Chapter 5: Consensus and Deviance: China as the Communist ‘Other’, 1949-1989

This chapter focuses on the representation of post-1949 China that forms the second half of ‘China as Communist “other”’. The analysis examines the patterns of representing major events such as the Great Leap Forward (GLF), the Cultural Revolution (CR) and the 1989 political events as well as major actors such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. The emphasis is on what is highlighted, marginalised and omitted. Overall, the representation of post-1949 China is characterised by deviance as a central focus. Deviance, as highlighted in these programmes, has multi-dimensional meanings. First, it refers to various social disasters resulting from political blunders. Second, it denotes ideological differences in terms of the capitalism/communism and democracy/dictatorship divide. Finally, it carries sociocultural connotations in a binary opposition of rationality/irrationality. In marking out deviance, various discursive strategies are employed in the construction of sociohistorical events. This chapter looks particularly at the sphere of actions surrounding ‘Mao's China’ and ‘Deng's China’…