Introduction

Abstract

Hopeful that socialism would prevail around the world, Mao Zedong predicted in 1940 that the days of capitalism were numbered. Along with already moribund feudalism, capitalism was on its way to the museum. It had become “a museum piece in one part of the world” (the former Soviet Union), while in other countries “it resembles a dying person who is sinking fast, like the sun setting beyond the western hills, and will soon be relegated to the museum.”¹ Some 70 years after Mao’s forecast, however, socialism seems to be on its way out and is being relegated into the museum of history. The neoliberal doctrine busily denounces the errors, violence, and disasters committed in the name of revolution and socialism, relegating the socialist experience into the dustbin of history. Ironically, although China continues to be regarded as “socialist” in its political structure and sometimes in its economy, the mainstream ideology of the country has refused to take socialist history and culture seriously. The state may invoke rhetoric of propaganda from the socialist period, but this amounts to lip service. Repeated reference to the mere name of socialism hollows it out and has managed to sweep the socialist past under the rug.