Abstract
Liu Xiaoqing is an actress from Sichuan. Although her fame has been eclipsed in recent years by Gong Li, Liu remains one of China's most popular leading ladies. She is also remarkable for her brash and outspoken personality-something with which few of her rivals can compete, and she was denounced during the 1983 Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign for producing an autobiography entitled I Did It My Way (Wode lu). Among her numerous screen roles, her portrayal of the Empress Dowager Ci Xi is, perhaps, most noteworthy. Liu's memoir, from which this excerpt is taken, was written at the height of the Mao Cult and it reflects sentiments that many of her generation have when contemplating their youth, a time when they were enthralled by the revolutionary zeal of the Cultural Revolution. Regardless of the horrors of those years-and there is no dearth of material concerning what Mao's rule did to China-for many, his was an age of passion, excitement, and social engagement. Maoism was suffused with religiosity and c...
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