Reversing the Verdict on Maoism?

Ever since Mao’s death in 1976, few of China’s self-styled intellectual ‘elite’, or members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), have been positive in their appraisal of the Maoist era. The tale of cannibalism in Guangxi is one of the more lurid examples of this genre but it is hardly untypical. Among Chinese economists this tendency to admire all aspects of US capitalism and to belittle the record of the Maoist era is especially marked, but it is commonplace even among those academics working in the humanities and other social sciences. A group of writers keen to offer a more balanced perspective on Maoism has emerged in China over the past decade; often called the New Left (although not all would accept this label), its most prominent members include Wang Hui, Huang Ping, Wang Shaoguang and Cui Zhiyuan. However, these scholars remain in a minority, and the decision of the CCP’s propaganda department to instruct the parent company to dismiss Wang and Huang from their positions as editors of the famous and antineo-liberal journal Dushu in the summer of 2007 has undoubtedly weakened the New Left. The work of Jung Chang and Jon Halliday is representative of the Chinese establishment’s continuing attempts to denigrate Mao and the Maoist era. Based upon extensive interviews and a range of unpublished and archival sources, Mao: The Unknown Story makes several very strong claims.