Mass Line

Abstract

In post-Mao China, the concept of the ‘mass line’ ( qunzhong luxian —consulting the masses, interpreting their will, and implementing policies in their interests—has been widely reviled in public and academic discourse. As the transformative objectives of the Mao era fade into obscurity, all that is remembered is the violence of oppression and persecution, which is condemned in retrospective judgment. Still, whereas in English, with an air of elitist condescension, the term ‘masses’ conjures up the loss of individuality in an indistinct crowd of people, during the Mao era, to be part of the ‘revolutionary masses’ was to belong to