"But actually it was about to get a whole lot worse" really sums up this century in politics.

“People would never go hungry again” Well about that...

When someone says "Mao Zedong" every thing is fine but when someone says "Mao Zepenis" everyone loses their minds

"Had Mao died in 1956, his achievements would have been immortal. Had he died in 1966, he would still have been a great man but flawed. But he died in 1976. Alas, what can one say?" ~Chen Yun

Correction: the government under the KMT was The Republic of China. The government under Mao Zedong was The Peoples' Republic of China.

when you triy wiping out pidgeons, but end up wiping out 2.5 million of your people instead. Feels bad man

I asked my cat who was her favorite dictator. She said "Maooo."

An example of ruthless tyrant and of "if hero lives long enough, he eventually becomes a villain"..

A problem in this video: Mao's age. He was born in 1893. 1:21 said Mao born in 1883. 4:16 said Mao was 18 in 1911, birth year correctly dated to 1893. 7:33 said he was 48 in 1931, got him 10 yrs older again.

how dare you question the magical powers of the holy Mango

0:55 - Chapter 1 - Early life 4:30 - Chapter 2 - The rise of communism in china 7:35 - Chapter 3 - The long march & the 2nd sino japanese war 10:05 - Chapter 4 - The great leap forward 13:20 - Chapter 5 - The cultural revolution 16:30 - Chapter 6 - Later life & death

As a historian of China, there are so many inaccuracies in this video it's quite misleading. I know simplifications are necessary to boil things down for a video, but this smacks of lazy research. I'm quite disappointed. A couple of examples: "He convinced a group of students to seek out anyone who was speaking out against the communist party." The way it is described, it sounds like Mao met with students to establish the Red Guards, but in actuality, the red guards began among high school students at the Tsing Hua University Affiliated Middle School quite spontaneously and without central direction. Mao certainly encouraged it, but he wasn't involved in its beginnings. Furthermore, the Red Guards actually targeted the communist party or as they saw it "traitors" within the Communist Party, referring to them as "capitalist roaders" (走资路) and "Soviet Revisionist" (苏修). By 1968, the Red Guards had devolved into basically street gangs fighting amongst themselves in factional violence, and eventually, they started attacking military installations, looking for "Soviet Revisionist" within the military. That led to their quick suppression by the military. Mao supported the Red Guard's attack on the party, because he was sidelined by the party after the failure of the Great Leap Forward but still maintained an important spiritual role in the nation, and he used the Red Guard to attack his enemies in the party. (Source: Roderick MacFarquhar, "Mao's Last Revolution") "The leader of the KMT, Chiang Kai-shek, had to swallow his pride and ask the Communist Party for their help. Their Red Army was growing in numbers. They defended China in what is known as the Hundred Regiments Offensive." That's a heck of a mischaracterization. Chiang Kai-shek was forced at gunpoint by mutinying officers to establish a truce with the Communist in 1936. The Communist was actually at their weakest point after being chased across China by KMT forces. However, Chiang's insistence of wiping out the Communist while ignoring the Japanese invasion of Manchuria made Chiang highly unpopular. Eventually, his officers, particularly the former Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang, knew that destroying the communist would exacerbate national division at a time when unity was needed to face the Japanese, so they took Chiang hostage in December 1936 to negotiate a back-channel truce. On top of that, the Red Army was at its lowest point in 1936. It didn't start growing until the war started to break out, and the Red Army did very little to the Japanese compared to the nationalist. They primarily focused on guerilla campaigns in the northern countryside of questionable effectiveness. The Hundred Regiments campaign in 1940 was the CCP's only real conventional offensive in the war, but it was pretty minor. Involving only about 80,000 men. It largely just caused a minor inconvenience for the Japanese Imperial Army, killing only 12,000 Japanese troops and causing infrastructure damage that the Japanese were able to recover from in a few months. While it would be the CCP's greatest victory in the war, it was hardly impressive in the broader scheme of things. The nationalist did far more on a yearly basis. The CCP was able, however, to use the Hundred Regiments Campaign as a great propaganda tool and often portray themselves to this day as the (most) active resistors to the Japanese invasion. The reality was more complicated. The CCP was poorly equipped, smaller, and in a rural hinterland that the Japanese did not care for as much. This video makes it sound like the CCP came in to save the day, but honestly, no one really saved the day, and the KMT contributed far more to the war effort, in part because it had the resources to and was the main target of the Japanese. (Source: Rana Mitter, "Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945")

U disrespect chairman mao? 10 yrs steel production!

