I agree with DanielWithrow, the 60/40 figure is a pretty typical sentiment. Generally speaking, though, people who lived through Mao and the Cultural Revolution have a lower opinion of him than a lot of younger people raised on ludicrous history texts. I think there’s a broader variety of opinion than Apos seems to imply.
Yes, Mao was directly responsible for millions and millions of deaths. Okay, not directly, he didn’t actually pull the trigger, but he knew the result of what his orders would be.
Most people in China will roundly criticize his population policies. Not the one child thing, that came after his death. Rather the massive population explosion he set off in the 1950’s-1970’s. His big quote was “every mouth has two hands”, suggesting that one person can use one hand to support himself and one hand to contribute to society. Without that, China’s population is estimated to be 600-800 million instead of the current 1.3 billion. That is a huge burden on China’s development.
You have to really search to find someone in China that thinks that the cultural revolution was a good thing. Forget the number of people that died, the collateral damage from that is huge. A generation of uneducated people, the families torn apart, the families who are still seperated, the stress. It touched each and every person throughout China in a negative way and still has negative ramifications to this day.
I second suggestion that your friend read Red China Blues by Jan Wong. Also FanShen by William Hinton to see what the “revolution” was really like.
I will print this out and give it to him and get his responses, which I’m sure he will have.
He is older than I and been a “revolutionary” for many years.
I think he wants revolution in AMerica but…good luck getting it. I don’t see it ever happening.
Capitalism is the way to go.IMHO.
—His big quote was “every mouth has two hands”,—
Why is it that the major Chinese Communist leaders all seem to get off on these inane little sayings which they think all by themselves justify massive policy changes? Deng had a whole host of these weird little quips too. It’s like they wish they were wise philosophers, but all they know about wise sayings is how they’re supposed to sound, not whether or not they actually make any damn sense.
You gotta admit that Mao’s maxim “Power comes out of the barrel of a gun” has a certain pithy quality. And Mao certainly demonstrated the truth of that particular slogan.