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Deification of Mao Zedong's Image and an Iconoclastic Attempt at Its Deconstruction

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Deification of Mao Zedong's Image and an Iconoclastic Attempt at Its Deconstruction vol� 59/2018, pp� 47–63 DOI: 10�15804/athena�2018�59�04 www�athenaeum�umk�pl ISSN 1505-2192 DEIFICATION OF MAO ZEDONG’S IMAGE AND AN ICONOCLASTIC ATTEMPT AT ITS DECONSTRUCTION DEIFIKACJA WIZERUNKU MAO ZEDONGA I OBRAZOBURCZA PRÓBA JEGO DEKONSTRUKCJI Maciej Szatkowski* — ABSTRACT — — ABSTRAKT — This text is an attempt to reflect on the image of Niniejszy tekst jest próbą refleksji na temat Mao Zedong in People’s Republic of China and wyobrażenia Mao Zedonga w Chinach Ludowych the politics of shaping his image� Mao Zedong, his oraz polityki kształtowania jego wizerunku� politics, literary work, life, and other aspects of his Mao Zedong, jego polityka, twórczość literacka, long biography have been fairly well described by życiorys i inne aspekty długiej biografii zostały numerous researchers over the past few decades� dość dobrze opisane przez licznych badaczy na However, far too little space has been devoted to przełomie ostatnich kilkudziesięciu lat� Zdecydo- the image of Mao Zedong in the consciousness wanie za mało miejsca poświęcono wizerunkowi of the Chinese� Mao Zedonga w świadomości Chińczyków� Considering that Mao has been included into Przy założeniu, że Mao został włączony the set of deities and surrounded by a halo of w poczet bóstw i otoczony jest nimbem boskości, divinity, the critical attitude to his figure verges stosunek krytyczny do jego postaci staje się obra- on sacrilege� It is a surprising encounter of zoburczy� Jest to zaskakujące spotkanie z pogra- politics and religion, which Mao Zedong would nicza polityki i religii, którego Mao Zedong nie not expect in his lifetime� In fact, only popular spodziewałby się za życia� Właściwie tylko sztuka and avant-garde art, as well as individual oppo- popularna i awangardowa, a także poszczególni sitionists have made iconoclastic attempts to opozycjoniści podjęli się ikonoklastycznej próby deconstruct the figure of Mao� dekonstrukcji postaci Mao� Keywords: Mao Zedong, Chinese art, iconoclasm, Słowa kluczowe: Mao Zedong, sztuka chińska, cult of personality, deification ikonoklazm, kult jednostki, deifikacja * Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of Languages� 48 ATHENAEUM vol. 59/2018 Polish Political Science Studies Chinese idols are easily interpreted as reflections of social desires� They gain the status of idols of the masses, demi-gods and deities� They symbolise the era in which they happened to live� Looking at the most recent Chinese history, especially the second half of the 20th century, we find several figures among those most important in the consciousness of the entire society which arouse its appreciation and admiration, such as Lei Feng� This soldier, who lived only to the age of twenty-two, became famous owing to his total dedication to the welfare of the new society and willingness to commit himself to social acts� He died in 1962 in a road accident� In 1963, his journals were published, and his biography quickly became a work of communist hagiography� Chairman Mao himself called on people to “learn from Lei Feng”� Images of Lei Feng occupy the public space to this day, he is widely known and admired, and official propaganda presents him as a symbol of faithfully serving his homeland and the people� However, unofficially his biography and even his actual existence are questioned� In the late 1970s, songs by Deng Lijun from Taiwan rose to popularity in China� The singer gained enormous popularity in East and Southeast Asia, but it was in People’s Republic of China that she was surrounded by a pop-star cult� After years of Maoist rule, and closure to outside culture – including popular culture – the Chinese fell in love with music which talked about love, friendship and life� Deng Lijun’s music accompanied the Chinese as they were emerging from the difficult years of constant revolution, opening to the outside world and the first achievements of the free market� Her untimely death in 1995 caused many to despair� The 1990s was a period of enormous popularity of television and film stars, mainly from Hong Kong (such as Stephen Chow and Andy Lau)� In the late 1990s and subsequent years, the accumulation of pop stars was so great that it is hard to speak of mass worship of one person, as it became rather diversified� In the 21st century, a new trend appeared: participation in building the image of business icons� Among them the most important are Jack Ma, the founder of the Alibaba Group, or Zhang Chaoyang, the founder of Sohu (Xin, 2009, p� 3)� Among those who have stood out in the consciousness of the Chinese society in the 20th century is Mao Zedong, the father and founder of the People’s Repub- lic of China� He has enjoyed the greatest