The School of Marxism in Tsinghua University launches an exhibition to display the accomplishments of curriculum reform on ideological courses on December 3, 2014. Photo: CFP

An online course featuring late Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong's philosophy has recently attracted over 3,000 students from 125 countries and regions, a sign that analysts say shows worldwide interest in Chinese theory.

The course, Introduction to Mao Zedong Thought, given by associate professor Feng Wuzhong from the School of Marxism with Tsinghua University, has been available to the public since September 15 on Cambridge-based edX, an international massive open online courses (MOOC) platform created by MIT and Harvard in 2012, and has attracted around 3,100 sign-ups from countries including the US, the UK, France and Spain so far.

It is China's first ideological and political theory course that has been registered by edX.

According to the edX website, this course gives learners around the world a rare peek into a course that millions of university students in China are required to take each year. Influenced by Marxism-Leninism, "Mao Zedong's Thought" incorporates ideological and political theories introduced by the collective leadership of the first generation of the CPC, including Mao.

It introduces Mao Zedong Thought and highlights how Mao's theories dramatically shaped and influenced the political foundation that China has become today. Specifically, this course explores Mao's three major theories: new democratic theory, social transformation theory and China's socialist construction process. The course also elaborates the impact of Mao Zedong Thought on modern-day China.

"There are many misunderstandings about Mao's thoughts in the global community. Many people either canonize Mao's thoughts or demonize them. I hope my course could enable foreigners, especially young people, to understand his thought from a rational perspective," Feng told the Global Times. 

Through the course video on edX, the Global Times saw Feng sitting on a desk decorated with a national flag and a Party flag while wearing a Mao jacket. During his lecture, while delivering Mao's thoughts and legends about the man, Feng often quoted Mao's poems, couplets and contents from novels and movies themed on Mao's time.

"It is a perfect platform for Chinese scholars to spread Chinese voices all over the world," Feng said.

Wang Shujuan, teaching assistant of this course, told the Global Times on Friday that among the 125 countries and regions, registrations from the US ranked first, followed by China, the UK, India and Canada. Specifically, 715 of 3,132 registrants are from the US while 136 come from the UK. The average age of the registrants is 28. Some 42.3 percent of them are between 26 and 40 years old.

Based on their registration information, over 50 percent of them possess master's degree and above. Some of them are scholars and real estate agents, according to Wang.

Feng admitted that he was surprised to see his course win so much popularity among international students. He said it showed that there is a huge market not only for products made in China but also for Chinese theory.

On the course's forum, the Global Times found that students showed great curiosity about topics like the concept of a democratic dictatorship and the sinicization of Marxism.

"I am interested in understanding the basic assumptions of Mao Zedong so as to understand why Chinese people's, especially mainland people's, perceptions are so different," wrote a student "kingyiusonew" who was brought up in Hong Kong but lived in New Zealand for over 40 years.

Rachael, another student from the UK, wrote, "I have joined this course because I'm curious about how the Chinese see Mao, and I was intrigued when I read that this course, or a version of it, is compulsory in China."

Kelly, a New Zealand-based lecturer in human geography who has done research in China, said that she took this course to find out more about how Mao Zedong Thought is taught in Chinese universities to help her understand the perspective of her Chinese students.

"I also teach a little bit of Marxist theory in my development studies courses. As a geographer, I get the idea of 'sinicization', or more generally, making abstract theories fit place-based realities," said Kelly, adding that she enjoys the oratory skills of the lecturer and enjoys hearing the Chinese quotes of famous people alongside the English transcript.

A student nicknamed LisaPoort questioned the tone of this course, saying that it seems to assume more historical background than she has and it sounds a bit like propaganda.