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China Pt. 8: Mao Zedong and Maoism with Yueran Zhang

Upstream

Upstream

News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2025

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Part 8 of our ongoing series on China we're joined by Yueren Zhang to discuss Mao Zedong and the political philosophy of Maoism. Yueran Zhang is Assistant Professor in the department of sociology at the University of Chicago. He specializes in the comparative studies of capitalism, socialism, and transitions in between, with a special emphasis on political economy and the dynamics of development in the Global South. 

The conversation opens by presenting a biographical and historical overview of Mao Zedong, the context in which the Chinese Revolution occured, and Mao's role in the Chinese Revolution. We then introduce Maoism as a philosophy and political practice and take a deep dive into how Mao's philosophy shaped his political practice—using the cultural revolution and building mass movements as examples. We explore Mao and his relationship to Deng Xiaoping, China's political system and whether we can view China as a socialist or capitalist state (Yueren holds a very different view from most of our previous guests in this episode), the role that Mao's political practice and philosophy plays in modern day revolutionary movements, and much more. 

Producer's note: Our China series is a Patreon series, but we've published this episode publicly. The episode itself is completely fine to listen to as a standalone. If you like what you hear and want to hear more, the entire series is available on Patreon and covers a wide range of topics and perspectives which complement this episode. 

Further resources:

Related episodes:

Intermission music: "The Way That You Slope Your Shoulders" by Witchdream Mansion

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Within Maoism, there was this very strong kind of insistence that Marxism, Leninism,

0:28.6

has to be indigenous, according to the local context of each revolutionary movement.

0:36.6

There's no one-size-feas-all kind of policy.

0:41.3

You always have to adapt Marxist-Leninism according to local context, right? There's no formula,

0:49.1

no kind of like iron law of history, no kind of like universal manual, but you have to figure out how to do a revolution

0:57.8

based on local context. So in that sense, Maoism really made revolutionary theory much more

1:04.4

dynamic. You're listening to Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. A show about political economy and society that invites you to unlearn everything you thought you knew about the world around you.

1:17.6

I'm Della Duncan. And I'm Robert Raymond.

1:20.3

The philosophy and practice of Mao Zedong has left an indelible stamp on not just the revolution that he helped to lead and enact,

1:28.3

but on many, many revolutionary movements and state projects that have arisen since his time.

1:34.3

Mao built his philosophy and political ideology out of Marx and Lenin's,

1:39.3

and his contributions to communism, both on a philosophical but also on a practical level,

1:45.9

have been extremely consequential contributions to the fight for a better world, and, importantly,

1:51.8

for how we get there. In this episode, part eight of our ongoing series on China,

1:58.0

we're joined by Yurong Zhang to discuss all of this and more.

2:02.6

Yuron Zhang is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago.

2:08.6

He specializes in the comparative studies of capitalism, socialism, and the transitions in between,

2:15.6

with a special emphasis on political economy and the dynamics of development in the global South.

2:21.3

And before we get started, Upstream is entirely listener-funded.

2:26.3

No ads, no promotions, no grants, just Patreon subscriptions and listener donations.

2:32.3

We couldn't keep this project going without your support.

2:35.0

Please subscribe to our Patreon for bi-weekly bonus episodes, access to our entire back catalog of Patreon episodes, and for stickers and bumper stickers at certain subscription tiers.

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