Revolution is not a dinner party,[2] or making revolution is not inviting people over for dinner,[3] is a phrase coined by Mao Zedong.[4] It is taken from Mao's essay titled Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan written in 1927 during the Land Revolution.[5] It means that a revolution should not be gentle and soft, but determined and thorough, and it is a violent and bloody action of one class overthrowing another class.[6]
| Initiator | Mao Zedong |
|---|---|
| Origin | Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan[1] |
| Revolution is not a dinner party | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 革命不是请客吃饭 | ||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 革命不是請客吃飯 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
In this report, Mao stated that "A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."[7]
Based on this view, historian Zhang Ming further pointed out that "a revolution is not a dinner party, a revolution is a petition to eat".[8] The saying is also the basis of a political joke: "for many cadres Geming bushi qingke jiushi chifan 'Revolution is not entertaining guests, just eating dinner [at public expense or at the cost of the nouveaux riches]." [9]