Transcript Chairman Mao Zedong

 Born in 1893 in Shaoshan, China
 His father was a poor peasant who was able to become
a landowner and businessman
 Received a basic education and learned a lot about
political and economic problems in China (e.g.
widespread famines)
 Moved to Peking in 1918 and worked for a Marxist
thinker
 Quickly became a strong believer in Communism and
edited radical magazines, organized trade unions, and
started schools of his own.
 Became one of the 50 founding members of the
Chinese Communist Party
 Failed in his early attempts to be a leader in the Party
and his role in Party activities was decreased
dramatically
 Mao went back to his hometown
and had very little communication
with the Party
 He studied the peasants and learned
about their financial situation and
the ways they were being abused by
the landowning class
 His new knowledge of the peasants
allowed him to rise again as a leader
in the Party, where he advocated
that peasants should lead the
revolution
 The Communist Party worked with another political
group called the Kuomintang to kick out the foreign
powers in China
 By 1941, the parties turned on each other in a struggle
for power
 Mao emerged as a major military leader and quickly
gained power
 “[A] great many so-called intellectuals are actually
exceedingly unlearned . . . The knowledge of workers
and peasants is sometimes greater than theirs.”
 “Books cannot walk, and you can open and close a
book at will; this is the easiest thing in the world to do,
a great deal easier than it is for the cook to prepare a
meal . . . [or] for him to slaughter a pig.”
 Mao became the chairman of the Communist Central
Committee
 All the leaders in the party praised him and
encouraged people to listen to his wisdom
 In 1943, several leaders in the Party began to rewrite
Chinese Party history so that Mao would be seen as
responsible for all the advances of the Party
 “The Chinese Communist Party takes Mao Zedong’s
thought – the thought that unites Marxist-Leninist
theory and the practice of the Chinese revolution – as
the guide for all its work, and opposes all dogmatic or
empiricist deviations.” ~Preamble to the Constitution
of the Communist Party
 The Communists defeated the Kuomintang and took
complete control of China in 1949
 Mao’s ideas formed the basis for all Party activities and
government decisions
 They took control of the media and the education
system and began taking land away from the wealthy
and distributing it among all people
 Attempt to modernize China
 People were forced to grow grain and melt metals
down to produce steel
 Led to widespread famine and death
 Damaged Mao’s reputation
 Mao needed a comeback
 He organized students and mobilized them
throughout the country to spread his ideas and wipe
out anyone who tried to contradict him
 He created an extremely effective propaganda
campaign that again brought him back to power.