Talk:Mao Zedong

Skip to table of contents

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Mao Zedong article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10: 60 days

Discussions on this page often lead to previous arguments being restated. Please read recent comments and look in the archives before commenting.

This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Biography: Military / Politics and Government / Core

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the military biography work group (assessed as High-importance).
	This article is supported by the politics and government work group (assessed as Top-importance).
	This article is listed on the project's core biographies page.

China: History Top‑importance

	China portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject China, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of China related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ChinaWikipedia:WikiProject ChinaTemplate:WikiProject ChinaChina-related articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Chinese history (assessed as Top-importance).

Asia Mid‑importance

	Asia portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Asia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Asia on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AsiaWikipedia:WikiProject AsiaTemplate:WikiProject AsiaAsia articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Death High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Death, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Death on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DeathWikipedia:WikiProject DeathTemplate:WikiProject DeathDeath articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Cold War (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Cold War, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.Cold WarWikipedia:WikiProject Cold WarTemplate:WikiProject Cold WarCold War articles

Military history: Biography / Asian / Chinese / World War II / Cold War C‑class

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles

C

This article has been rated as C-class on the project's quality scale.

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	Military biography task force
	Asian military history task force
	Chinese military history task force
	World War II task force
	Cold War task force (c. 1945 – c. 1989)

Philosophy: Philosophers / Social and political / Eastern / Contemporary Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy articles

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Associated task forces:
/
	Philosophers
	Social and political philosophy
	Eastern philosophy
	Contemporary philosophy

Atheism Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Atheism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of atheism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AtheismWikipedia:WikiProject AtheismTemplate:WikiProject AtheismAtheism articles

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

For more information and how you can help, click the [Show] link opposite:

If you would like to participate, you can edit this article and visit the project page.

Quick help

Recent activity

To do

edit
history
watch
purge

Join WikiProject atheism and be bold.

Add a userbox to your page ({{User WikiProject Atheism}} or {{User WPA2}}) and attract potential members.
Help with articles.
See this month's adopt-an-article.
Help out with this to-do list.

Be consistent

Use a "standard" layout for atheism-related articles (see layout style, "The perfect article" and Featured articles).
Add Atheism info box to all atheism related talk pages (use {{WikiProject Atheism}} or see info box)
Ensure atheism-related articles are members of Atheism by checking whether [[Category:Atheism]] has been added to atheism-related articles – and, where it hasn't, adding it.

Maintenance, etc.

Find sources for all positions of an article (see Citing sources and atheism references).
Try to expand stubs. Ideas and theories about life, however, are prone to generating neologisms, so some stubs may be suitable for deletion (see deletion process).
Watch the list of atheism-related articles and add to accordingly.
Always write for an encyclopedia.

Articles to improve

Agnosticism

Create

Articles on notable atheists

Expand

an atheism stub

Immediate attention

State atheism needs a reassessment of its Importance level, as it has little to do with atheism and is instead an article about anti-theist/anti-religious actions of governments.
False choice into False dilemma: discuss whether you are for or against this merge here
Clarify references in Atheism using footnotes.
Secular movement defines it as a being restricted to America in the 21st century.

Politics High‑importance

	Politics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Socialism Top‑importance

	Socialism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Socialism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of socialism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SocialismWikipedia:WikiProject SocialismTemplate:WikiProject Socialismsocialism articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

The subject of this article is controversial and content may be in dispute. When updating the article, be bold, but not reckless. Feel free to try to improve the article, but don't take it personally if your changes are reversed; instead, come here to the talk page to discuss them. Content must be written from a neutral point of view. Include citations when adding content and consider tagging or removing unsourced information.

Daily pageviews of this article

A graph should have been displayed here but graphs are temporarily disabled. Until they are enabled again, visit the interactive graph at pageviews.wmcloud.org

Semi-protected edit request on 27 November 2023[edit]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

I suggest adding Mao Zedong's courtesy name Runzhi to the first sentence of the article, immediately following his name. Xiliman (talk) 07:33, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Pinchme123 (talk) 05:38, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Irrelevant section with unreliable source?[edit]

"Despite being considered a feminist figure by some [by whom?] and a supporter of women's rights, documents released by the US Department of State in 2008 show that Mao declared women to be a "nonsense" in 1973 ... "

This paragraph seems irrelevant to the Cultural Revolution section because there's no mention that Mao heavily promoted feminism in China during this time, besides in the main article on the Cultural Revolution.

Also the US DoS is an unreliable source.

The paragraph should either be better incorporated, moved to a later section, or removed entirely. Quinton-Ashley (talk) 16:44, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It is not sourced to the US DoD. Slatersteven (talk) 16:48, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, not directly but the news channels that printed the story cite the US DoS released documents (Henry Kissinger) as their only source. Seemingly there's no other source that could corroborate the story so it seems hard to prove or disapprove, yet it is stated as fact. It should instead use phrasing like "According to the US Department of State, Mao said ... ". Quinton-Ashley (talk) 20:36, 28 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not so troubled by the State Department issue, as this is attributed. However, the first two links are broken and the first part of the paragraph is SYNTH in that it draws a contrast not made by the sole remaining source (i.e. "Despite" being a feminist politically, Mao said some lousy things about women to Kissinger...). This may also raise on UNDUE issue. I'll make at least an initial edit on this point. JArthur1984 (talk) 03:22, 29 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

WP:ENGVAR[edit]

Not for nothing but the first edits on the page were in American English. Was there a discussion about why Mao had notably closer ties to the United Kingdom somewhere in the textwall archives? or is this something we should remove from the talk page banners and fix when someone has a mind to? — LlywelynII 12:39, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

English was the sole official language of Hong Kong until 1978, and remains an official language in Hong Kong — a territory ceded directly to China by the UK only a few decades ago.

Unsurprisingly, HK English is far closer to the English spoken in England than the English spoken in America. Foxmilder (talk) 11:59, 3 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong age of Luo Yixiu[edit]

The article states: Luo was locally disgraced and died in 1910 at 21 years old.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luo_Yixiu, she was 20 when she died (if you take a look at her birth and death dates).

I can't change it due to page protection, but maybe someone else can. ––TobbiM (talk) 17:25, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed.--Jack Upland (talk) 23:29, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

IPA Pronunciation[edit]

Please add the IPA pronunciation of this man's name. Is his first name said the same as the bird mao? 1.126.109.198 (talk) 13:18, 18 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect year on Mao's infobox portrait?[edit]

The caption reads "Mao in 1959" but the image on Wikimedia Commons says "Mao Zedong 1963", so which year is it? 1959 or 1963? If 1959 is incorrect, please switch it over to 1963, and vice-versa if 1963 is incorrect. HelloTHERE123456 (talk) 18:59, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]