Mao Zedong Thought course debuts on edX, attracting thousands of students

More than 3,100 students from 120 countries and regions have been studying "Introduction to Mao Zedong Thought," given by Tsinghua University since September 15 via edX, an open course website.

The top ten countries and regions include the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, France, Spain, Australia, with the U.S. providing the most or almost a quarter of registered students.

According to Shi Xuelin with Tsinghua University online education office, as "Mao Zedong" was so frequently searched online, the university was inspired to offer the course.

"We think Tsinghua has very excellent teaching faculty in this regard and the course itself has strong Chinese characteristics," said Shi.

When Feng Wuzhong, associate professor with Tsinghua's School of Marxism, offered the course on open course website Xuetangzaixian this spring, more than 5,000 students from across China signed up.

When the class was offered on edX, he spent more than a half year optimizing the course to suit foreign students. Feng said he was "question-oriented" in teaching each class.

Key chapters include how China developed Marxism based on domestic conditions, the reasons modern China would embark upon a path of socialism and the experiences and lessons China learned along the way.

"I hope this course can help students across the world obtain a general knowledge of the thought of Mao Zedong and also help them understand how Chinese teachers and students view him and his theories," Feng said.

Commonly revered by the Chinese as Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong who passed away in 1976 had developed Marxism-Leninism based on Chinese conditions, and led the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victories and the Chinese people to build the new China in 1949. Time Magazine once named him as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.

Amelie Encore, a student from New York, left a message on the course's discussion forum, saying that Mao ranked among the great men of history.

"It is wonderful for people around the world to have the opportunity to learn from a most authentic source of the Thought and Working Principles (of Mao), which have made unique and remarkable achievements of the CPC," her note reads.

Dutch student Ashwin Sewambar, who graduated from politic science in Cheng Kung University of Taiwan, was particularly interested in the localization of Marxism in China and how CPC had built its theoretical system of the Socialism with Chinese characteristics since 1949.

Most westerners tend to comprehend a state's political and ideological system from its economy, and thus think China a capitalist state. However, to find truth, I think one must listen and observe from different perspective, he said in fluent Chinese.

To enliven his class, Feng not only quoted Mao Zedong's poetry but also Chinese poetic couplets, literature, movies and music works to elaborate on Mao's thought and his legendary life. He also invited his teaching assistants to give a question and answer session.

Sewambar said he had seen "a lot of sincerity" in Feng's lecture, thinking the course very substantial and the lecturer's explanation very clear.

"It is quite interesting for foreigners to know how Chinese view their own history," said he.

Though the course only consists of four chapters and last seven hours in total, Feng has written lecture notes of 100,000 words, citing a great deal of classic works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin.

A special teaching assistant team was established to cope with course notes translation and answer students' questions on discussion forum.

Chief teaching assistant Wang Shujuan said that most of students' questions revolved around the localization of Marxism in China and China's state system, people's democratic dictatorship.

"It is difficult for foreigners to understand China's state system, as democracy and dictatorship are opposite concepts. But in the mind of the Chinese, the phase actually means be democratic to the people and be dictatorial to the enemies, "said she.

Wang also noted that students should not count on only translation to resolve all their puzzles in mind, they must read textbooks, Mao's works as well as China's history and acquaint themselves with China's realities and culture.

In the eye of Feng Wuzhong, some of his students could be driven to the class by their curiosity with the achievements China had made, others might be a bit suspicious about the path China was embarking on and wondered where this country would go in the future.

"Either way, academic study provides a base of for deeper understanding, and I believe argument will enliven Mao's thought," he said.

With the course lasting only five weeks, Feng recommended students to read more original works such as Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Poems of Mao Zedong, Resolution on CPC History (1949-1981).

"This course is an introductory one, anyone who is interested in this topic is welcomed. For those who want to take up serious academic study, more efforts need to be done," said he. Endi