Madame Mao

Description

Jiang Qing-wife of Chairman Mao Zedong and known as Madame Mao-was the most infamous woman of 20th-century China. She was ambitious, sensual, clever, devious, and vengeful. This biopic unravels the complexities of her colorful life, through interviews of the people close to her and exclusive archival footage. It shows continuity between her acting and political careers. Throughout, she demonstrated ambition, a need for adulation and a drive to influence or control culture, and an ability to attract men. The film tells of her changing and complex relationship with Mao. It chronicles her antagonistic relationship with the Communist Party: its opposition to Mao's marriage to her, her struggle to get out from under its thumb, her rise to great power during the Cultural Revolution, her imprisonment after losing a power struggle to succeed him as leader, and her role in official Party narrative as scapegoat for Mao's excesses. The Party now portrays her as the "white-boned demon," whose feminine wiles led Mao astray.

Runtime

48 min

Contributor

Genre

Date of Publication

[2014], c2009

Database

Films on Demand

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