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traditional literatusclothbound books, writing brushes, and ink stones). But he is also widely seen in a positive light as a strong and irascible figure, a wily infighter, a man who was both emperor and oracle, the ultimate Machiavellian manipulator who knew, many would argue, just how to keep the restive Chinese nation in place. 74 Mao consciously played on the contrasting Chinese traditions relating to the sage-emperor and rebel chieftain, 75 as a modern-day itinerant worker ( mangliu ) observes at the end of this volume (see "Musical Chairmen"). As one academic has notedand it is a remark that remains significant todaythe Communist revolution (and we could include here Mao as both an individual and symbol) had "carried through [an] . . . attempt to reconstruct the world in the spirit of inner-worldly transcendence inherent in Confucianism." 76
For many people Mao represented not only national but also physical potency. Most of the Mao-related jokes current from the early 1980s cheerfully reflected the leader's prowess in bed, and they often used figures like Zhou Enlai or Hua Guofeng as foils. On one level such humor represented a transgression against the august figure of the Leader and allowed a popular invasion of the "forbidden zone" ( jinqu ) relating to the person of Mao. On another level, they were also indicative of a gradual process that has seen Mao become more human, approachable, and, in the new Mao Cult, the familiar of the Chinese masses. Through this process, one often described by Chinese critics as "secularization" ( shisuhua ), Mao has been enlisted in the ranks of the people in contrast and even opposition to the present leaders, who were increasingly perceived of as being sectarian, corrupt, and lackluster. 77 The fascination with the details of Mao's everyday life, as given in the plethora of books published from 1988 (discussed below, and see "All That's Fit to Print''), is also an indication of this process. Despite the Chinese authorities' denunciations of the BBC for broadcasting Dr. Li Zhisui's revelations concerning Mao's sex life in late 1993, one could speculate that popular opinion in China was probably neither particularly outraged nor surprised by the latest proof of the Chairman's talents. If anything, people may well regard Mao's voracious appetites as further evidence of his exceptional stature, superhuman energy, and unequivocal success.
It could also be argued that Mao, the ultimate father-mother official ( fumu guan ), enjoyed such a broad appeal because, to an extent, he was a love object 78 (see the comments on the "young Mao" by the woman taxi driver in "CultRev Relics" and the poem "Dreaming of Chairman Mao" in "Praise Be to Mao"). One could argue that he was also a bisexual or om-
     

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nisexual figure. Mao's official portrait shows the enigmatic face of a man-woman (or grandfather-grandmother). In poetry, song, and prose he had often been eulogized as a mother/father, and his personality in all of its majesty and pettiness fits in with complex attitudes regarding sexual personae. In his dotage Mao, a bloated colossus supported by young female assistants, 79 often looked like a grand matriarch, time having blurred his features into a fleshy, unisex mask. Li Zhisui's memoirs, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, provides numerous fascinating insights into the Chairman's various peccadilloes, not least of which was his irrepressible and, in some cases, bisexual appetite. Not only did he disport himself with a bevy of comely ingenues, it would appear that he was not above lunging at the handsome young men in his guard who put him to bed, or to expect a "massage" from one of their number before retiring. 80
In this context it is instructive to recall the reaction of the American journalist Agnes Smedley to her first meeting with Mao in Yan'an:
His hands were as long and sensitive as a woman's. . . . Whatever else he might be he was an aesthete. I was in fact repelled by the