Communist Nostalgia in China

After watching Goodbye Lenin, I cannot help but compare the nostalgia to Chinese's long established sentiments to Chairman Mao Zedong. Although China has evolved from a communist country to more of a socialist (or even some cities or provinces, capitalist - even though they won't admit it), Chairman Mao's status in the nation has never seized to be less important in the modern society. In fact, several studies have found that as People Republic of China goes through global crisis, Chinese turn to develop a sense of nostalgia towards Mao. A sign that shows this nostalgic comeback is Mao's Little Red Book. While this was a must-have item among youth during Mao's Cultural Revolution, the book was later on considered a touchy topic as Mao and his revolution died. But in recent years, Little Red Book has gained popularity, that it was widely published and translated into different languages, readily available to people from all over the world (in fact I bought one from a street vendor for 50 cents several years ago).

To reference from Jonathan Bach's article "The Taste Remains," there is a certain degree of nostalgia as style in the national (or sometimes even global) sentiment over communist China. Mao's images and ideologies are frequently used as tools to market and advertise products in modern world. In the West, we have Andy Warhol's famous painting "Mao" printed on t-shirts and posters. In China, people compare President Obama to Mao Zedong, making products that uses Mao's signature punch line and resembles the artistic style of Mao's era.

I just find it really interesting that Chinese government has relaxed its attitude towards their founding history by actually allowing people to make money off of the association between Mao and the ultimate capitalist icon - the American president! The MAObama phenomenon is certainly something very captivating to me. Yet I find similarities between the rise of communist nostalgia in Germany and that in China. There is, indeed, a sense of disorientation as both countries move towards the Western ideologies, thus there is also a sense of longing for "intangible material world across the border." Perhaps an interview with a student from an university in China best describes why they develop a desire towards Mao's sentiments while we move towards a more modern China:

"I have spent so much money in going to university to study," 22-year-old student Yang Lu was quoted as saying on the France24 report. "I will graduate next June, but I don't know if I will be able to find work. In this kind of situation, how could we not feel nostalgic for the Mao era, when all students were guaranteed work?"

It is debatable whether or not Communism has helped the development of the Republic of China in early years. But the nostalgia towards communist China has certainly shown that, even though communism is close to being collapse in China, it still represents an Utopia that envisions a collective dream among Chinese working class.