Mao's Great Mass Murder

[Ringwraith]

Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday.

 

MASS MURDER LINK

[mæŋksmən]

I wonder how long he will be teaching there now.

 

chinaman will be devastated.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

I wouldn't think for a moment that Chinahand was a fan of Mao

[Monkey boy]

Who is Chinaman/ Chinahand?

[Chinahand]

Me!

 

Mao was a monster. Not only the great famine, but the disaster of the Great Leap Forward and then the Cultural Revolution.

 

The stories the elder generation have, usually repressed within them and rarely openly discussed are often horrific. Starvation, struggle sessions, mobs, intimidation, indoctrination, violence.

 

Language lost meaning and slogans replaced conversation with the risk of ostracism and worse if you mispoke.

 

I can scarcely imagine what it must have been like in those times.

 

But also there is a twisted comradship to it. The efforts to keep the street furnace going in the great leap forward or the camaraderie of the red guards still can make people misty eyed even today - that's the danger of that sort of group think, you loose all individual morality as the group imposes its will and ideology.

 

Seeing the zeal of Chinese nationalists today its sobering - they would cheer over war.

[spook]

I wonder where China would be today were it not for Mao. Still in the dark ages is my guess.

[jimbms]

Genocide is never an acceptable excuse for progress.

[Chinahand]

I wonder where China would be today were it not for Mao. Still in the dark ages is my guess.

Taiwan is about 5 times richer than China - no Mao. Plus it had to deal with Chiang Kai Shek's kleptocracy.

 

Sadly the World Bank etc doesn't track Taiwan, but South Korea is a reasonable, if poorer, proxy (its only three times richer than China), while even Thailand which adopted open door policies even later than Taiwan has performed considerably better than China over the last 50 years. Brazil was richer to start off with, but even so the idea that China is some economic miracle is only true when looking at the last 20 years - and alot of that was catch up on technology and thinking Mao had destroyed. The hard work for China starts now - even its richest cities aren't significantly richer than all of Slovakia, or Equitorial Guinea.

 

LINK

 

China's growth only came after it abandoned Maoist policies. If Mao was alive today he'd be in the mountains blowing up bridges raging against capitalist roaders.

 

He had no idea how to organize a multifaceted pluralistic society and simply demanded obedience to his ideology just as any Emperor did. The result was destruction and the supression of innovative thought.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

But also there is a twisted comradship to it. The efforts to keep the street furnace going in the great leap forward or the camaraderie of the red guards still can make people misty eyed even today - that's the danger of that sort of group think, you loose all individual morality as the group imposes its will and ideology.

I know they're movies, althought they are made in Taiwan, but it was amazing getting a glimpse at how people lived in the 50s in China with the maintainence of the furnances and comradery that existed, except for 'worship' of Mao and the Party.

[Terse]

I wonder where China would be today were it not for Mao. Still in the dark ages is my guess.

Probably full of Christian missionaries trying to keep them in the Dark Ages.

[Chinahand]

But also there is a twisted comradship to it. The efforts to keep the street furnace going in the great leap forward or the camaraderie of the red guards still can make people misty eyed even today - that's the danger of that sort of group think, you loose all individual morality as the group imposes its will and ideology.

I know they're movies, althought they are made in Taiwan, but it was amazing getting a glimpse at how people lived in the 50s in China with the maintainence of the furnances and comradery that existed, except for 'worship' of Mao and the Party.

Watching Huozhe [to live] the Zhang Yimou movie based on novelist Yu Hua's book with my inlaws was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

 

Huozhe was filmed on the mainland by mainlanders based on a mainland story - its a tragic movie, but it was toned down compared to the book. The Party banned it of course, but I found a pirated copy. Seeing the anger of my father-in-law's face and sadness in my mother-in-law's really said something. Its basically accurate and portrays pretty well what it was like living under a Maoist revolution - though the famine is underplayed.

[mæŋksmən]

I wonder where China would be today were it not for Mao. Still in the dark ages is my guess.

Probably full of Christian missionaries trying to keep them in the Dark Ages.

 

45 million dead in 4 years was a hell of a price to pay in avoidence.

 

And a china in the dark ages would be better for everyone all round, much preferable to a nuclear china imo.

They are dangerous bastards, simple as that..

[jimbms]

But also there is a twisted comradship to it. The efforts to keep the street furnace going in the great leap forward or the camaraderie of the red guards still can make people misty eyed even today - that's the danger of that sort of group think, you loose all individual morality as the group imposes its will and ideology.

I know they're movies, althought they are made in Taiwan, but it was amazing getting a glimpse at how people lived in the 50s in China with the maintainence of the furnances and comradery that existed, except for 'worship' of Mao and the Party.

Watching Huozhe [to live] the Zhang Yimou movie based on novelist Yu Hua's book with my inlaws was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

 

Huozhe was filmed on the mainland by mainlanders based on a mainland story - its a tragic movie, but it was toned down compared to the book. The Party banned it of course, but I found a pirated copy. Seeing the anger of my father-in-law's face and sadness in my mother-in-law's really said something. Its basically accurate and portrays pretty well what it was like living under a Maoist revolution - though the famine is underplayed.

CH Do you know where this movie can be seen and is there a copy of the pirated full book in English about, this sounds fascinating.

[Evil Goblin]

And a china in the dark ages would be better for everyone all round, much preferable to a nuclear china imo.

They are dangerous bastards, simple as that..

The only thing we have to fear from China is economic dominance (rather like the dominance we once held over China). I really don't see them nuking anybody - although the likes of Vietnam and the Phillipines may get a bit of rough treatment over the mineral rights to the South China Sea if they don't go along with the Middle Kingdom.

[Chinahand]

 

CH Do you know where this movie can be seen and is there a copy of the pirated full book in English about, this sounds fascinating.

Both are on Amazon - Book, movie. I assume you can rent the movie on the postal sites - its good, if subtitled.