Great helmsman's role still has currency

September 5, 2005

Mao remains revered in China, despite history showing him as a butcher of his people, writes Xinran.

I can make the Queen laugh or frown!" a Chinese student boasted during a party at my flat. Then she used a £10 note to show how she could change the Queen's expression from a big laugh into a frown simply by making two folds in the note.

"Have you tried this on Chinese money with Mao's face? How would his face look?" asked a Western guest. "Oh, let's try it! Mao's face must be very funny." Some of the students became very excited.

I, too, was curious to see what Mao's face would look like.

I had never seen him make any public display of anger or sadness. Even though people have painted him very differently, all have shown him smiling, unceasingly.

So I raised my hand to tell the students that I had a Chinese note with Mao's face on it. I was stopped by the middle-aged woman next to me. "Don't be silly, Xinran," she said. "Do not let them deface Mao, it is not good for you."

"It's just a joke," I said. "And this is London, not China, and we are free to have our own views." I went to get the note. She stopped me before I could hand it to the students.

"Do you want to be hated by the Chinese?" she asked.

"You think the Chinese would hate me for playing a game with Mao's face? Do you believe they still regard Mao as God?" I was surprised by her attitude; she is, after all, a career woman living in the West, and has family with a Dutch man.

"You often go back to China, so tell me why Mao's picture still hangs on the walls of so many people's houses, shops and offices," she said.

"You think it is because the Chinese Government orders them to display them, or because those people have never heard Western views? Or do you think they don't know that Mao did terrible things to his people and how much he damaged his country?

"Be honest to our history, Xinran. I know your family has lost people under Mao's cruel policies, I know your parents were sent to prison for years.

"I am sorry to remind you of your unhappy memories. But don't look down on what Mao did for Chinese national pride ... I feel it is unfair to Mao."

I stopped her. "What about the millions of Chinese who died under his rule?"

"If Westerners still believe their God is just after he flooded the world for his own purpose, or George Bush could invade Iraq for moral good, why shouldn't Chinese believe in Mao, who did lots of positive things for the Chinese but also lost lives for his own mission for good?" Her voice grew angry. A student snatched the note from my hand.

"I told you, don't let them use Mao's face to play with!" She was so angry that she left at once.

I was so shocked by her loyalty to Mao that I couldn't enjoy the game with Mao's face and the note.

A few weeks ago I heard some news. Peasants near Beijing, who had been campaigning since 2003 to stop a power station being built on their land, were attacked and six were killed by an armed gang. It was said to have been arranged by corrupt local officials.

I rang a journalist friend in Beijing to ascertain exactly what had happened. He told me what he had heard: "Many wounded peasants held Mao's picture and cried, 'This would never have happened when Mao was alive'."

All of this made me think that it would be very difficult for a lot of Chinese people to change Mao's face in their memory or in their hearts - even in a time when their children were happy to play a game with a picture of Mao's face on a banknote that would have seen them jailed when Mao was alive.

Xinran is the author of The Good Women of China and Sky Burial.

The Guardian
