No one is disputed like Mao. Was he a mass murderer, a Communist hero, a charlatan, or a great poet? The saviour of the peasants, or the man who extracted from them all that he could?
Mao’s biography is a nest of contradictions. He led the largest revolution in world history, then presided over its largest famine – and even then, life expectancy rose 20 years over the course of his rule. He launched rebellions – against a government he already controlled. He purged his enemies and friends alike.
Some 50 years after his death, he remains a central figure in Chinese politics. The Communist Party of China posthumously declared him to be 70% right and 30% wrong, but his face still hangs over Tiananmen Square.
In this second episode on China’s history, Rebecca Karl – author of China’s Revolutions in the Modern World – returns to tell Richard Hames about the Mao era, with all its promises, contradictions and catastrophes.
Watch the previous episode with Rebecca, on China’s century of revolutions.
Explore the map we’re making throughout this series of DYOR, of all the people, events and ideas of the Mao era.
00:00 Intro
4:00 Who Was Mao?
10:52 The 1950s: Land Reform & Early Socialism
24:27 Gender, Class Divides & Welfare
38:37 The Hundred Flowers Campaign Explained
50:15 Famine & The Great Leap Forward
1:03:09 Was the Famine the End of Socialism? Cold War & the Third Front
1:15:02 The Cultural Revolution Explained
1:28:57 How the Cultural Revolution Ended
1:37:30 Jiang Qing, the Gang of Four & Deng Xiaoping’s Return
1:47:49 Mao’s Legacy: Is China Socialist Today?