MCLC: new edition of little red book (2)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: new edition of little red book (2)
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Here's an update on the little red book story.

Kirk 

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Source: Asia Times (10/4/13):
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-041013.html

No new "Little Red Book" - that's official
By Xi Wang

A Chinese military scholar is working on a fresh book of quotations from
late supreme leader Mao Zedong, according to a report, indicating a
growing nostalgia in the ranks of the ruling Chinese Communist Party for
the country's Maoist past. However, official news agency Xinhua has
disputed the report as "erroneous".

The cutting-edge Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily said at the
weekend that the new version of what had been widely

known as the "Little Red Book" would be edited by a scholar from the
People's Liberation Army (PLA), and be published in time for the 120th
anniversary of Mao's birth in December.

And the book's editor, Chen Yu, a researcher with the Academy of Military
Sciences under the PLA, confirmed the story to Hong Kong media, calling it
a work of "scientific research".

"It is merely a publication of scientific research, not a re-publishing of
the previous quotations from Chairman Mao," Chen told the South China
Morning Post. 

But the official news agency Xinhua rejected the report about the new
book. 

"We understand through concerned government departments that the story
circulating on the Internet that the 'new edition of Chairman Mao's
Quotations' may be published within this year. This is purely an erroneous
report," according to Xinhua. But it made no comment on whether, or when,
Chen's book would eventually be published.

Must-have accessory

The book became a must-have accessory for the politically correct
revolutionary during the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution
(1966-1976) after it was first published by the People's Liberation Army
(PLA) News in 1964. Party historian Han Gang told the Southern Metropolis
Daily that Chen's project comes at a time of huge social tension and
complex conflicts, as well as clashing values.

"The new edition of the Quotes of Chairman Mao represents a symbolic
return to the past, but it certainly isn't just simple nostalgia," Han was
quoted as saying. 

"It probably expresses more a sense of unhappiness with our present
reality." 

Analysts said the new selection of Mao quotes likely reflects a sense
among many in the Party that it has strayed too far from its ideological
roots. 

"I think that this represents a longing for past glories on the part of
the Chinese Communist Party," US-based scholar and rights activist Liu
Qing said in a recent interview. "This is a common death-bed phenomenon."

Corruption, abuse of power

Liu said Chinese leaders, who have repeatedly warned that the party could
lose power if rampant corruption and abuse of power are allowed to
continue unchecked, have "admitted" that the regime is sick to the core.

"The new leadership [under President Xi Jinping] feels that they have
strayed too far from Maoist ideology, and they have no other holy
scriptures left to chant," he said.

"So they are bringing out the Quotations of Chairman Mao to recite once
more." 

And according to US-based China scholar Li Hongkuan, the motivation for
the re-publication of the "Little Red Book" was unlikely to be commercial.

"The only reason that the [book] was printed in such numbers in the past
was that it was distributed by the government," Li said.

"It was never bought by ordinary people of their own accord, and I
shouldn't think that this new edition will make any money."

It will be priced at 2,000 yuan (US$326) - nearly three times the monthly
income of a typical Chinese rural resident - and contains a selection of
Mao quotations that a sample of 20 people from students to business people
to academics found "most inspiring", Hong Kong's South China Morning Post
newspaper reported.

Reported by Xi Wang for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated by Luisetta
Mudie and Jennifer Chou. Written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Asia
<http://www.rfa.org/english>. For original article, see here
<http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/book-10022013155409.html>

(Copyright 2013 Radio Free Asia)