About the Great Chairman Mao...
You know, I talk to taxi drivers every day about this. I talk to some friends who are educated, but they generally like to not look backwards. I think it is safe to say that the majority of Chinese people, which is 60% peasants, like Mao a lot. And about 4 out of 5 taxi drivers do.
There are some people in the cities of different backgrounds and different education levels that don't like him...either because Mao took away their family property (and gave their family many hardships), or because they are just cynical of the History they are taught. There is a lot of room for disagreement of opinion about Mao among Chinese people, even if that disagreement cannot be broadcasted through media.
But I believe that the majority of people who look back fondly on Mao have one big, general complaint about China today. That complaint goes something like this...China under Mao was a country were everyone was equal and everyone could eat (or sometimes not eat) equally. The party was around to serve the people. Today China is a country where some get very rich. Where those who get rich (or those who are just fortunate to be born in Shanghai and Beijing) look down on those who are not rich / not from Shanghai. Many things such as housing is expensive. Basic education (which even peasants believe is a good thing) is expensive. Medical care is no longer free and becoming very expensive. The country does not seem to have a direction other than "advance", but advancement means pollution, bad development, and many many problems.
In general, Chinese people want to see their country become a world power, yet they don't want their country to get involved with world politics. They want their country to be prosperous, but most people resent how that prosperity is being divided. They desperately want the "Rule of Law", yet are too quick to embrace particular values instead of universal values. They have GREAT admiration for America, its laws, its culture, its education system, its military, and even its international policies. Chinese people tend to think that America was right to attack Sadam (although really they don't like the unilateral way we did it). Yet, they often fear America and sometimes think of America as a bully-nation.
Oh, and about education.... America's education system suffers from a values-problem in US society and government. Chinese people think American education is great. When I tell them we don't invest enough money into it, they get confused. Chinese education is Confucian. And it sucks. It does not develop problem solving skills. They know this and they hate it. But feel they cannot change it.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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