Mao

Mao, originally uploaded by china.sixty4.

Mao's (Mao Zedong) portrait above the entrance to the "Forbidden City" central Beijing

Note: This image is as it was (not enhanced - the effect is caused by the sun reflecting off the surface of the painting

Leader (and founder) of the Chinese Communist Party from 1931 to his death in 1976, today remembered in the west as the institgator of the disastrous "Cultural Revolution" - 1966 - 1976

He organized China's urban youths into groups called the 'Red Guards', shut down China's schools, and encouraged the 'Red Guards' to attack all traditional values and 'bourgeois things'. They soon splintered into zealous rival groups, and in 1968 Mao sent millions of them to the rural hinterland.. Within the government, a coalition of Mao's associates fought with more moderate elements, many of whom were purged, were verbally attacked, were physically abused, and subsequently died; leaders Liu Shaoqi and Lin Biao both died under mysterious circumstances. From 1973 to Mao's death in 1976, politics shifted between the hard-line Gang of Four (lead by his wife, Jiang Qing) - and the moderates headed by Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. After Mao's death the period of the Cultural Revolution was brought to a close. By that time, nearly three million party members and countless wrongfully purged citizens awaited reinstatement. The Cultural Revolution subsequently was repudiated in China.

Strangely in the still Communist (but very Capitalist) China of today "Mao" is said to have been 30% wrong, his ruthless campaigns and countless purges and imprisonments sent millions to their deaths, it is estimated that "Mao" and his comrades were responsible for more deaths than Hitler and the Nazi Party. The cult of "Mao" may have died a slow agonizing death since 1976, but today in Beijing his portrait still hangs and he is 'worshipped' by millions of Chinese, who still line up in their hundreds each day to see his waxen corpse in the specifically built and climate controlled morseleum built to house his body
photo: mhobbs