Personality of Mao Zedong

Author: Dai Mucai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: The Personality of Mao Zedong proposes the topic of researching Mao Zedong's personality and provides its own answers. Mao Zedong was one of the most charismatic great figures in the history of 20th-century China, as well as one of the most influential giants in the world history of that century. Even in his student days, his teachers praised him as "talented and outstanding," "capable of becoming a pillar of the state" (in Yang Changji's words); his classmates admired him as a "unique individual with a profound and commanding presence," "always aspiring to lofty heights while disdainfully looking down upon the mundane, with the grand perspective of surveying the heavens from on high." Within the Party, he was regarded as the "outstanding representative of the Chinese nation" (in Liu Shaoqi's words); "Comrade Mao Zedong is great, he is different from us" (in Deng Xiaoping's words). Abroad, he was hailed as a great man who "makes history seem small" (in Benazir Bhutto's words); "naturally attractive" (in Richard Nixon's words); "possessing overwhelming charm" (in Henry Kissinger's words); "a hero of the 20th century" (in Frank Fonda's words); and as "a sage of the generation" (in Robert Taylor's words). After Mao Zedong's passing, a "Mao Zedong fever" repeatedly swept across China, embodying multiple layers of meaning. Without a doubt, it was also the manifestation of Mao Zedong's immense personality power. The personality force displayed during the "Mao Zedong fever" was not limited to Mao Zedong himself but also reflected a national spirit and the ideals of the nation's pursuit.