No to Maoism

New voices of dissent

Tens of thousands of Chinese solemnly gathered around a newly opened marble and granite mausoleum in Peking's T'ien An Men Square last week, honoring the memory of Mao Tse-tung on the first anniversary of his death. Although they joined in the tributes, Peking's new rulers also issued a discreet warning against exaggerated respect for the late beloved Chairman. In a Red Flag article broadcast by Peking radio, Politburo Member Nieh Jung-chen argued that Mao's thoughts should be used as a general guide to the solution of China's problems, not followed slavishly. Nieh said, "All correct ideas are subject to changes on the basis of time, location and conditions. Otherwise they will become metaphysical ideas."

At least a few Chinese dissenters have gone much further in rejecting Mao's posthumous influence. One sign: novels and short stories dealing with forbidden themes are now being clandestinely circulated among friends in manuscript form. One such novel is entitled Ah Hsia, the name of its heroine--a hapless working girl who has been ravished by her factory's party boss. Another underground story, The Hunan River Runs Red, tells of a high-living party official whose son drowns himself out of disgust with his father's profligacy and privileged life. An illicit "yellow book"--Chinese slang for porn--entitled The Heart of a Young Girl graphically details the sexual adventures of a city woman dispatched to work on a commune.

The anonymous authors are scarcely in a class with Russia's Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But their writings are evidence that some Chinese are culturally starved for something more nourishing than party propaganda. Although few dare openly challenge the mindless conformity imposed by the Communist regime, the spread of irreverent songs and jokes indicates that the Chinese sense of humor is irrepressible. One favorite device is to sing love lyrics, sotto voce, to the tune of solemn hymns to Mao Tse-tung.

Even more heretical are clandestine political pamphlets that attack Mao's successor. One anonymous booklet called "A Road to Proletarian Opposition--or to Rightist Surrender?" accuses Chairman Hua Kuo-feng and his "clique" of arresting Mao's widow Chiang Ch'ing and her "Gang of Four" in order to "grab power with great haste." The booklet also charges the new regime--insult of insults--with slandering the memory of the late Great Helmsman.

Some Sinologists believe that these documents, which have had limited circulation inside China, are the work of embittered party officials who were purged by Hua for complicity with the Gang of Four. Equally intriguing are homemade wall posters suggesting that China now has a small human rights movement. In Kunming, one poster demanded that people be allowed to live where they please instead of being assigned their place of residence. Another called for the abolition of the system whereby husbands and wives are separated by their jobs for long periods of time. In the northwestern city of Sian, a poster asked for the publication of two human rights declarations, the 1975 Helsinki accord and the Czechoslovak Charter 77. Declared the poster: "It doesn't matter whether Charter 77 and the Helsinki agreement are good or bad; they ought to be made public so that people can judge for themselves."

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