Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World

Narrative fidelity to the Little Red Book in the framing efforts of the Red Guard Movement: A theoretical model for foundational documents

“…As early as 1963, the PLA began intermingling with civilians in order to launch well-orchestrated propaganda campaigns (Karl, 2010). These campaigns exalted soldiers as heroes who exemplified altruistic self-denial and sacrifice.…”

“…The utopian idealism of the youth movement took the country by storm as Mao advocated the overturning of liberal-leaning intellectuals, the ousting of individualist career-minded cadres and the ideological re-education of city dwellers as well as rural inhabitants (Karl, 2010). The Red Guard Student Movement contained the most radical elements of devotion to the LRB, and it is well documented that hermeneutical divisions separated student activists into ideologically warring factions over the correct reading of the LRB (Walder, 2009).…”

“…In Mao's early military career, his pronouncements about socialist theory ring with a tone of religious ecstasy. He urgently required a convincing utopian worldview in order to combat the impending Japanese military threat, the entrenched feudal landlord class and the aggressive US imperialists (Karl, 2010). Combining his revolutionary zeal with a social programme for a communistic utopia gave Mao the ideational tools he needed to present a convincing case for revolution to the Chinese populace.…”

Culture, Class, and Revolution in China's Turbulent Decade: A Cultural Revolution State of the Field

“…As Rebecca Karl has argued, one should understand the Cultural Revolution "not merely…as a bid for state power, but as an attempt to seize politics-the power of mass culture and speech for revolution." 10 At its outset, the Central Committee in August 1966 defined the Cultural Revolution as the establishment of "new ideas, culture, customs, and habits," and the transformation of the education, literature, and art of the superstructure, a mass movement to raise revolutionary consciousness. 11 The opening salvos of the movement are often linked to a theater play by Wu Han, an historian of the Ming dynasty.…”

From Deconstruction to Activism

“…Maoism maintains that the masses have the responsibility to renew the political theory and practice of the Communist Party. But this elevated status does not mean that all Chinese belong to the category of “the masses,” or that the masses have not been disciplined by technologies of political representation (see Karl, 2010: chap. 5).…”