Mao Zedong
Chairman of Communist China
1949-1976
The Life of Mao Zedong
The Life of Mao Zedong
The Life of Mao Zedong
“Power comes from the barrel of a
gun”
The Life of Mao Zedong
"Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of
embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate,
kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an
insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
— Mao, February 1927
The Life of Mao Zedong
The Life of Mao
Zedong
Mao liked to
rule from bed;
often
summoning his
colleagues
from their own
beds in the
middle of the
night
Mao as Leader of China
Mao as
Leader
of China
Mao as Leader of China
• Five Year Plan
• Great Leap
Forward
• Cultural
Revolution
• Hundred
Flowers
Campaign
"People who try to commit suicide —
don't attempt to save them! . . . China is
such a populous nation, it is not as if we
cannot do without a few people”
•
Accounts of Struggle Sessions
“... the Cultural Revolution began and I was transferred
to another labor camp.... Two years after I had been in
this new camp, I received a parcel from my family.
Immediately, an inmate accused me of giving something
out of it to another prisoner. I was dragged to the office.
Without any investigation, the officer assembled the
entire camp to start a struggle session against me. In the
session the officer suddenly asked me whether I had
committed my alleged original crime leading to my 8year sentence. I was stunned. It then dawned on me
that this session was in fact prearranged. The parcel was
only a pretense. Their real motive was once again to
force me to admit all my alleged crimes. "I did not
commit any crimes," I asserted firmly. Immediately two
people jumped on me and cut off half of my hair. The
officer screamed again: "Are you guilty?" I replied firmly
again, "No." Two people then used a rope to tie my
hands back tightly. It was connected to a loop around
my shoulder and underneath my armpits. It was knotted
in such a way that a slight movement of my hands would
cause intense pain. This struggle session lasted for two
hours. Afterwards, they untied me and handcuffed me
instead. The handcuffs became a part of me for the next
one hundred days and nights....”
•
•
You Xiaoli was standing, precariously balanced, on a stool. Her body
was bent over from the waist into a right angle, and her arms, elbows
stiff and straight, were behind her back, one hand grasping the other at
the wrist. It was the position known as "doing the airplane." Around
her neck was a heavy chain, and attached to the chain was a
blackboard, a real blackboard, one that had been removed from a
classroom at the university where You Xiaoli, for more than ten years,
had served as a full professor. On both sides of the blackboard were
chalked her name and the myriad crimes she was alleged to have
committed.... The scene was taking place at the university, too, in a
sports field at one of China's most prestigious institutions of higher
learning. In the audience were You Xiaoli's students and colleagues and
former friends. Workers from local factories and peasants from nearby
communes had been bused in for the spectacle. From the audience
came repeated, rhythmic chants.... "Down with You Xiaoli! Down with
You Xiaoli!“
"I had many feelings at that struggle session," recalls You Xiaoli. "I
thought there were some bad people in the audience. But I also
thought there were many ignorant people, people who did not
understand what was happening, so I pitied that kind of person. They
brought workers and peasants into the meetings, and they could not
understand what was happening. But I was also angry."
•
Lin Biao; Mao’s chosen successor
Death of
Mao
Death of Mao
Chinese
Nationalism…..
Patriotic or
crazy?
It’s the season of “love”
• So why not express that love….of
history….with a poem?!?!?! 
BELLWORK
1. List four results of the CCW for China.
2. How did the victory of the CCP affect Mao’s relationship
with Stalin?
3. How did the victory of the CCP affect China’s relationship
with the US?
4. The US viewed Stalin as the mastermind behind the CCP – to
what extent do you agree with this?
5. THINKER: TOK TIME! Read pg. 264  Can a contemporary
poem or song give us a better understanding of an historical
event than a contemporary diary or journalist's report?