Maoisms, National Cinemas, Transnational Perspectives: An Introduction

The charismatic and controversial figure of Mao Zedong has not only left a deep mark on the history of twentieth-century China — looming still over the country’s new capitalist developments, as a sort of ghost — but it has also spread remarkably beyond national borders and into completely different political and social contexts. In particular, after the start of the Cultural Revolution (1966) several groups inspired by Chinese Marxism-Leninism appeared worldwide. From the United States to India, from New Zealand to Peru, from Hong Kong to Japan, as well as within European countries, specific political ideals, revolutionary propositions, fantasies and images of purity have been projected onto the figure of Mao, to some extent giving way to a form of idolatry — so called maolâtrie. All the articles included in this special issue adopt a trans-historical and transcultural perspective, suggesting to some extent that the complexity of the process of translation and ‘reinvention’ of Maoism in different cultural and national contexts calls for a comparative approach, in order to highlight the specificities and distinctive features of each experience.