The power of calligraphy


http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10530066
The power of calligraphy

SIR – You outlined four management methods that Mao employed to rule
China (“Mao and the art of management”, December 22nd). When I studied
Chinese in the late 1970s we always avoided the controversial issue of
why simplified written characters had been introduced in China by Mao.
The official reason was that it improved literacy among a diverse and
widely uneducated population. However, it also obliterated any chance
that the ancient texts so integral to Chinese culture, or anything
else written before Mao's rise to power, could be read easily by a
citizen.

So add one more key ingredient to those you listed for managers who
want to gain and keep power: rewrite history by rendering the past
inaccessible. As one of my classmates joked in 1979, “The optimists
study Russian.”

Stephanie Selice

Wilmington, Delaware

SIR – Though clearly a stab at humour, your article on Mao's
management style was a tad too unsettling for this Chinese, whose
family endured Mao's brutality. What's next—tips on team-building from
Hitler?

Yujiao Ma

Toronto

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The power of calligraphy
    ... The power of calligraphy ... China ("Mao and the art of management", ...
    (soc.culture.china)
  • The Great China Bubblebath
    ... "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". ... competent and had a sense of national destiny China was awesome. ... More than any other peoples the Chinese ... who have with justification and support sidelined Mao to take power. ...
    (soc.culture.china)
  • Re: XP will not "Wake the computer to run this task"
    ... The OS is not operating when the system is in hibernation. ... is no way for it to trigger a wake up from hibernation. ... BIOS would power on the system and boot it from hibernation. ... look for power management settings on my network cards. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Sarah Palin: Thoughts from Hong Kong
    ... The competition that defined the post World War II era was suddenly ... peaceful future, where globalization would break down borders and lead ... military power to prevail. ... While there is so much attention to China these days, ...
    (alt.politics)
  • Re: Chinese Carriers Again
    ... > power you need to be able to project power away from your homeland. ... So first the big strategic question is "Does China want to be a world ... Is the carrier's job to guard the trade routes? ... The sea going equivalent of guarding the Silk Road. ...
    (sci.military.naval)