Red Allure and the Crimson Blindfold

ABSTRACT: This essay takes as its starting point the precipitous fall of Bo Xilai in March 2012 and discusses the context of the abiding significance of China’s red legacies, in particular Maoism, in understanding the People’s Republic of China today. While thinkers labour to salvage Marxism, the red legacy constitutes a body of cultural, intellectual, and linguistic practices that are profoundly ingrained in institutional behaviour in China. This study explores to what extent this version of the red legacy leeches out the power of other modes of leftleaning critique and independent thought, and abets the party-state in its pursuit of a guided, one-party neo-liberal economic agenda.

KEYWORDS: Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun, Mao Zedong, Zhang Musheng, red culture, Maoism, Chinese history, neo-liberalism, New Left, Children of Yan’an.