Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

Mao and an Important Milestone

I recently finished reading Jonathan Spence's brisk biography of Mao Zedong, published ten or so years ago. Unlike other biographies, Spence kept his focus narrow; he merely documented Mao's life and eschewed long ruminations on his legacy. Spence also conveys a sense of who Mao was as a person, analyzing his poetry and his personal relationships with family members. The result is an impressive achievement- a biography of a towering figure that barely exceeds 200 pages.

One complaint, though; Spence spends an inordinate amount of time discussing Mao's early years and seemingly sprints through the period in which Mao actually governed China. By the time Mao climbed Tiananmen in 1949 and proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China, the book was nearly two-thirds done. Significant events such as the Cultural Revolution are only fleetingly mentioned.

I suspect Spence did this intentionally; much has been written about Mao's years in power, while comparatively little is known about how he got there. Yet the transition between young idealist and bloated dictator wasn't explained as seamlessly as it should have been.

The most interesting part of the book, to me, was a description of how Mao fomented a cult of personality as early as the late 1930s. Then in his mid-forties, Mao was ensconced in a Communist base camp in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, where he simultaneously fought the Japanese occupation and the rival Nationalists. During these years, Mao studied Marxist dialectic and began elucidating his own interpretations of the doctrine, focusing on the need of rural reform. He wrote extensively and had his men read and study his works. Several of the key players in Chinese history- Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and Lin Biao- were present with Mao at this stage.

Spence's discussion of the Cultural Revolution did include one interesting nugget. Mao, then in his seventies and increasingly feeble, initially intended the chaotic street scenes to last a mere four months. By the end of 1966, he had lost total control of the situation even as his people marched around chanting his name. In his later years, Mao expressed contrition for the damage done, as well as bitterness toward his fourth and final wife, Jiang Qing, whom China has blamed as the Cultural Revolution mastermind.

For a man of extreme intelligence, energy, and charisma, Mao's understanding of the wider world hardly exceeded that of a typical Hunanese peasant of his time. He traveled twice to the Soviet Union (once to meet Stalin) but otherwise never left China. He studied Russian and English but mastered neither, and during his meetings with foreign leaders he remained totally reliant on his more cosmopolitan advisors. Under Mao, it is easy to see how China slid into autarky, closing itself from the outside world.

The funniest section of the book was an account of Mao meeting Richard Nixon for the first time. The American president awkwardly tried to praise Mao for his lifetime achievements, while the mentally ill and erratic Chinese dictator brushed these encominums aside. In a sense, Mao and Nixon could have had a lot to talk about. Nixon, of course, came from rural California and resented the snobbery of more cosmopolitan Americans. He was intelligent, driven, and ruthless, but later was undone by his paranoia and thirst for power. The same could be said of Mao, born twenty years earlier and in entirely different circumstances.

Speaking of Mao, Tim Johnson notes that the era in which he governed China has now been eclipsed in length by the current era launched by Deng Xiaoping. Later this year marks the 30th anniversary of Deng's rise to power and the subsequent transformation of China.