Mere China News & Notes

The Little Red Book: 5 Billion of Them

9/24/2002

During China’s Great Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the famous “Little Red Book”, officially known as Quotations of Chairman Mao Zedong, was a must-have item for the Chinese. It is estimated that during those years altogether 5 billion copies of the collected Mao sayings were printed, which came in 500 different editions and 50 languages. Back then, the total world population was about 3 billion. So there was more than one and half a copy of the little red book for every inhabitant on earth.

Never received your own copy? See below for highlights:

“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” (1927)

“In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of a class.” (1937)

“We should support whatever the enemy opposes and oppose whatever the enemy supports.” (1939)

“People of the world, unite and defeat the U.S. aggressors and all their running dogs! People of the world, be courageous, dare to fight, defy difficulties and advance wave upon wave. Then the whole world will belong to the people. Monsters of all kinds shall be destroyed.” (1964)

“The masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant, and without this understanding it is impossible to acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge.” (1941)

“What is work? Work is struggle. There are difficulties and problems in those places for us to overcome and solve. We go there to work and struggle to overcome these difficulties. A good comrade is one who is more eager to go where the difficulties are greater.” (1945)

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