Mao Zedong is considered the father of
Communist China. Mao was born into a peasant family in Hunan province,
central China . He started his professional career as a teacher and
began to read books on Marxism. He quickly converted to Marxism and he
became a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921.
To wage war against the Chinese warlords in Northern China, , the CCP formed
an alliance in 1923 with the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party. Four
years late, the KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek launched a communist purge of the
alliance and forced Mao his followers to retreated to northwest China.
Two two groups formed an alliance again from
during of war with Japan (1937-1945). However, civil war broke out
again between the two faction, but this time Mao and his communist forces
overcame Chiang Kai-shek and his followers who fled to the island of Taiwan,
On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the founding of the People's
Republic of China and introduced radical land reforms which helped the
peasants who became very loyal to him. Although he was a dedicated Marxist,
Mao remained very independent of Russia and publicly criticized Khrushchev
when he became the Russian lead.
Inn 1959, Mao gave up the position of head of
state. but remain party chairman Liu Shao-chi became head od state and
soon they began to struggle for absolute power.. The clash between the
two leaders fermented the Cultural Revolution of 1966 which Mao
eventually won with his overwhelming peasant support.
To celebrate Chairman Mao's birthday, we suggest making the Chinese classic
Mao Shi Hong Shao Rou (braised pork belly).
According to
Fuchsia Dunlop, the author of. Revolutionary Chinese
Cookbook "Red-braised pork is a dish that in Hunan is inseparably
bound up with the memory of Chairman Mao: many restaurants call it “The Mao
Family’s red-braised pork.” Mao Zedong loved it, and insisted his Hunanese
chefs cook it for him in Beijing." .While devouring this now classic Chinese
celebratory dish, we suggest watching a video of Biography's
The Secret Life of Chairman Mao
(2000). |