Confucianism, Communism, and Women in Mao's China
This essay addresses three interrelated questions about twentieth-century Chinese history and culture. It examines whether Confucianism truly disappeared after the Communist takeover of 1949, arguing that although the philosophy was officially banned, it persisted in the private thoughts and dissent of ordinary citizens. A first-person narrative then explores the emotional and social dimensions of a forbidden same-sex relationship in Mao's China, drawing on Anchee Min's Red Azalea to illuminate how Communist ideology and patriarchal norms suppressed women's individuality and sexuality. Finally, the essay assesses the extent to which Mao Zedong bears responsibility for post-1949 tragedies, weighing his role in fostering mass indoctrination, economic decline, and the destruction of cultural heritage against his initial appeals to equality and national unity.
- The Survival of Confucianism Under Communist Rule: Confucianism persisted privately despite official Communist ban
- Women's Identity and Forbidden Love in Mao's China: First-person narrative of a woman under Communist rule
- The Role of Women in Communist Chinese Society: Patriarchal norms and female subservience under Communism
- Emotional Complexity and Same-Sex Desire: Forbidden love and conflicted feelings toward Yan
- Mao Zedong and the Rise of Chinese Communism: CCP origins and Mao's consolidation of power
- Mao's Policies and His Responsibility for China's Tragedies: Mao blamed for indoctrination, economic decline, cultural destruction
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What makes this paper effective
- Integrates multiple primary and secondary literary sources — including Red Azalea, Six Records of a Floating Life, and The Dragon's Village — to ground historical claims in textual evidence.
- The first-person narrative section demonstrates a strong creative-analytical hybrid: the student adopts a character's perspective while sustaining sociological and historical commentary throughout.
- Each question builds on the previous one thematically, creating a coherent argument about oppression, identity, and political power across all three responses.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively uses close reading and direct quotation to support interpretive claims. Rather than summarizing sources broadly, the student selects specific passages — such as Min's line "No matter how badly we wanted each other, our situation pulled us apart" — and connects them to larger arguments about gendered oppression and political control. This technique of anchoring macro-level historical analysis in micro-level textual moments is a hallmark of strong undergraduate humanities writing.
Structure breakdown
The essay is organized as three distinct responses to separate prompts. The first response is analytical, arguing that Confucianism survived Communism in private conscience. The second is a creative first-person narrative examining forbidden desire and social norms. The third returns to analytical mode, evaluating Mao Zedong's historical culpability. Each section contains its own mini-thesis, supporting evidence, and conclusion.
The Survival of Confucianism Under Communist Rule
Confucianism is the philosophical and ethical system of belief based upon the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. The core belief of Confucianism was humanism — the idea that human beings can change, adapt, and grow. Under this worldview, no one's identity or personality is fixed, and anyone can learn from their mistakes. People are encouraged to make decisions using reason, logic, and critical thinking. When the Communists took control of China, Confucianism was officially abandoned because those in power did not want citizens thinking for themselves. Instead, the people were expected to listen to the government and accept its demands without question. Although Chairman Mao and the Communist regime officially disbanded Confucianism as the primary political and philosophical structure of the country, the people never completely altered their individual beliefs. It is human nature to think and to question. Citizens may have done so in silence, but they were never wholly capable of being indoctrinated into the government's worldview.
In place of Confucianism, the people were ordered to accept Communism and the Three Principles of the People. These three principles are: Minzu (nationalism — specifically, a nation united under a common purpose), Minquan (democracy, though in practice it meant that the government claimed to act for the people whether or not the people believed it did), and Minsheng (the people's welfare, or socialized welfare). The principles supposedly ensured that the new government provided for the people, but this was not truly the case. Each principle focused on transforming individuals with personal goals into citizens who would act for the collective good of the nation — in whatever capacity the government dictated. Those who did not follow Chairman Mao and the Communist Party would be punished. In Red Azalea, Anchee Min writes, "To obey Mao's teaching is a crime" (14). Punishing dissent is an efficient means of securing cooperation, but it also carries consequences. While it ensured obedience from the majority, it inevitably caused some citizens to recognize that the system was unfair and that the people were not truly being represented. For those individuals, the old ways of Confucianism became more appealing.
Members of China's intellectual community faced particular difficulty adapting to the new Communist regime, which permitted little individuality and strictly prohibited independent or critical thought. To survive — and indeed to thrive — everyone had to surrender personal freedoms and become part of the unquestioning masses so desired by Chairman Mao and the Chinese Communist Party. There was a "struggle between the two schools in order to maintain the balance between state interests and the participation of elite scholars in the imperial enterprise" (Elliott 124). This dynamic is common in rigid governmental structures: the tighter the grip on the minds and imaginations of a community, the more likely people are to resist until they find relief.
To disobey the Communist Party — even silently, within one's own home — was one of the most dangerous things a person could do. Yet whenever something is forbidden by the government, factions of people will determine that it is the best course of action nonetheless. Communist China was no exception. Many people recognized that their society was inequitable and that the people were not being treated fairly. Some spoke up and were punished, in some cases with capital punishment. Others saw the inequality and remained silent. Shen Fu in Six Records of a Floating Life discusses the individual's inability to stand up to the will of the government (x). It is one thing to recognize that something is wrong, and another thing entirely to be brave enough to act on that recognition. For every person who vocalized dissent, dozens more were willing only to think disobedient thoughts and remember Confucianism as a far better system of social organization.
When Chairman Mao took control of China, he forbade the continuation of Confucianism as either a philosophical or ethical practice. In its place, he demanded that the people accept the Three Principles of the People — rules designed to prevent rebellion against the Communist Party. These principles claimed to protect and serve the will of the people, but in reality they did no such thing. Confucianism, with its emphasis on the individual, on ethics, and on self-determined conduct, was replaced by a system that demanded rigid conformity and ideological indoctrination. Those who disagreed could not do so without severe consequences. Still, some people could not help but acknowledge that the new system was unfair and inferior. For those individuals, Confucianism could be silently embraced as a philosophy that honored what the new regime had suppressed.
Works Cited
Chen, Yuan-tsung. The Dragon's Village. New York: Pantheon, 1980. Print.
Elliott, Mark C. Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print.
DeWoskin, Rachel. Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Print.
Min, Anchee. Red Azalea. New York: Pantheon, 1994. Print.
Shen, Fu, Leonard Pratt, and Su-hui Chiang. Six Records of a Floating Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983. Print.
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