http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2351131,00.html China invents a new Mao myth Michael Sheridan, Shaoshan, The Sunday Times, 10 September, 2006 THEY came to praise their famous son under a miserable grey drizzle yesterday, but nothing could dampen the spirits of the Mao clan as they took pride in a new, if subtle, rehabilitation of the village boy from central China who shook the world.
Thirty years to the day after his death at the age of 82, the anniversary exposed how the memory of Mao Tse-tung has become a potent political issue between "reformers" and "leftists" arguing over the direction of the world's fastest-growing economy. Yesterday's edition of the People's Daily in the capital carried an extremely rare article by Mao's surviving son, Anqing, headlined "Memories of my father". It praised Mao as a selfless leader who hated corruption and refused to promote his relatives to positions of power. The article, said Chinese analysts, was clearly inspired by powerful leftist figures in the present leadership and was probably not written by Anqing himself, who is in his eighties and is said to suffer from schizophrenia. But it was music to the ears of the Shaoshan villagers, who lined up to place their wreaths of yellow flowers on bamboo frames at the foot of Mao's statue in the valley where he grew up. "I saw Mao when he came back to visit us in 1959," quavered Mao Huaying, 91, who shares the surname with four-fifths of the villagers. "We loved him from the bottom of our hearts. There was no corruption and no crime in those days." Anqing's article in the People's Daily was the most politically charged work by a member of the family since Mao's death. It struck at the core of the Communist Party's present dilemma over official corruption and the growing wealth gap in China. To Chinese who can decode the political message, it proved that there is real conflict inside the party elite. "My father had just two sleeping gowns which he kept all his life, and there were 116 patches on them when he died," wrote Anqing. In Shaoshan they know that is true, because one of those well-patched gowns is solemnly displayed in a lavish new memorial hall built to honour the chairman opposite his statue. "My father brought us up to be officials. He never put any money in the bank for us," wrote Anqing. "He refused to use his high position to give our relatives any special privileges." The article was a bold assertion by leftist thinkers, who have already influenced the government of President Hu Jintao to modify the policies of "growth at any cost" pursued by Mao's "reformist" heirs after 1979. The changes include restrictions on property ownership, a drive to compel factories to recognise unions, and investigations into high-level graft. Hu is said to be holding the ring between the factions, and Shaoshan provides a classic Chinese communist symbol of his balancing act. Displays of official photographs record a visit by Hu, wearing a business suit, who can be seen beaming in approval as he inspects the chairman's humble boyhood home. The new leader has already sided firmly with Mao-era authoritarian policies to stamp out political dissent, to control the media and to curb free speech on the internet. And a surprising encounter inside Mao's memorial hall revealed the new confidence among leftists, who believe the party has no need to apologise for the millions of dead in Mao's man-made famine or for the decade of chaos in the purges known as the cultural revolution, which he unleashed 40 years ago this summer. "Mao is still worthy of respect. I believe he was a great man and a lot of things Mao forecast and worried about have come true today," said a teacher in his forties from the Central party school in Beijing, which trains future leaders. "Mao was treated very negatively after he died and the main reason was the cultural revolution, but I believe the cultural revolution was very, very necessary," said the teacher, as he surveyed a display of fiery youthful pamphlets written by Mao to incite the peasants of Shaoshan against their landlords. "Mao's purpose was to stop capitalism coming back to China and to stop the Communist party itself becoming corrupt," he went on, "but the cultural revolution failed." "Why did it fail? I believe because at that time the working class did not support it - they had a vested interest in the system. Well, now they regret it because it's too late - they have become laid-off workers without a voice and have lost out." This was heresy enough, given that after the ascent of Deng Xiaoping, China's de facto leader from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, the party has defined the cultural revolution as an aberration and condemned its excesses. But there was another striking statement from the man from the party school, unaware that he was speaking to a reporter. "Although the constitution says the working class is still the leading class in China, it's not. Actually it's now the rich who are the leading class," he declared. For another visitor, a former Red Guard who asked to be called "Liao Ming", the return to Shaoshan brought back the kind of memories that make many Chinese nostalgic for a time, early in the cultural revolution, when it was bliss to be young and revolutionary. "In December 1966, I came to Shaoshan from Guangxi province," he said. "We walked for two weeks. There were six of us between 12 and 14, two girls and four boys. We carried our belongings on our backs. On the road we recited the whole of Mao's little red book. "We arrived at the village of Shaoshan at sunset. I was amazed. Everywhere there was a tide of people. There were thousands and thousands of them just standing around." As "Liao Ming" looked out over the village square, yesterday's scattered mourners in their scuffed peasant garb stood in contrast to those scenes. But as Mao said, a single spark can start a prairie fire. No Chinese leader forgets that Mao ignited the cultural revolution with a single newspaper article, on an obscure literary subject, that few understood until its coded message - to attack his rivals - became all too clear. Life of a dictator 1893 Born to a prosperous peasant family in the lush valley of Shaoshan in central China 1921 Converted to Marxism, he joins the new Communist party of China and soon dominates it 1935 Mao leads defeated Red Army on epic Long March to refuge in northern China, becoming a hero to millions 1949 Communists win civil war; Mao proclaims People's Republic of China on Oct 1 1966 Still revered by most Chinese, Mao sets off cultural revolution to purge his opponents. 1976 Dies of multiple ailments at 82, enfeebled yet mentally alert to the end; reformers come to power [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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