On 118th anniversary, China debates Mao\'s legacy

SHAOSHAN (HUNAN PROVINCE), December 27, 2011 (Tehelkanews)

When a towering statue of Mao Zedong was built in this town more than a decade ago, both the Sun and the Moon rose together, or so goes the local legend. This, and a dozen similar stories, have made this small non-descript town in central Hunan province one of China\'s biggest — and most unlikely — places of pilgrimage. This year, more than 5 million descended on Shaoshan, a small town of green fields and rolling hills, to pay homage to its most famous son.



On the 118th anniversary of his birth, which fell on Monday, Mao remains as revered as ever in his native province of Hunan, even as his controversial legacy is being increasingly re-examined in the rest of China.



"For many people in Hunan, Mao is like a god," Chen Yuxiang, a professor in the Marxism School of Hunan University, in the provincial capital of Changsha, told The Hindu in an interview. "So Shaoshan, for them, is a place of pilgrimage."



Shaoshan was declared a national cultural heritage site in 1951. Since then, more than 50 million Chinese have made the trip to this town, said local officials.



On one recent morning, dozens of visitors, from across China gathered at Shaoshan\'s main square, which more resembled a place of religious worship than a historical landmark.



Soldiers, students and a tour group of retirees braved a cold wind and light drizzle to line up in the main square, each awaiting their turn to lay a wreath at the foot of the statue.



Each visitor circled the statue four times, before bowing four times and placing the wreath at Mao\'s feet.



A group of recent college students, brought to Shaoshan to mark their graduation, chanted the Communist Party\'s oath in unison, while a visiting People\'s Liberation Army cohort, marching in line, waved red flags nearby.



For older visitors, said Mr. Chen, fondness for Mao was borne out of nostalgia and pride at his early achievements during the revolutionary war. But it is Mao\'s role in the events following his founding the People\'s Republic of China in 1949 that have become a matter of increasing debate three decades after his death. His role in presiding over the disastrous 1958 Great Leap Forward and subsequent famine, which claimed 30 million lives according to historians, and in leading the violent decade-long Cultural Revolution starting in 1966, are now beginning to be viewed more objectively by Chinese scholars, said Mr. Chen.



In an article published in the State-run Global Times on Monday, Li Jie, vice director of the Literature Research Office of the Communist Party\'s Central Committee, acknowledged that China needed "to look at his mistakes in an objective manner".



"The main reason the Cultural Revolution happened and ran out of control was because of the absence of collective decision-making in the Party. Blind worship of Mao took over, and he enjoyed unchecked power."



"We should not cover up his problems," he wrote. "And we cannot make the same mistakes again."



Even as his legacy is being re-examined, Mao\'s popularity, at least among younger Chinese, appears to be undiminished, in part because his failures are given brief mention in textbooks even as his achievements are celebrated.



Last year, the number of Shaoshan\'s visitors grew by 10 per cent, said local officials, citing renewed history in Mao\'s life as the Communist Party marked its 90th anniversary. Shaoshan made more than 400 million Yuan ($63.5 million) in tourism revenue last year.



"Part of the reason for Shaoshan\'s popularity is the belief that Mao was a great man," said Mr. Chen of Hunan University. "But it is also because of tourism. Encouraging Mao as a god is also a good way to earn money."



China\'s leaders, too, who still routinely invoke Mao\'s accomplishments, have played no small role in boosting Shaoshan\'s image. One local official said President Hu Jintao has visited Shaoshan on three occasions — in 1983, 1993 and 2003. Each visit, he said, followed a major promotion up the party ranks, the last being shortly after he took over as President.



"He came here each time to thank Mao," said the official.


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