Lmao zedong

"See these herpes? Chairman Mao gave me these herpes."

You should do one for Zhou Enlai, in all the chaos and tubulence of Mao and Jiang Qing’s rule, Zhou was a rationale man, an unspoken hero and renown diplomat that saved what he could of the old China and shielded people who were being hunted down by the rogue Red Guards - people like Madame Sun, Deng Xiaoping, and Pu Yi. He saved what he could of the Forbidden Palace and the Potala Palace in Tibet, royal tombs and Buddhist temples throughout the country.

I wish they had this type of documentaries in high school. It would have made learning history a lot easier! Sometimes it's only necessary to learn about the highlights of what happened in history than knowing the full monty of everything. With these kinds of documentaries, he gets right to the point and doesn't bore the audience of useless information. In my opinion, I think schools need to adopt this kind of teaching for this kind of history lessons.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"

I mean mangos are pretty damn good to be fair 😂

Splitting hairs here, but balance, "going with the flow" and yin and yang are all Daoist concepts. Confucianism talks more about fulfilling one's station in life, and how to live a moral life within that role.

I wouldn't call this video biased, but there are so many inaccuracies. The CHinese Civil War ended in 1949, it restarted in 1946 after WWII.

1. From what I've read, even Nikita Khrushchev was shocked at how the Great Leap Forward failed. 2. The Cultural Revolution; brutal but not as brutal as Pol Pot's regime

8:14 "He promised them they would never go hungry, again." Well, that backfired.

I enjoyed the video AND the sponsorship drink making! Also, the face you made during the first sip. Love your videos, I've been binge watching for 3 days now. You guys work hard to make quality content and it is very appreciated.

If anyone who wants to know more about his Great Famine. I highly recommend you read Zhou Xun's Forrgoten Voices. Nearly as many people died in that disaster. Than in the entirety of World War 2.

as a chinese myself, I just not gonna say anything, since people will get triggered by politics no matter what

Also, there are some other interesting facts worthy of mentioning. It was during his job as a librarian at Peking University did Chairman Mao meet his first wife, Yang Kaihui. Together they had three sons, two of them survived. Unfortunately Ms.Yang was murdered after refusing to collaborate with the Nationalist government on stuff regarding his husband. That caused their children to be orphaned on the streets, which largely caused the death of their youngest son and the permanent mental disability for the second son. Also it was during the 'Long March' when Mao was eventually established as the supreme leader of CCP, although he has been active and famous from the founding of CCP. Furthermore, during the first collaboration (with Nationalists, before the nationalist revolution or unification war), Mao was conceived higher by Dr. Sun as well as other KMT leaders than Chiang, while Chiang received more recognition from Stalin, the Internationale and other earlier communist leaders than Mao. Which means, they were bosses of each other in the party they fought against later, respectively. One more, when the Shanghai incident broke out, some of Mao's payrolls hadn't been realized by the KMT government yet. So here goes the joke, 'don't mess with your employee's payrolls, otherwise you'll cost your entire REGIME!' Last but not least, Mao's relation with Stalin was... Far from a pleasant one. Under the Tito video some pointed out that Tito was the only one within the communist world to be able to go against Stalin (or any top brass Soviet leader in general) and being able to survive. Mao pretty much achieved that too. Later under Berzhnev's regime (the one who drove tanks into Prague), they went against each other to a point where USSR nuke-threated China. Overall great video! I personally think it's one of the least biased videos about Mr. Mao, showing adequately of both sides of his legacy. And it's interesting that you point out the fact that he was probably the most international-phllic communist leaders. He tried to maintain a normal relationship even with the western bloc, only damaged during Korean War. Not to mention he set up the 'third world policy' for China. (Although it's debatable in modern China on that part, and it sounds like a counterattack for Truman's containment doctrine.)

“But maybe a cocktail” The kowtowing to your sponsors is admirable-brilliant segue

Would you please do a biography on Chiang Kai-shek? It would be really interesting to learn more about him

I too feel that way about mangoes.

Stalin: if Chairman Mao calls, I'm not in!

Would like to take a moment to say that I really appreciate all of these videos. Thank you!

I did not expect Simon's voice to sound so different off set! Loved the enthusiastic shaking of the cobbler lol

That is one great transition from info to advertisements

"balancing energy", "going with the flow", "yin and yang" are taoist concepts practiced by lao tsu and taoists, not confucius. taoism and confucianism were constantly at odds with each other philosophically, because the former stresses lack of order and purpose, whereas the latter places everything within a relative hierarchy.

