{"id":7481,"date":"2016-08-27T06:28:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T10:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=7481"},"modified":"2016-08-29T06:46:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T10:46:07","slug":"concerts-honoring-chinas-chairman-mao-spark-outrage-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/concerts-honoring-chinas-chairman-mao-spark-outrage-in-australia","title":{"rendered":"Concerts Honoring China\u2019s Chairman Mao Spark Outrage in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A

A mother (C) shows her child pictures of former communist party leaders Mao Zedong (top L) and Deng Xiaoping (top R) in Ditan Park in Beijing, June 28, 2011. AFP<\/p><\/div>\n

Thousands of people have signed a petition to the Australian authorities to call off two concerts in honor of late supreme Chinese leader Mao Zedong, amid growing concerns over the lengthening reach of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s “soft power” influence overseas.<\/p>\n

More than 3,000 people had signed the petition on change.org by Friday<\/span><\/span><\/span> expressing \u201cdeep concern\u201d over two planned concerts honoring Mao Zedong in Sydney and Melbourne in early September.<\/p>\n

\u201cMao was personally responsible for massive tortures and persecutions resulting in the unnatural deaths of over 70 million Chinese people,\u201d the petition, posted by a group called the Embrace Australian Values Alliance, said. Other accounts have put Mao’s body count at around 30 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more people see him as one of the most cold blooded dictators in human history, surpassing the cruelty of Hitler in Germany, Stalin in Russia and Pol Pot in Cambodia,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMao and his crimes against humanity contravenes everything that Australian Values stand for,\u201d it said, adding: \u201cAustralia is NOT the place for publicizing or glorifying Mao.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two concerts are currently planned, one at Sydney Town Hall on Sept. 6 and another in Melbourne three days later.<\/p>\n

The group called on the Sydney authorities to revoke the booking for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs tax-payers of this great country, we cannot tolerate tributes to a violent dictator at a Council venue – the Sydney Town Hall,\u201d the petition text said.<\/p>\n

Alliance spokesman Zhong Jinjiang told RFA that honoring Mao would sully the political values of a democratic nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we should be talking about in Australia is the fact that Mao Zedong and his political thought effectively mean the deprivation of people\u2019s freedom and of their lives,\u201d Zhong said. \u201cBut there are some Mao fans in the West who want to put events like these on.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Zhong, there are two motivations for doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne is the opportunists, who don\u2019t necessarily buy into all the Maoist stuff, but who want to \u2026 build a good relationship with the Chinese leadership, so they take this opportunity to \u2026 improve their business prospects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother may be pretty bizarre, but it has to do with people who have been so brainwashed back in China that they can\u2019t think straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhong said political backing for the cult of Mao appears to come from the highest level in China, albeit tacitly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has a great deal to do with Xi Jinping, who looked to Mao to synthesize the first 30 years of communist rule in China with the last 30 years,\u201d Zhong said.<\/p>\n

He said many events in Mao\u2019s honor also praise Xi. \u201cThat is pretty ridiculous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Controversial Mao<\/b><\/p>\n

Mao remains a controversial figure even among the Communist Party elite, however.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a recording of a lecture given by Party School historian Wang Changjiang went viral, largely because it contained comments that were highly critical of the Great Helmsman.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe ruled for nearly 30 years, and during that time he used every conceivable method, political movement after political movement,\u201d Wang tells the class. \u201cBut in the end, he couldn\u2019t even solve the problem of keeping ordinary people warm and fed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while Wang goes on to classify the Mao era as one of profound destructiveness and chaos, his overall argument is still compatible with current government\u2019s line that it has used a \u201csocialist market economy\u201d to bring large numbers of people out of poverty.<\/p>\n

According to Beijing-based democracy activist Zha Jianguo, those within the party have some, though very limited, leeway to criticize the Mao era of Chinese history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s seen as slightly safer to criticize Mao than it is to criticize Xi Jinping,\u201d Zha, a member of the banned opposition China Democracy Party (CDP), told RFA in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to criticize Mao is also to criticize the party, and therefore the current leadership,\u201d he said, citing the recent purge of editorial staff at the reformist political journal Yanhuang Chunqiu, which had also taken aim at the late supreme leader.<\/p>\n

Guangzhou-based writer Ye Du agreed, saying that Mao is making something of a comeback among China\u2019s political elite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reformist faction within the party has tried to drive a wedge between the Deng Xiaoping faction and the traditional Maoists within the party, but that just isn\u2019t going to happen,\u201d Ye said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth factions are still part of an indivisible ruling power which can only accept or reject something with one voice, collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

With public trust in Chinese political processes at an all-time low, and censorship of public opinion at its highest level in years, there is scant support for the reformers, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no changing the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party, because \u2026 there will be no more public voices heard in support of the reformers within the system,\u201d Ye said.<\/p>\n

This year, China marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Mao\u2019s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a decade of politically inspired mob
\nviolence and social turmoil.<\/p>\n

The anniversary comes at a time when many fear that Xi, who has consolidated more power in his own hands than any other Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping, may be taking the country in a similar direction.<\/p>\n

In April, some 300 performers took to the stage in the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing for a concert of revolutionary songs from the Mao era, which include cult hymns like \u201cChairman Mao is the Reddest Sun<\/span><\/span><\/span> Burning in Our Hearts\u201d and \u201cWithout the Communist Party, There Would be No New China.\u201d<\/p>\n

While no high-ranking leaders attended the concert, which drew a crowd of 6,000 people, it was given by the Fifty-Six Flowers entertainment troupe that is ultimately controlled by the Ministry of Culture.<\/p>\n

Reported by Pan Jiaqing for RFA\u2019s Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/china-mao-08262016152821.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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