchev on the lack of such a cult.[1][2] [failed verification] 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.[2][3][4] Mao's face was firmly established on the front page of People's Daily, where a column of his quotes was also printed every day; Mao's selected works were later printed in even greater circulation; the number of Mao's portraits produced (1.2 billion) exceeded the population of China at the time, in addition to a total of 4.8 billion Chairman Mao badges that were manufactured.[5] Every Chinese citizen was presented with the Little Red Book—a selection of quotes from Mao, which was required to be carried everywhere and be displayed at all public events, and citizens were expected to read the quotes from the book daily.[6] However, in the 1970s, Mao also criticized others for overdoing his own personality cult.[1][7]

After the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping and others launched the "Boluan Fanzheng" program which invalidated the Cultural Revolution and abandoned (and forbade) the use of a personality cult.[8][9][10]

  1. ^ a b Keith, Ronald C. (2004). "Review: History, Contradiction, and the Apotheosis of Mao Zedong". China Review International. 11 (1): 1–8. ISSN 1069-5834. JSTOR 23732901. Archived from the original on 4 March 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023. In a January 9, 1965, interview with Edgar Snow, Mao claimed that Khrushchev fell "because he had no cult at all." ...... In the early 1970s he blamed others for overdoing his own personality cult, attacking his heir apparent Lin Biao and the senior Party theoretician Chen Boda.
  2. ^ a b "Record of Conversation from [Chairman Mao Zedong's] Meeting with [Edgar] Snow (December 18, 1970)". Wilson Center. Archived from the original on 4 March 2023. Mao: We all adore someone. Would you be glad if nobody adored you? Would you be glad if nobody read your books and articles? We all need some personality cult, even you [need it]...... It was for the purpose of opposing Liu Shaoqi.
  3. ^ Leese, Daniel (2017), Naimark, Norman; Pons, Silvio; Quinn-Judge, Sophie (eds.), "Mao Zedong as a Historical Personality", The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 2: The Socialist Camp and World Power 1941–1960s, The Cambridge History of Communism, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 269–290, ISBN 978-1-107-59001-4, archived from the original on 6 March 2020, retrieved 4 March 2023
  4. ^ Leese, Daniel (1 September 2007). "The Mao Cult as Communicative Space". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 8 (3–4): 623–639. doi:10.1080/14690760701571247. ISSN 1469-0764. S2CID 143840866.
  5. ^ Barmé, Geremie. (1996). Shades of Mao : the posthumous cult of the great leader. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-585-26901-7. OCLC 45729144.
  6. ^ Chang, Jung, 1952- (2007). Mao : the unknown story. Halliday, Jon. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-950737-6. OCLC 71346736.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Lin, Xu and Wu 1995. p. 48.
  8. ^ Teon, Aris (1 March 2018). "Deng Xiaoping On Personality Cult And One-Man Rule – 1980 Interview". The Greater China Journal. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  9. ^ Huang, Zheping (26 February 2018). "Xi Jinping could now rule China for life—just what Deng Xiaoping tried to prevent". Quartz. Archived from the original on 26 February 2018. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  10. ^ "第八章: 十一届三中全会开辟社会主义事业发展新时期". cpc.people.com.cn. Archived from the original on 1 March 2008. Retrieved 29 July 2020.

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