Mao Zedong was a much different character than what I had thought of previously before viewing this documentary.  I was unaware of the sheer magnitude of the atrocities that he and his party were responsible for.  Leaving his people to starve and purging the culture of anyone who did not align with his ideals or who crossed him.  However I am more interested in how he was able to amass so much power for himself, and make himself almost like a god, regardless of the things he did.  I think there is an interesting connection between the traditional culture in China, and the willingness of the people to follow to communist party and Mao.  This connection comes from the tradition of dynasty rule and imperialism that had been the foundation for Chinese government for thousands of years, and did not come to an end until right before Mao came to power.  I believe this made people more pre-disposed to submitting to a sort of all-encompassing power, and were looking for someone to replace the old Emperor and the dynasty.  instead of having a dynasty and an emperor, they now had the party and Mao.  This combined with the fear people had for him and his ability to command respect, made him able to successfully replace dynastic rule with party rule.