The Mao Cult as Communicative Space
The article discusses different ways of approaching the personality cult of Mao Zedong, former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It proposes to analyse the leader cult as a form of authoritarian political communication that affected both CCP politics and popular reaction. Intended as a...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2007
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| In: |
Totalitarian movements and political religions
Year: 2007, Volume: 8, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 623-639 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The article discusses different ways of approaching the personality cult of Mao Zedong, former Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It proposes to analyse the leader cult as a form of authoritarian political communication that affected both CCP politics and popular reaction. Intended as a loyalty‐creating device to ease the identification with the communist movement for its often illiterate supporters, the cult merged the success of the revolution with the fate of a single person. Controlling the leader’s image and writings thus became a formidable task. While the cult came to assume quasi‐religious forms temporarily, it will be argued that these were not necessarily part of a political religion, but often demonstrations of loyalty in a climate of fear and utmost political volatility. |
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| ISSN: | 1743-9647 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Totalitarian movements and political religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/14690760701571247 |