Talk:Mao Zedong

More information on his masscares?

There is not nearly enough information on the many millions of deaths caused directly by the policies of Chairman Mao on this page; it really seems highly PRC-propaganda-leaning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.64.93.52 (talk) 21:31, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

There is a problem with determining the death toll of this era as sources vary significantly, making it hard to reach a consensus.MarquisCostello (talk) 16:09, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

You won't reach consensus, but posting different estimates may be helpful. Some research hints towards more than 70 million dead under his "leadership". Of course, Chinese historians will never agree with that. They can't. Would they do it, they'd disappear in a camp. Apart from that, consensus is not the goal of historic research, nor of science in general. Akinaka (talk) 07:27, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Nice scare quotes. You don't know anything about modern Chinese politics, do you? The establishment is quite critical of Mao these days, which makes sense since many of their policies are antithetical to his.--71.36.32.18 (talk) 04:09, 28 September 2009 (UTC)

Yes but lets not forget that most of the numbers quoted include a vast majority of deaths from famine and a small minority of deaths from deliberate extermination or execution and thats even if you take into account his long and bloody civil war and participation on the most bloody front of WW2. Sure, he killed a lot, but the vast majority died from mistakes and not direct orders. This is pretty similar to Stalin, for example, but to give figures as large as 70 million "Killed" is to mis-represent the facts especially to the lay-person who may think Hitler only killed 6 million since thats the figure most high school history classes mention in the West. Also, lets say hypothetically it is considered legitimate to point out the 'upper' estimates of the casualties of Mao's rule, does that also make it legitimate to point out the same estimates for US presidents? Nixon 'mistakenly' ordered Suharto to invade East Timor and as a result 200,000 died ... by being shot. This is about as close a link as the deaths by famine that Mao was responsible for and these are readily lumped into the same estimates without even the slightest understanding of the rates of death in China before and after his rule.--Senor Freebie (talk) 03:28, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Of course there is an important difference between deaths due to intentional extermination, and those due to failed policies. I still agree with Akinaka though that some estimate is a good idea. I made an edit putting the death toll at between 40-70 million and ascribed the deaths to both "policies and purges". I think that is reasonably fair description of the general consensus.--NickCT (talk) 12:07, 04 Aug 2009 (UTC)

      You better reconsider it. The most extreme Chinese source I have seen was 30 million, and even that was considered a joke.   —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.36.134.226 (talk) 02:31, 31 March 2010 (UTC) 

I agree, there simply is not enough information on his killings. This time, can we please get some information (if even just speculations) on the page instead of arguing about it? 96.254.113.223 (talk) 05:27, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately there is not enough information anywhere. The most reliable sources would be in the archives of the Chinese secret police, and since China is in no danger of collapsing thanks to the Deng reforms, we are not going to get any info from them any time soon. Commissarusa (talk) 22:19, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

first wife and second wife

in section 1

"despite an existing marriage arranged by his father at home, which Mao never acknowledged.".

The fact is that Mao's first wife was died in 1910, he married with Yang Kaihui in 1920. TEN YEAES!--刻意(Kèyì) 16:22, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

More on childhood

I was looking at the Early Life section and I think more information should be added about his childhood. It just seems to start off at his joining the military. I little is known about his youth then it should be duly noted. --Melab±1 ☎ 21:03, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

About Mao's official perception in China.

Yes, he held all those titles already mentioned, but the CCP has decided, in conference, to conclude an official statement that he had made flaws especially with the Cultural Revolution in his elderly years. These actions have been criticised by the CCP and the Chinese people take it as such. To say about his official perception as just a composition of positive propaganda phrases of the past is Western propaganda in itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.168.58.49 (talk) 19:29, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Legacy section

There's a WP:NPOV issue in this section as many paragraphs are introduced by "Supporters of Mao state..." but who are these supporters? Are they part of the CCP? And how many are they? All these POVs need to be attributed properly in order to make the section neutral. Laurent (talk) 19:13, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Broken Link

Citation 24: ^ The famous Mao slogan, that he never even used, SCMP, Sep 25, 2009 Does anyone know where the actual article is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Woken Wanderer (talk • contribs) 04:39, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

"They also argue[citation needed] that the Maoist era improved women's rights by abolishing prostitution and foot binding. The latter prohibition however made little sense since foot-binding was no longer practised by the 1920s, and, as early as 1906, a Qing decree was encouraging a ban on the practice."

This is incorrect. Some coastal areas had abolished foot-binding by the 1920s, but in remote areas it didn't disappear until after the Communist takeover. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.208.73.80 (talk) 13:46, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes that's more or less right, it was curtailed and dropped off sharply at the time of the fall of the Qing and was completely eliminated by the Communists but there were people alive who had had it done to be subjects of documentaries I've seen on it. Those individuals must have had their feet bound in the teens, twenties, or at the latest the nineteen thirties. 72.228.177.92 (talk) 01:48, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Religion

In the profile on the right it says "Religion: Atheist". Atheism is not a religion, in fact it's the exact opposite. It should say "Religion: None" or "Religion: None (atheist)".