Modernizing Mao

As I crouched to take a photo of the Chairman Mao statue standing in the center of Chengdu, my local acquaintance asked me if I also "worshipped" him? Initially, I was quite stunned; I did not know how to answer. I never thought a Chinese person would assume a foreigner loved Chairman Mao, and in fact would expect quite the opposite.

My local Chengdu acquaintance is a representative of a more thoughtful and less materialistic young China. A member of a highly patriotic military family, he is not taken by the thrill of fancy clothes, bars, or sex and instead presented a very serious take on modern China. He did not shy away from thinking deeply about more controversial topics, such as Tibet and democracy, even if his views were very much representative of the government's. His seriousness occasionally became oppressive, and it would be wrong to describe him as exciting, but personality traits aside, he is nonetheless interesting.

A large part of his serious outlook on life comes from a belief that China's moral system has collapsed since the days of Chairman Mao. He sees today a China rife with corruption, selfishness, and ostentatious displays of wealth by those in power, something he believes would never have been tolerated in the days of Mao. In his eyes, the core elements of a healthy society - equality and unity - have been abandoned in exchange for favoritism and oppression. The Cultural Revolution, while a turbulent time, was nonetheless an opportunity for common people to speak out against abuse by those in power.

For those raised in an environment anything like my own -- Tibet-loving father, liberal arts education, ingrained bias against dictatorships and for democracy -- this modern Chinese conservative's views stand in stark contrast. The sappy liberal historian in me asks how one of the 20th century's great dictators, unarguably responsible for millions of unnecessary deaths, has become a hero for modern Chinese conservatism. The cultural relativist in me then remembers that most countries find ways to remember their founders, regardless of their faults, as patriots.

In any case, that Maoism is the source of Chinese resistance to materialism and inequality is fascinating to me. I believe it is through the modern cultural conservatives, such as my friend in Chengdu, that any real possibility for political reform can be found. As progressive as the ideas may be in the West, promoting equality in this capitalist society and fighting corruption have a conservative flavor in China.