Mao Zedong (1893-1976) was both a product and a part of the revolutionary change in 20th-century China. He was born December 26, 1893, in the small village of Shaoshan in Hunan province. Although he described his father as a "rich peasant," the family clearly had to work hard for a living. From an early age, Mao was a voracious reader. He particularly liked popular historical novels concerning rebellions and unconventional military heroes. At age thirteen, after five years of education in the local primary school, he was forced by his father to leave school and return to the farm. Mao continued to study on his own and at age sixteen left home to complete his elementary school training in the Hunanese capital of Changsha. It was here that Mao began to experience the powerful revolutionary waves engulfing Chinese society. He read the works of nationalist reformers such as Kang Yuwei (Kang You-wei). He developed an admiration for the strong emperors in earlier periods of Chinese history and for certain Western statesmen including George Washington. Mao watched as China's last dynasty crumbled. Mao's career in the army was brief and uneventful. From 1913 until 1918 he was in the First Hunan Normal School. His reminiscences indicate that he took himself and his convictions seriously. In 1918 Mao graduated from Normal School and traveled to Beijing. There he became caught up in the intellectual and political activity of the May Fourth Movement.** He received a minor post at the Beijing University Library where he was exposed to Dean Chen Duxiu (Ch'en Tu-hsiu) and Librarian Li Dazhao (Li Ta-chao), who later became founders of the Chinese Communist Party. Moving between Changsha and Shanghai in 1919-1920, Mao picked up odd jobs but devoted his energies to reading, writing, and talking about revolution. By 1920 he described himself as "a Marxist in theory and to some extent in action," and in July 1921 he was one of the small group that founded the Chinese Communist Party. Mao became a major participant in the United Front. Of great importance to his later career was his appointment as head of the KMT (Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party) Peasant Movement Training Institute. His work at the Institute, which included ideological and organizational instruction for peasant leaders, opened his eyes to the revolutionary potential of the Chinese peasantry. In 1921 Mao married Yang Kaihui (Yang K'ai-hui), the daughter of one of his mentors at Beijing University. She was later executed by the Kuomintang in 1930. However, in 1928 Mao had begun to live with a young girl of eighteen, He Zizhen (Ho Tsu-chen). Over the next nine years they had five children. In 1937 he divorced He and married Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch'ing). Nineteen twenty-seven was a cataclysmic year for everyone involved in the Chinese Revolution. After the April Shanghai coup, Mao and his Communist cohorts were involved in the futile uprisings in southern China. This experience led to a lifelong distrust of Soviet advice and intentions, a deep animosity toward Chiang Kaishek and the Nationalists, and a search for new approaches to a mass-based revolution. Mao retreated with a small band of followers to Jinggangshan (Chingkangshan), a mountainous, forested region in the southeastern province of Jiangxi (Kiangsi). It was here he faced the reality of rural revolution. ** The May Fourth Movement was a cultural and intellectual awakening that started as a student movement and spread to a larger group of Chinese, bringing significant social change in urban China. From Focus on Asian Studies, vol. IV, no. 1, Fall 1984 (New York: The Asia Society). © 1984 The Asia Society. Reprinted with permission. Leader of the Chinese Revolution Mao Zedong was one of the historic figures of the twentieth century. A founder of the CCP (Communist Party), he played a major role in the establishment of the Red Army and the development of a defensible base area in Jiangxi province during the late 1920s and early 1930s. He consolidated his rule over the Party in the years after the Long March and directed overall strategy during the Sino-Japanese War and the civil war. He formally assumed the post of Party Chairman in 1945. His reliance on the peasantry (a major departure from prevailing Soviet doctrine) and dependence on guerrilla warfare in the revolution were essential to the Communist triumph in China. Following the establishment of the PRC (People's Republic of China) in 1949, Mao was responsible for many of the political initiatives that transformed the face of China. These included land reform, the collectivization of agriculture, and the spread of medical services. In particular, this leader of the revolution remained alert to what he saw to be new forms of oppression and sensitive to the interests of the oppressed. In 1958 he advocated a self-reliant "Great Leap Forward" campaign in rural development. The failure of the Leap led Mao to turn many responsibilities over to other leaders (Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, etc.) and to withdraw from active decision making. During the early 1960s, Mao continued his restless challenge of what he perceived as new forms of domination (in his words, "revisionism," or "capitalist restoration"). In foreign policy he led China's divorce from the Soviet Union. Domestically, he became increasingly wary of his subordinates' approach to development, fearing that it was fostering deep social and political inequalities. When Liu, Deng, and others seemed to be ignoring his call to "never forget class struggle," Mao in 1966 initiated the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution," exploiting discontent among some students (the "Red Guards") and others. The Cultural Revolution was successful in removing many who opposed his policies but led to serious disorder, forcing Mao to call in the military to restore order in 1967. In 1969 Mao designated Defense Minister Lin Biao, a Cultural Revolution ally, as his heir apparent. But Mao came to have doubts about Lin and soon challenged him politically. One of the issues of debate was the opening to the United States, advocated by Mao and Zhou Enlai as a counter to the Soviet Union. In 1971 Lin was killed in a plane crash while fleeing China after an alleged assassination attempt on Mao. Until his death, a failing Mao refereed a struggle between those who benefited from the Cultural Revolution and defended its policies, and rehabilitated veterans who believed that the Cultural Revolution had done China serious harm. It seemed for a while that the veterans, led by Deng Xiaoping, had won the day. But the radicals, either by manipulating Mao or by appealing to his basic instincts, regained momentum after Zhou Enlai's death in January 1976. Mao chose the more centrist Hua Guofeng to carry on his vision. Four weeks after Mao's death, Hua led the arrest of major radical figures, four of whom - Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan - were dubbed a "gang." The post-Mao era has seen a reversal of much that Mao stood for and the eclipse of many individuals, living and dead, that he stood behind. His leadership, especially the Cultural Revolution initiative, has been hotly debated. In June 1981 the Party Central Committee approved a resolution that criticized Mao's rule after 1958, but affirmed his place as a great leader and ideologist of the Chinese Communist revolution.

