Thousands flock to Mao’s birthplace in Hunan on 40th death anniversary
Friday marked the 40th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s death.
Shaoshan, a small city in Central China’s Hunan Province and the birthplace of Mao, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, received thousands of admirers and tourists from all parts of China on Friday. And Mao’s mausoleum in Beijing extended the usual half-day opening hours to a full day for people visiting.
They came from very different backgrounds, including laid-off workers, newlyweds, academics from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and veterans who fought in the ChinaVietnam War in 1979, and for the same reason – to pay their respect to their beloved leader.
Despite the political mistakes he made, it seems Mao’s status as the great leader of the Communist Party of China, is irreplaceable. And the elders in particular have been deeply influenced by Mao.
An 87-year-old veteran surnamed Li, who came from Shaoyang, Hunan Province, told me that he joined the War of Liberation (1945-49) and lost his left leg during the Korean War in the 1950s.
“But I still came here every year because without Mao, we had no chance to beat powerful enemies,” Li said.
A group of 300 people from 20 Chinese provinces drove from Changsha, the capital city of Hunan to Shaoshan and organized a march near the Mao Zedong Square.
They carried red flags and Mao’s pictures. And some veterans formed a band to play revolutionary songs during the march.
The march caused a traffic jam, but many drivers showed patience and understanding.
“We are all here for the commemoration, so why don’t we just wait, the march won’t take long,” a driver said and took a picture.
I saw a young couple from Shaoshan in wedding clothes at the Mao Zedong Square with hundreds of others visitors on Friday.
Local residents told me that Mao is the pride of Shaoshan, and so it is a tradition for local newlyweds to visit Chairman Mao before they start their new life. All they want “is Chairman Mao’s blessings.”
The admirers have the same feelings toward Mao, but they hold different views on specific events such as the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), the reform and opening-up, and China’s modern society.
A laid-off worker from Shandong Province surnamed Zheng said that he thought laborers owned the country before Mao’s death, but things have changed after the reform and opening-up.
Lian Shizhu, a 72-year-old former research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “I devoted my life to scientific research, and during the Cultural Revolution, scientific research was heavily damaged.”
“No one could conduct research, people went crazy over the revolution,” he added.