revised Mao and Zhou

Both as one of the founders of People’s Republic of China, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou are two world-known political leaders. Simultaneously, Mao and Zhou are also famous for their different personalities or emotional intelligence as Chairman Mao is like a hawk, which is strong-willed, decisive and perseverant while Premier Zhou is like a pigeon, which is moderate, considerate and flexible.

From two different family backgrounds, the two political figures developed their distinguished personalities at a very young age. As a son of kulak, Mao developed his sense of revolution during his struggle with his father, who was a typical Chinese small landlord with discrimination to the poor peasants. Comparably, Zhou is from a family of traditional intellects where his father, mother, uncles are all famous intellects in his hometown. In this bookish environment, Zhou developed his gentlemanship and modesty.

One case can show the differences of their emotional intelligence clearly. After the Great Leap and the continuous three-year natural disasters, China experienced a serious famine which caused a lot of starving. Although Chairman Mao also did some self-criticism at that time, he still believed that the policies he proposed before would eventually and non-alternatively lead the Chinese to happy lives. Meanwhile, Premier Zhou cared more about the contemporary tribulation people suffered and would like to change the policies immediately which were the ultimate causes of the suffering.

From their behavior at the foreign affairs, we can also see the difference. Chairman Mao is famous for his assertive arguments to show the independence and sovereignty, which sometimes will caused the misunderstanding of the outside. Conversely, Premier Zhou is famous for his gentleness and tact in the diplomatic stages.

Although Mao and Zhou are different in terms of their emotional intelligence, this difference does not obstruct them from being great men, which reminds me of one idiom “All roads lead to Rome”.