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Communism and personal rule: Mao's cult

One of the most common ways to greet an emperor in China before 1912, the year of the birth of the republic, was "Long Live the Emperor!" Communist China was supposed to reject this feudal past and introduce a totally new society into China. But starting from the 1960s, Mao began to more consciously cultivate his image so that he was elevated almost to the position to an emperor. This was reflected in several ways. In the 1950s, Mao's writings, sayings, and quotations were collectively called the "Mao Tse-tung Thought," that ranked with Marxism and Leninism as one of the cornerstones of Chinese Communism. In the 1960s, quotations of Mao were printed into Little Red Books, many passages in which needed to be recited by school children as well as adults. Mao's image was printed on badges worn by almost every one in China from the second half of the1960s to early 1970s. And Mao's image was printed on posters, together with his sayings, that appeared on the walls of all Chinese homes. All this also became mandatory in many places. One day when I went to school in 1971, I failed to wear my Maoist badge, although I remembered to hold the Little Red Book in my hand, and at the school gate I was barred from entry. I had to go home to fetch my badge and return. This cultivation of Mao's image was for him to build a stronger grassroots base in his struggles against the "technocrats" in the party, but on the other hand, it also reinforced the Communist practice of personal rule.

Historically, in contrast to democracies where individuals are separated from the professional positions they occupy (e.g. a president is a person in the position of presidency), in China an emperor's rule was considered the result of his wisdom or stupidity. People's hope of good life depended on wise rulers, and not wise institutions or social systems. When the Communists came, they argued for a new social structure to replace the previous one, but they continued this emphasis on personal rule. Communist cadres often continued to perceive themselves as "parent cadres" that took care of the people as Confucian cadres were expected to do in history. What Mao did only strengthened this trend. Many songs glorified Mao as if he were a god. Such as this one, titled "The East Is Red:"

In many posters Mao was depicted as semi-divine. The following is a translation of the slogans that accompany each poster in the following link to Mao posters:

Poster 2: "Under the leadership of the Communist Party and Chairman Mao, build China into a strong and prosperousindustrialized socialist country."

Poster 6: "Forever follow the Communist Party, forever follow Chairman Mao." (image of all Chinese nationalities, emphasizing national unity under Mao.)

Poster 7: "New Year." (Mao visiting peasants of the old Communist base in northeast China)

Poster 8: "The sunshine of Mao Tse-tung thought light up the road of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution."

Poster 9: "Report to Chairman Mao." (teaching children in socialist China to obey their "benevolent" leader Chairman Mao.)

Poster 2: "The people of Yanan have their hearts turned toward Chairman Mao." (Yanan was the center of the Communist base in NW China in the 1930s-1940s. This one corresponds to Poster 7 above.)

Poster 3: "Proceed victoriously along the revolutionary culture lines of Chairman Mao."

Poster 6: "The sun rises; the east is red." (commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The image is Mao announcing the founding of the PRC and the independence of China from colonial influences on Tiananmen Square on Oct.1, 1949.)

Mao came to represent the whole Chinese Communist revolution, the whole Chinese nation, and the whole Communist Party. Any one against Mao or who voiced criticism of Mao was against the nation, against the party, and against the Communist system. Many were persecuted for expressing disagreement with Mao, or for any form of skepticism of Mao's policies.

Of the posters and individuals singled out for propoganda purposes, a large number were young soldiers. Several reasons explained this: control of the army, even in today's China, meant real political power. Like other political positions, there was a strong personal imprint on the leader of the Chinese army, and a personal following of the leader usually was the case from the army. Mao had control of the army through much of his career as leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Army discipline, the zeal of young army soldiers who often came from extremely poor backgrounds for those that enrolled in the 1950s, all helped explain why many of them were singled out as exemplary subjects of Mao in Communist China, and why they were willing to follow the "spirit of Lei Feng"--to be a little screw on the gigantic socialist machine that would work selflessly for a socialist cause.