The people’s republic wasn’t created in 1911, that was the republic, the people’s republic was formed after/during Mao’s revolution. This has been mentioned a million times already but you really need to fix this video

You do a good job of addressing the good and bad of many of these figures that are often demonized, that's not to say you don't show their evil side but rather you address all aspects of their life

1 mistake: you say that farmers were forced to give up their lands, but failed to mention that 98% of the people were too poor to own land. There were landowners (2%) and people who worked their lands for peanuts. So the first step of the revolution was actually welcomed by most people, basically, every one who wasn't rich. It was later that Mao screwed up.

Mao was his own man. He rejected parts of Confucianism, then ditched the Soviet war doctrine and came up with his own

Love your cocktail skills dude ! Seriously love how you do your ads it’s hilarious but cool too.

Love how carefree you are outside work. Love all your channels

Zedong to poor Chinese people(quote read by Simon)..... "Communism will mean that you'll never go hungry again". Really, Mao.... is that right?

What will always disturb me most about Maoist China is a simple phrase I heard once, an idea that I find not just silly and absurd but wholly loathsome, *_"history has no meaning."_*

idk how u do it but i watched the advertisment part with just as much enthusiasm as the video lmfao. good on u simon

You got a couple dates wrong: Mao was born in 1893, and the Communist takeover happened in 1949.

The cocktail tutorial at the end was just as entertaining as the rest of the video. Great work!

Simon has the nicest commentators voice anywhere on KZfaq. Could listen to him all day.

Demands school to listen to their ideas Doesn't let his people share their ideas LMao

You should do one on Pol Pot.

“Great Leap Forward - right into a pitfall.”

I adore learning about leaders no matter how controversial. My personal favorites: Simon Bolivar, Napoleon, and Machiavelli. No matter how bad they are. Or how good, their way of thinking is amazing. Since I also want to be a leader, I like studying them. So what I can learn about their strategies. Most of them read books. That’s already an improvement.

Your Shaker skills are revolutionary in itself.!!

I’ve been waiting for this ever since you made the Joseph Stalin Biography.

I like how a video about a communist leader has capitalism right at the start

Smooth Shaker and Spoon plug transition 👍

Nothing says equal like equally dead.

I'd love an episode on Gojong of Korea with some Korean history tied into it like this episode. Keep up the good work, I can't stop watching your videos haha :)

Ok, the last 4 minutes of this video was the absolute BEST! This guy is precious :)

yo. loved the info on mao zedong but the drink mixing was fun at the end looked so delicious and fun youre so handsome -swoon- love yur vids

Can you do one on Xi Jinping?

