In a previous post I said I was reading The Life of Madam Mao, which surveys the career of Jiang Qing. It's hard to know where to start with this most complex of individuals, for, having been arrested, disgraced, vilified and jailed in the period following the death of her husband, it is hard to get a purchase on the real person. Jiang's actions during the Cultural Revolution (in which, we might say, she was a pivotal character) led to terrible suffering for many perfectly innocent individuals. Personal vendettas masquerading as political activism were her modus operandi, for anyone who has somehow slighted her, even unwittingly, was a potential target.

Mao must accept some blame for letting his dog off the leash, for though he reigned her in from time to time, the destruction wrought on people and culture by her vindictiveness was appalling. Yet we must balance this against the fact that she was a woman in a man's world. Jiang was very conscious of the imbalance and injustice between the sexes and fought against it with whatever cunning she could, though one could argue that her methods were counterproductive. China's history is unkind to woman who rose to positions of power and influence and the few who have have often been slanderered as being despotic, scheming or sexually immoral.

Jiang was undoubtedly smart and talented and had she remained an actress in Shanghai, we might be talking about her movies now. Party officials though were probably right when they said that she set out to marry Mao in order to access power. Her career on the stage was set to become much bigger, her audiences vaster, though she had to wait. The Cultural Revolution was both the script and scenario for this dynamic performance. It was both comedy and tragedy and in the end, a terrible waste.

The younger Mao and Jiang

being either

The proletarian warrior