Chairman Mao’s American fan talks about being a Communist in Beijing

A photo of Dylan Walker. [Photo: Li Jingjing/GT]

"That American guy who can recite Chairman Mao poetry" is how most Chinese in the mainland describe Wu Danran, or Dylan Walker, after he appeared on TV show Chinese Poetry Conference. Few people, however, have paid attention to his other identity: an American Communist.

A quick look through his social media profile reveals red themed posts related to the Communist Party of China (CPC): tributes to communist legend Lei Feng, news reports about Chinese President Xi Jinping and the ongoing two sessions. The wallpaper for his homepage is a picture of Tiananmen Square that he took with his girlfriend.

Now a third-year student at Beijing Language and Culture University, the 20-year-old sat down to talk with the Global Times on March 6.

A true believer in communism, he said that he was disappointed to learn that compulsory courses on Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory that Chinese students must take are not included in the list of courses overseas students can take.

Yet the textbooks from these courses sit on his bookshelves.

"They are from my girlfriend. She only opened them once for the final exam," Walker said with a smile.

A photo of Chairman Mao Zedong sits on Dylan Walker's desk in his dorm room at Beijing Language and Culture University. [Photo: Li Jingjing/GT]

Discovering communism

Walker first learned to read Chinese at classes held at the local church in Longmeadow, Massachusetts when he was 5 years old. These classes kicked off a life-long fascination with all things Chinese. However, it wasn't until he reached high school that he first learned about Mao Zedong. Curiosity piqued, he began reading articles and quotes from Mao. Eventually learning that Mao had also been a poet in addition to an influential political leader, Walker began studying the chairman's poetry.

While he grabbed China's attention by reciting Mao poetry, Walker feels that Mao poetry is much harder to understand than Maoist thought. Currently, Walker spends most of his leisure time studying in his dorm room, focusing more on theory than poetry.

A portrait of Mao sits on the top shelf of his bookshelves. The second shelf is full of books such as the Chinese and English versions of The Communist Manifesto, Basic Marxist Theory, The Diary of Lei Feng and others of a similar nature.

While discussing the differences between the CPC and the Communist Party USA, Walker said that the biggest difference comes down to the amount of support. In China, the CPC is the leading Party while the Communist Party USA is extremely small, which Walker chalks up to a lack of understanding about communism and socialism.

To build the Party and Party members in the US, "we have to have lots of materials to educate people and educate the masses to let them know what socialism really means, how it can help you and how it can fix the United States," Walker said.

"Right now we have several thousands of people and especially after the election of [US President] Trump, we had a big surge in membership. A lot more people are joining our Party."

Although US communists mainly stick to Marxism and Leninism, Walker read loads of materials about the CPC before he joined the Communist Party USA.

He first learned of the Communist Party's existence when he was 15. He wanted to register as a member then and there, but had to wait until he was 18 when he was old enough to vote.

Over the next three years, he continued to learn about the CPC, Maosim and the political ideologies of other Chinese leaders and Chinese socialism. "Through my studies, I grew to really like this system of government, this type of society," he said.

"The day I got the notification that I was accepted as a member was the happiest day of my life."

Global dedication

Some may think his time in the US was tough considering his political affiliations, but Walker said it actually wasn't all that bad, since "high school students are more tolerant of diversity" compared to elementary and middle school students.

Of course there were those who thought that his views were too extreme. When encountering these people it always came down to the same questions.

"Why did you join the Party?"

"Why do you believe in that?"

Each time he had to explain his beliefs, which just led to more questions: "Do you really believe in what you just said? Are you brainwashed? Are you just following what the Party told you to say?"

"I said no, no one forced us to join the Party," Walker said.

"For me, I joined the Party because I want to do everything that I can to help my people, my country, to help the people and working people all around the world."

His support certainly hasn't wavered over the years. In every photo of himself that he has posted on social media, he can clearly be seen wearing a Party flag pin over his heart. Walker said he wears it every day "because I truly love the Party. I have loyalty to the Party."