4:31 One small but important correction: The Kuomintang never ruled all of China and didn't become very remarkable until 1928. From 1911, China was split up between rivalling factions ruled by regional warlords who were fighting each other for power. In 1925, the Kuomintang, which had previously been outlawed by the warlords, started the Northern Expedition, and with help from the Soviet Union and the recently founded Chinese Communist Party, the Kuomintang gained control over half of China extending from Guangdong and Guangxi in the south to Beijing in the north.

When you mix up the teachings of daosim with the teachings of Confucius. I GUESS IT JUST HAPPENS DISPITE THE FACT THAT THESE PHILOSOPHIES HAVE BEEN AT ODDS WITH EACHOTHER FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS

"...about creating a new society, there is a huge difference between theory, and actually doing something in real life..."

Do Josip Broz Tito next please, he is the most interesting socialist leader to cover.

Thank you so much for making this video. I always wanted to know more about Mao Zedong.

History of communism in one sentence: "People hopped for a better future, but they where actually wrong"

These videos are getting better and better. Lots of refreshing jokes that dont get old.

I love how the people in this comment section are either reactionaries, or Tankies.

Lmao love how you transitioned to the ad at the end of the video

I wish you were able to make a mango drink instead, and I honestly loved that part with the ad. It felt more like you were talking directly to me while at your table sipping on some martinis or something lmao

I love that transition to cocktails bit lol.

Chairman LMao, the guy who didn't know basic economics, basic biology, accidentally killed 50 Million farmerr bois, and had luscious hair (Google "Young Mao").

There is just something really wrong with worshipping and glorifying a brutal dictator and mass murderer, even to this day.

Hey Biographics, love your channel. Please create a biographics on Deng Xioping

I really liked the biography, but I also really enjoyed that cocktail making segment

Mao was an dreamer, the chinese people paid dearly for his dreams

I hope we could see a video about sun yet sen or Chiang kai shek next

Cooking with Simon... New segment 👍 🔥

So few people in the 11 months this has been out has commented on Simon's Shaker & Spoon advertisement... I do not know why it is so comical to me, maybe the fact of the 40 million people died from starvation being followed by a cocktail ad.

_"A communist is like a crocodile: when it opens its mouth you cannot tell whether it is trying to smile or preparing to eat you up."_ -Winston Churchill

I'm binge-watching these. I NEED MORE!

Very interesting _ Thanks.

When Stalin says you’re out of control, then you really have to worry.

You should do one on Józef Piłsudski. He was instrumental in the founding of the Second Polish Republic and had a fascinating position in interwar Europe.

He was worse than Hitler and Stalin combined, not that these two weren't bad though. Mao just topped them in terms of human lifes lost (intentionally).

Lovely segway from famine to cocktails there Simon ! In the words of the Malibu advert - I JUST WANT TO BUY A MANGO

He was the worst of all of them. Starved millions to death so he could have atomic weapons. Gave the peoples grain to USSR , as payment for weapons technology. Dreadful man. !!

5:50 “Lead us how?” “i dont know man”

Hearing Simon speak in his more casual voice kinda freaks me out but in a good way.

Anyone else be down for a channel where Simon just makes drinks and gets hammered? I'd watch that.

Great video as usual. The sponsorship was a little bit of an awkward fit with the brand of your channel though.

If there is an afterlife, I hope Chairman Mao spends all of time wading in the sea of blood he spilled. Forever starving and thirsty, his only relief from drowning being islands made of the pungent corpses of those he butchered. A Tartarus eternal for the gravest murderer in the history of mankind!

Great leap forward.... Into a ravine

The best sponsor segue ever!

One of the other big things that lead to the famine was that in order to make steel, people were forced to give up their metal items to melt down to make steel, so they didn't have any tools to farm with. And they didn't just resort ro cannibalism: They would trade their children among families in order to eat them, would eat the dead, and even ate a clay that would eventually kill them by plugging up their insides. While all this was happening, the guards keeping the peasants in line feasted every night. I recommend The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu. Its a series of interviews with different Chinese citizens, many who lived during Mao's regime, written by a dissident who also lived through Mao's regime and was imprisoned after writing a poem decrying the Tiannamen Square massacre.

"Mao was born in 1883." "In 1911, when Mao was 18..." I'm not a scientist, but...

It's amazing how people talk of him understanding and some kind of respect. Gee, I wonder how well that would go over talking about Hitler in such a way...

19:09 Nice living room rug you have their.

My history teacher, Mr. Li lived through Mao's time he mentioned that he was forced to have this red book(I can't remember what was called nor what was it about) and his father was one of the people who spoke out against Mao and was taken by some guards one day and he never saw him again