Mao Zedong: 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976
The Great Helmsman, Chairman Mao Zedong, an individual responsible for creating a nation and for the deaths of millions, passed away 30 years ago. The BBC has a short retrospective, in which little new is said, but it is interesting for the divergence of views presented:
"I think that now we can safely say that Mao made many mistakes," said Mr Chen, who was visiting the small museum next to Mao's house....
"I think Mr Chairman Mao was a great guy. To us he is not a person, he is a god," according to Mr Cai, now in his thirties, and was just a child when Mao died....
In my view this is unusual. Despite the horrors they lived through, it was my belief that the older generation were the ones that revered Mao as the founder of the PRC, while the younger generation viewed him as an irrelevance from history. The true architect of modern China is Deng Xiaoping, Mao's rival.
And despite the facts that Mao's face still adorns the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen) at the entrance to the Forbidden City, not to mention every banknote in circulation and billions of tacky tourist trinkets, it is pretty obvious to all contemporary visitors that he leaves scant few real legacies.
So isn't now a good time for China to take a look at the mistakes of the man who was at least "30% wrong", in order to learn from the past and reconcile for the future?
Perhaps. But under the current climate, with the CCP's fragile legitimacy still anchored to its father figure, it doesn't look like that moment will come for quite a while yet.
China moves on from Mao
Saturday sees the 30th anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong, communist China's controversial leader for nearly three decades. The BBC's Daniel Griffiths went back to Mao's birthplace in the village of Shaoshan to find out what people think today.
The childhood home of the man who helped found - and then came close to destroying - modern China is a small house built in the traditional style of mud and brick.
It is on the side of a hill, in front a small lake thick with tall water lilies, their pink flowers bursting into flower. Behind, terraces of rice paddies rise up to the tree line and the blue sky beyond.
Despite the heat, the tour guides are already hard at work retelling the Mao story. It is quite a tale. From these humble beginnings he rose to lead the Communists to power in 1949, reuniting China after years of chaos and war.
It was a new beginning. But as time passed, Mao presided over a series of political campaigns, purges and famines that led to the deaths of millions.
A Hundred Flowers, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution - the names sound innocuous but the result was deadly, with China living through decades of turbulence as one movement followed the next.
For people who lived through those dark times, especially the Cultural Revolution era in the late sixties and early seventies, it is impossible to forget.
"I think that now we can safely say that Mao made many mistakes," said Mr Chen, who was visiting the small museum next to Mao's house.
"The worst was undoubtedly the Cultural Revolution, but there were many others."
Not all older people feel like Mr Chen. For some, worried about the inequalities that China's capitalist revolution is now producing, Mao represents a time when China was a more equal country.
And for many in the younger generation Mao has almost mythical status.
"I think Mr Chairman Mao was a great guy. To us he is not a person, he is a god," according to Mr Cai, now in his thirties, and was just a child when Mao died.
Like many Chinese, he admires Mao as the founder of modern China.
"He united China and helped the poor people. Maybe some people in the world will not like him, but we Chinese will always think he was a great man," he said.
That is just the sort of talk China's Communist Party likes to hear. Walking around Mao's childhood home, none of his mistakes are on show.
The house is a memorial to Mao as the ruling Communist Party wants China and the world to see him - as a founding father, untainted by scandal, failure and chaos.
For years now, open discussion of the Mao era has been forbidden. Not long after Mao's death the party announced that he had been 70% right, 30% wrong.
It has not changed its view since then, fearful of losing legitimacy if Mao's legacy is undermined.
But of course China has changed. And even in Shaoshan the Mao industry is booming.
Just to the side of Mao's house there are stalls selling everything from posters to pens with Mao on. Such naked capitalism would have been anathema to Mao, but not in the new China.
On one of the stalls is a woman who tells me she is a distant relative of Mao. She says that while some people might be interested in Mao, most people know very little about him - now they want a better life and to make money.
That is the reality. China has moved on since Mao. Much of this country is one he simply would not recognise.
But despite so much change the full story of Chairman Mao remains untold here and that is unlikely to change any time soon.
Comments
Oh, it's a big day today! I always find I'm very forgetful when I'm reading your articles.
Posted by: Alvin | September 9, 2006 10:11 AM
Remember the mistakes?
China may be content on forgetting Mao, but they will never talk about the mistakes. Remember, a man can be wrong. But the party is always right.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/31/news/china.php
Posted by: dave | September 9, 2006 3:48 PM