Father of Chinese Communism: Chairman Mao Zedong {Part 6: The Formidable Pair)

We yet again, take off from where we left off in the previous post on the Biography of Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong. So far we have delivered the biography in parts with this very post being the 6th in the series. Do enjoy as you read through.

In the year 1965, Mao Zedong at the age of 71 years had served as the Supreme leader of China for 16 years. At that certain time, the nationwide famine caused by his policies had brought about murmurs in the party, challenging his capability to continue to serve as the leader. Mao in return, decided to go all out on the offensive and called for a revolution which he took full charge. He tried to convince the people to think of the current situation as a sacrifice needed to pay so as to achieve success in the long-run. He urged his comrades to not get tempted to go down along what he termed “The Capitalist Road”.

The Cultural Reevolution in full force.

The revolution this time around was meant to be just as devastating as the first was, with quite a sinister approach in executing the revolution. Mao called on the youths for a Cultural Revolution which was intended to clear out the bourgeois thoughts which he claimed still lingered in the hearts of the older generation. His plan was to ensure that the entire Chinese population practiced and believed in true communist right-thinking. As you can guess, he was the one to call the shots on what this right-thinking in communism meant which is well known as “Maoism”.

Madame Mao in action as one of Mao's loyalist

Mao had trusted his party members with his Great Leap Forward plans. A mistake he was not willing to make this time around. He decided to call on the only person he could really trust totally; his wife Jiang Qing also known as “Madam Mao”. She was a feisty woman from Shanghai who started off as an actress and became Mao’s lover during his Yan’an revolution days in the 1940s.

Mao and Madame Mao in the Yan'an mountains

They had both risen through the ranks in the party as a strong and powerful couple. She adopted a role as the regime’s Cultural Secretary who had a say in topics such as what type of movies the Chinese needed to watch and those that were not needed e.t.c. She got increasingly neurotic as she got older but no chinese could dare to argue with her supremacy. She was absolutely loyal to her husband and followed all of his instructions to the very last detail which earned her the nickname; “The White-boned Demon”. Together, both Mao and his wife were an untouchable and formidable pair.