9 - Brave new world: Religion in the reinvention of postwar Asia

Summary

Opiate of the masses: Why Marxism opposes religion

To abolish religion as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness.

Karl Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law, 1844

October 1 is a national holiday in China, one that is increasingly marked by a massive flood of travelers taking to the skies and rails. The reason is that October 1 marks the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. On this day in 1949, Mao Zedong stood atop the red walls of what had once been the Forbidden City and, in his thick Hunan accent and unexpectedly squeaky voice, proclaimed to an ecstatic crowd that “the Chinese people have finally stood up!” For decades, pictures of that moment would adorn countless Chinese homes, schools, and workplaces.

There was no mistaking that this was a day of momentous significance. In 1911, the Qing dynasty had fallen not with a bang, but with a whimper. The Qing was not so much overthrown as much as the decaying structure collapsed under its own weight; the decades of chaos that followed occurred precisely because there was no power strong enough to take its place. In contrast, the 1949 Communist Revolution was led by a party that was highly organized, with an unmistakable ideology, decades of experience recruiting peasants and fighting guerrilla wars, and as many as five million tough and highly disciplined members.