popularity and adoration, and his person and image have been the centre of a constant, religious and para-religious cult for several decades, with varying intensity� The first leader of the People’s Republic Maciej Szatkowski : Deification of Mao Zedong’s Image 49 of China is also the main symbol and historical cement of the Communist Party of China, where Mao legitimises hegemonic rule� The Party itself protects the image of Mao and has custody and control of the political and historical cult� Monika Umińska in her „Note from the Translator” accompanying her Polish translation of Eric Voegelin’s Das Volk Gottes [The People of God] is right in pointing out that politics should not be studied without taking into consideration religious experiences and raptures (Umińska, 1994, p� 5)� In political societies the sacred and the profane often overlap and it is on this phenomenon that this article is focused� The burning of books during the Cultural Revolution was directed against the intellectual values associated with the bourgeois� Eric Voegelin referred to the destruction of literary and artistic culture in terms of calling for a spiritual renewal (Voegelin, 1994, p� 25)� We might assume therefore that this phenomenon also gave way to the emotions related to the sphere of the sacred� The staunch adherents of Maoism, firmly believing in his ideas (this belief may have resulted from the idea of tianzi, ‘the son of heaven’, deeply ingrained in Chinese culture), felt as if they were sinless and beyond reproach� Hence the notorious brutality of the Red Guard, the most obdurate supporters of Mao, which left its mark during the Cultural Revolution� Voegelin, in his discussion of such attitudes, wrote that they were a manifestation of mysticism blended with animalistic aggression� The underlying assumption of people involved in such activities is that even the most hideous crimes form part of the divine plan of saving the world from evil (1994, p�76)� Ryszard Skarżyński in his article about Voegelin’s political gnosticism wrote that “the gnostics believe that the existing world is evil, while man is capable of building a new and better society� They pay no attention to the actual reality, instead they focus on an alternative world…” (Skarżyński, 1998, p� 30)� Mao was to help in building a new world: his help extended even to those who apart from their blind faith had no other competences to make it happen� Mao Zedong was born in 1893 and was a member of the Communist Party of China since its foundation in 1921� He was at the helm of the Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931–1934, and later led the Long March to the Yan’an base, where Chinese communists were stationed in 1935–1948, and which is known as the cradle of the Communist Revolution in China� It was there that Mao wrote key treatises and manifests and prepared to overcome the Kuomintang and seize power in China� In 1949, standing on the terrace of the Tian’anmen gate, he proclaimed the existence of the People’s Republic of China under his 50 ATHENAEUM vol. 59/2018 Polish Political Science Studies leadership� In this way he ended a century of humiliation which his nation had been going through since 1839 and the Opium Wars� He carried out several anti-bourgeois and anti-right-wing campaigns, and crushed the opposition within the Party� However, after the failed Great Leap Forward and its tragic consequences, he was removed from power for several years� In 1966, together with the Gang of Four he unleashed the Cultural Revolution in China, which broke the spine of Chinese culture and changed the Chinese society forever� At the centre of the Cultural Revolution activities was the boundless devotion to Mao Zedong, cementing the cult of personality� During the revolution, it was Mao who became the centre of the Chinese world, its sun and its only god� As all signs of religiosity were officially condemned, religious feelings and servile acts were redirected towards Mao Zedong� The society filled the spiritual vacuum by pouring its religious feelings onto Mao Zedong, who took on divine qualities in the narrative and in the visual sphere� The cult of personality created a new, servile, secular religion� The youth, who were the axis of the revolution, in paintings from the period turn towards the figure of the Great Helmsman like sunflowers towards a red sun, and over Mao’s head a sunny glow shines like a halo� Mao from the propaganda posters was taller than others, hovering slightly above the surface, well-built and imperious (e�g�, on the poster Chair- man Mao Swims Across the Yangzi)� In the universal consciousness of those quoting the book of the Red Guards, Mao was omniscient and almighty� He was a combination of Stalin and Lenin (from the revolutionary period), and commanded boundless dread, gratitude, admiration, adoration and blind faith of the people in his mission�
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