Abstract:

 Slavoj Zizek, a contemporary radical left wing thinker, revaluates the ideological heritage of Mao Tsetung in the history of the development of Marxism. He believes that Mao was a great revolutionary who had brought a tuning impact on the development of Marxism following Lenin, that Maoism is a theoretical innovation fit in the Chinese context, and that Mao’s greatest contribution to the theory lies in the contradiction theory that universality resides in particularity. However Zizek holds that Mao failed to master the “negation of negation” rules and simplified them for thorough denial, consequently leading to the Cultural Revolution. In effect, despite Zizek’s admiration for Mao’s historical contributions, he misreads Mao’s dialectical materialism in many aspects. But anyhow, Zizek's interpretation of Mao Tsetung's thought offers a new perspective from which we view the western left wing and reflect on ourselves.

Key words:  Mao Tsetung, Zizek, dialectics, misreading