To help the nation recover the revolutionary spirit, a new – lightly edited for political correctness, or annotated perhaps? – version of Mao's Little Red Book will reportedly hit the shelves soon (Revamp):
The new version is due for release in November, just before the 120th anniversary of Mao's birth. Its chief editor, Chen Yu – a senior colonel at the Academy of Military Science – describes it as a voluntary initiative. "We just want to edit the book, as other scholars work on the Analects of Confucius… We don't have a complicated political purpose," said Chen.
Sounds innocent enough . . .
Comments
Now we just need a remake of Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy!
Oh wait, Jackie Chan is already working on it:
http://et.21cn.com/movie/xinwen/huayu/2010/06/16/7593208.shtml
Nick Stember, September 30, 2013, 4:09a.m.
Oct 7 Update: Mao's Little Red Book will not be republished in 2013, says commentator Chang Ping in HK's SCMP, citing a one-line news item from Xinhua published on Oct 1.
But in Little Red Book Republication Saga (behind paywall), Chang Ping has this to say about the sudden decision not to re-issue the classic:
The unexamined reasons for the Cultural Revolution were unchecked power, ineffective rule of law and an education system that sought only to brainwash - the same problems we suffer today. No wonder China is still living in the shadow of the Cultural Revolution.
When a party that still venerates Maoist thinking chooses to ban the publication of Quotations from Chairman Mao, it's an act fundamentally different from the German government's repudiation of Nazism, its attempt to hold perpetrators accountable, and its ban on the republication of Hitler's Mein Kampf. In China, such a ban is not an attempt to face up to history; it's only a means of thought control.
Bruce, October 7, 2013, 6:47a.m.
And another article, saying no new red book, from the Asia Times
Eric Abrahamsen, October 12, 2013, 3:10p.m.