Mao Zedong: A Peasant's Political Journey

Mao Zedong was born into a poor peasant family in 1893, where he grew up in the midst of China’s major political discontent and was witness to the fall of China from its past accomplishments. A love for the acquiring knowledge, Mao studied various books and soon took an interest in politics. Taking a more active political role, he brought his platform of ideals as a Marxist to lead the revolutionary Chinese Communist Party. By understanding how Mao views and interprets the world though analyzing another leader’s autobiography document with differing views and interpretations himself, a better sense of the type of individual can be found.
Mao’s interpretation of the world was largely based on his experiences as being from a peasant background.

China had lost Korea as a dependent and Taiwan as a territory, but with Japan’s threat of subjecting China itself, Mao took it as a personal offense saying he felt “depressed about the future of my country (95).” This time period that ultimately showed China on a lower level than its past’s, helped form Mao’s patriotic and prideful personality. This personality of his was clearly evident as he outlined in his address on the eve of the People’s Republic of China’s founding where he called the Chinese as always having been a “great, courageous, and industrious nation (99).” He also attributed China’s struggles to being oppressed and exploited by foreign imperialism, which also shows his opinion against other nations’ involvement. However, Mao does have a progressive standpoint in terms of advanced goods that come Western nations. This is seen in his push for Western commodities that China lacked like railways, telephones, and more (94). Mao felt this could be learned from other nations to make China able to compete internationally and restore China’s