CHINA: Thirty years after Mao Zedong's death, thousands still flock to see the deceased chairman at Tiananmen Square

On any given morning in Beijing, hundreds of people can be spotted at Tiananmen Square where a huge portrait of Mao Zedong stares down on the passersby. Friday (September 8), the day before the 30th anniversary of Mao's death, was no exception. Thousands queued to enter a squat gray building at the centre of Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of China's communist revolution. "My obsession with seeing this mausoleum has a lot to do with my family. Both of my parents had the dream of coming to Beijing and have a look at Chairman Mao. So when I got here myself, the very first thing I did was to pay a visit to the mausoleum," Wang Guanzhen, a tourist from Central China's Hubei Province said during his visit to Beijing. He came just to see Mao's body. Despite Mao's ruthless political campaigns in which tens of millions died, he is still largely revered in China as a charismatic ruler who stood up to foreigners and unified the country. Most people who lived under his rule say that there are certainly things they miss from the Mao times and wouldn't mind going back to that time. "It was a time of clean politics and honesty. This modern society can not be compared to that period of time. Back then, government officials had a lot of integrity but now they are very corrupted," Lu Xiudong, a tourist from Hunan said. Sidney Rittenberg, an American who knew Mao from his days in the Yan'an revolutionary base and has lived in China for more than 35 years, served as Mao's translator for years. He said if Mao were alive these days, he'd be impressed by how much China has changed. "My guess would be that, if he came back in his persona as Mao the realist, as he started off being, he would look at the advances of particularly the economy in China today. And he enhanced one of China's positions internationally. And he would be very pleased at that. But you would probably think but really they are lousing it up, I can do it much better," Rittenberg said. Mao is famous in China for using colorful and simple languages to talk to the masses. Many of his thoughts and strategies in fighting wars were turned into short sentences that rhyme. Rittenberg, who witnessed China's ups and downs through all the political turbulence, said that's the charm that the government lacks nowadays. "I think the primary crisis in China today has to do with this inability to talk to the people and to listen to the people. It has to do with the fact that the Communist Party is the undisputed leader, solely or almost solely, because of the fact that it grows its economy," the former translator says. Looking at what young people are up to in China after Mao's death, Rittenberg said China needs more to inspire. "There is zero moral or spiritual hold that the party has over the people. There is nothing that inspires young people. There is no vision except to get rich and have a great career," he says. While Chinese people from all around China are floating to see Mao in the mausoleum, the Chinese authorities are keeping quiet. There is no scheduled official commemoration organized by the Chinese authority so far.

ITN Source | September 8, 2006

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