Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader (26 page)

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Authors: Geremie Barme

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BOOK: Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader
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181. See Li Haibo, "A Journey Back to Mao's Birthplace," p. 22.
182. See "Fun in the Magic Kingdom of Mao."
183. See Lincoln Kaye, "Against the Grain."
184. Peter Ward,
Kitsch in Sync,
p. 6. Or, as Susan Sontag put it in her "Notes on Camp": "It is beautiful
because
it is awful." See Sontag,
Against Interpretation,
p. 293. For a layered argument on the significance of kitsch and camp in relation to modernism and how revolutionary kitsch can exploit the avant-garde, see Matei Calinescu,
Five Faces of Modernity,
pp. 225-64.
185. This is a term I have often used in describing the new Mao. See, for example, Linda Jaivin, "Mao's Biggerand BetterThan Ever." Since Christopher Isherwood and Susan Sontag's meditations on camp, there has been a renewed interest in the subject in the 1990s. In the present context I would choose to use Philip Core's succinct definition of the term: "Camp is a lie that tells the truth." See Philip Core,
Camp,
p. 9. Another useful description of the term is that camp revels in "a taste for the bizarre, the extreme and the perverse for their own sake." See Laurence Marks, "Watching a Pile of Popcorn," p. 49. But, to paraphrase Waters, it is also a form of aesthetic indulgence in the most extreme examples of kitsch that indicates superior taste. A thorough study of revolutionary Chinese camp is simply screaming out to be done, and it is unfortunate that the topic is outside the purview of the present book. While I see Mao in the 1990s as something of a camp image, the future perhaps belongs to his widow. Jiang Qing may one day be a viable camp icon among, say, the gay sybarites of Shanghai and she could eventually find her rightful place amidst the likes of Butterfly Woo (Hu Die), Lily Lee (Li Lili), Ruan Lingyu, Zhou Xuan, and other 1930s stars and starlets.

 

Page 66
186. As mentioned above, a glossy album of some of Mao's personal effects, mostly selected because they exhibited the frugality of their owner, was produced in 1993. This book contains pictures of such diverse objects as Mao's 1950s Zhongnanhai gate pass, items of clothing (Mao jackets, caps, overcoats, shoes, slippers, socks, scarf, pajamas, belt), bedding (pillows, quilts, bed), thermos flasks, teacups, sewing kit, TV, writing implements, telephone, a special humidor made for handmade cigars, sleeping pills, water bottles, combs, glasses, Beijing opera records, a mah-jongg set, Ping-Pong table, rackets, and balls. See Zhongnanhai huace bianji weiyuanhui, ed.,
Pingfan yu weida.
187. Zhou Jihou, "Mao Zedong xiangzhang xingshuailu."
188. "Zhou Enlai 1969 nian 3 yue zai quanguo jihua gongzuo huiyi jianghua," in Li Ping,
Wengezhongde Zhou Enlai.
189. See Qijibu 519 Bingtuan,
519 zhanbao.
190. Opened in April 1992, "Mao Badge City" was also a major commercial dealer in badges. See Zhou Jihou,
Mao Zedong xiangzhang zhi mishijie dijiu da qiguan,
p. 268.
191. Ibid.
192. See Sang Ye, "Zai Beijingde yitian." This last slogan had been popularized by Mao during a movement enjoining the nation to learn from the PLA martyr Wang Jie in the 1960s. Regarding these T-shirts, see Barmé, "Culture at Large," p. 15.
193. See Liu Xuesong, "Mao Zedong shaoxiang ke `baoan pixie' ma?," p. 96, and p. 97 for an illustration of the T-shirt.
194. Produced for the 1993 centenary, the calendar features Mao for the twelve months of 1994 and Deng for 1995. See "Huainian Mao Zedong ganji Deng Xiaoping 1994-1995," designed by Wang Wangwang, text written by Sun Jin.
195. It should be noted in the context of contemporary Mao artifacts that the present essay was written with the aid of a "Mao's Pad" mouse pad. Produced by China Books and Periodicals in San Francisco, the "Mao's Pad" is a red foam rubber pad festooned in black with a portrait of the young (Edgar Snow) Mao framed by seven Mao quotes. These include old favorites such as: "Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?" (from "Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society''); "Don't wait until problems pile up and cause a lot of trouble before trying to solve them" (from "Contract on a Seasonal Basis"); and "You can't solve a problem? Well, get down and investigate the present facts and its past history!" (from "Oppose Book Worship"). My thanks to Naomi Jaivin for sponsoring my "Mao's Pad."
196. See, for example, Yin Zhao, "Weinisi yingzhan zuijia nü yanyuan Gong Li rongyao xiangei Shandong xiangqin."
197. See Barmé, "The Greying of Chinese Culture," ch. 13.

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