Pilgrims revive the cult of Mao

The Age/December 28, 2003
By Jonathan Watts

The cult of Mao Zedong re-emerged with a bang and a flash yesterday as tens of thousands of worshippers paid homage in the "great helmsman's" home town to mark the 110th anniversary of his birth.

Visitors to Shaoshan burned incense and lit bonfires of offerings before bowing deeply before a huge golden statue of the former party chairman, whose presence is growing stronger nearly 28 years after his death.

From midnight to early afternoon, revellers set off tonnes of deafening firecrackers and fireworks in a spontaneous festival. Most appeared to treat the event as an excuse to party, but a handful displayed religious fervour by throwing themselves to the ground before his statue.

"I worship Mao as a god," said an elderly man called Mr Tong. "He didn't just found our nation. He established our system of morality."

Outside Shaoshan, in central Hunan province, few people are likely to hear such comments or witness such semi-religious rituals because this is not the image of modern China that Beijing wants to project.

China is meant to have left Mao worship behind. For the Government, it is a disturbing reminder of the insanity of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when student "red guards" wreaked havoc in the name of the leader they worshipped. For the country's rising urban middle class, the period is an embarrassment.

In the past 10 years, local officials say annual visitors have almost tripled to 2 million as a more affluent population search for their own version of Mao. Rows of Mao souvenir stalls offer tourists a dizzying array of memorabilia - garish clocks, numerous statues, badges and pens. Restaurants compete for business by promising the most genuine "Mao pork" - the fatty dish loved by the leader. Entrepreneurs have even leased a local graveyard containing Mao's relatives to develop it as a tourist attraction.