Foreword: The Maoism of PRC History

Global Maoism and the Decolonization of China’s History

“…Taking inspiration from how Maoist networks construct dynamic connections that are both spatially and temporally separate from state understandings of geography and time, this essay suggests a potential formula to help us to detach history from coloniality. This extension of the 'Maoism of PRC History'to borrow Aminda Smith's phrase regarding the need to take Maoist projects on their own terms 24 beyond the borders of the PRC presents a potential method to rethink not only what we mean by China as an analytical category, but also what we mean by approaches to history that continue to prioritize geography and geopolitics as the primary vectors for understanding communities. While this essay's limited intervention cannot achieve its own ambitions of fully realizing a 'decolonized' history, it nevertheless aims to identify and deconstruct some of the traditional power hierarchies in our field and to provide the initial foundations for an ambitious attempt thatto paraphrase Gail Hershatter and Wang Zheng's analysis of early gender studies workgoes beyond 'add decolonization and stir'.…”