Earlier this year, President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China mentioned an old poem by Mr.

Earlier this year, President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping quoted an old poem by Mao Zedong (1893-1976), China's first president, in his Chinese New Year greetings (). This was shortly after the atmosphere of concern about the economic slowdown in China was created. Stressing that China's economic situation was still good, he said, “The scenery here is particularly beautiful (). ” This is a line from Mao Zedong's 1934 poem “Cheongpyeongrak and Hoichang ()” that means to keep moving forward with confidence even in the face of difficulties.

Mao Zedong was the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and he won the civil war in 1949 to build a new country. After his death, China seems to have abandoned the path of closed national capitalist development and embarked on the path of market-friendly reform and opening up, but Maoism has still not disappeared from Chinese society.

The Chinese Constitution states that China is under the leadership of Mao Zedong Thought, and Mao is still considered a powerful tool by politicians to maintain political legitimacy in China. This is because the Chinese people have a deep respect for Mao. That is why it is no surprise that thousands of citizens gather in the city center, wearing the same scarlet T-shirts, singing Mao Zedong's anthem, “Without the Communist Party, there is no new China.”

The new book, Maoism, traces the history of Mao Zedong and his global influence. It critically reinterprets the book “The Red Star of China” by American journalist Edgar Snow, which heralded the spectacular beginnings of Maoism and the so-called “Maoism and the Chinese Communist Party,” and examines the past and present of Maoism, which is deeply rooted in China and around the world. It examines Mao's coercive policies, such as the Cultural Revolution of 1966, and also points out the evils of Maoism, which have been hidden behind the myth of China's success.

According to the author, Maoism is a set of contradictions. For example, the Chinese revolution of 1949 led by Mao Zedong's Communist Party of China, which advocated socialism, was not a genuine socialist revolution. It is true that the peasant army led by the intellectuals of the time drove out the old ruling class and Western imperialists from China, and many old systems and customs were abolished.

It is emphasized, however, that what Mao Zedong achieved was not a socialist society but a bureaucratic state capitalist society, and in the China of the time, Mao Zedong's ideology was nothing more than a tool to justify his dictatorship and the realization of closed state capitalism.

In fact, during the Cultural Revolution, millions of educated urbanites were deported to remote rural areas and 15 million people lost their lives. In this way, Mao Zedong wanted to build a military dictatorship, but on the other hand, he advocated anarchic democracy and contradicted the Chinese, saying that “rebellion has a reason to exist.” He was also far from reality when he ideologically mentioned that “women hold up half the sky.”

“Although the Chinese Communist Party has abandoned Mao Zedong’s utopias in favor of an authoritarian capitalism that values ​​prosperity and stability, the great helmsman has left a serious mark on Chinese politics and society,” the author said. “Mao’s invisible hand is present throughout the Chinese political system. It is the deeply rooted politicization of the judiciary, the superiority of the one-party system that prioritizes everything, and an absolute zero tolerance for dissenting voices.”

Not just in China. Maoism has had influence in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas from the 1930s to the present. Maoism has been at the root of revolts, disobedience and intolerance that have taken place all over the world over the last 80 years. However, Maoism has not been sufficiently enlightened about its influence when capitalism, which advocates neoliberalism, won a clear global victory and dominated the international community after the Cold War.

This year, China surpasses the Soviet Union, which lasted 74 years from 1917, to become the world's longest-running communist country. Maoism is both a light and a cancer. As long as China continues to grow at this rate, it will be difficult to highlight voices critical of Mao Zedong as a social problem. However, if China faces a crisis due to an economic slowdown, the story will be different. This book reveals Mao Zedong and his ideas to the surface and reconstructs Maoism as one of the important discourses of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Maoism, by Julia Lovell, translated by Shim Kyu-ho, published by Yuwolseo, 43,000 won