#65: Across the Heart of China: Buy a Mao Statue and Win the Lottery! Part II
October 29, 2002
Off the boat at Yichang and then a bus on yet another new motorway to Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province. Wuhan, right at the middle of China proper (i.e., minus the western minority ethnic areas), is another metropolis with 10 million people. This is the midpoint of the rail and river traffic from Chongqing in the west to Shanghai in the east, and also from Beijing in the north to Guangzhou in the south.
It also is a very strategic city that once hosted several international concessions. The China of the 19th and early 20th century was a weak, dying nation. As a result of several wars with Western powers, it was forced to grant parts (known as “Concessions”) of over 30 cities to the great powers, where the Chinese have no police or administrative powers, or the right to levy customs duties or taxes. Wuhan, Shanghai, Tianjin and numerous cities were all concession cities. Such a humiliating loss of sovereignty was among the many reasons which eventually led to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in Wuhan, which overthrew the Qing Dynasty (or Manchu), China’s last. The Chinese Republic was set up, but it was decades before peace returned to the nation.
Changsha in Hunan Province was next. Welcome to the Land of Hot and Fiery Pepper!
The Hunanese put chili and pepper into everything they eat. Descendants of the exotic ethnic mix which once comprised of Han settlers who arrived 2000 years ago with Qin Shihuangdi’s army and intermarried with the local Tujia, Miao and Xiang tribes, the Hunanese have produced some of China’s greatest rebels and political activists. The most famous Hunanese is Mao Zedong, the founder of Communist China.
Son of a modestly wealthy farmer, Mao became influenced by Marxist theories when he was a librarian in Beijing. He went on to head the Communist Party and became China’s master after decades of bitter civil war. It’s easier to build an empire than to govern one, however.
Mao had made himself the China’s hero by getting rid of the ancient regime and its corrupt, feudal landlords and warlords, as well as the humiliating international concessions. However, the new emperor is also a power grabber and an economic disaster case. He began the Cultural Revolution and other purges to get rid of potential rivals, thus condemning China’s most talented to internal exile and personal ruin.
His dubious notions of economic theories led to great famines and destruction of the nation’s industrial capabilities, resulting to the deaths of over 30 million people. His disregard of the nation’s rich cultural heritage destroyed numerous historical and cultural relics. It was only Deng Xiaoping’s reforms after Mao’s death that China recovered from that era of destruction, desolation and international isolation.
Capitalist-style reforms, officially known as “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”, have brought unknown prosperity to the country. Now, as the Communist Party prepares for its 16th congress, huge billboards proclaim President Jiang’s new “ideological theories”, the so-called “Three Representations”, which basically urged the party to represent the broadest groups of people in the country, and admit into the party hierarchy: the so-called “patriotic entrepreneurs” (known in the rest of the world as capitalist businessmen), “productive forces”, and anyone who is not defined in traditional Marxist theories as the peasant, worker and soldier. Basically, no more party of the proletariat but party of businesses and the nouveau riche. How times have changed. Sounds like the New Labour thing in the UK.
A typical Westerner would regard Mao as a villain of the worst kind, the Chinese equivalent of Hitler and Stalin. However, most Chinese today have mixed feelings about him. In Mao, they have the unfortunate combination of George Washington and Vladimir Lenin. They are aware of the terrible abuses and poverty during the Mao era. But his overthrow of the corrupt old feudal order in which China was a semi-colony of the great powers, has placed him among the pantheon of great Chinese heroes, like Qin Shihuangdi (the first emperor and unifier of China) and Zhu Yuanzhang (liberator of China from Mongol rule and the tyrannical founder of the Ming Dynasty – also founder of the first Chinese secret police).
Many are also nostalgic of the old days when everybody had a job and similar standard of living (i.e., all are equally poor), and corruption so prevalent in today’s unofficially capitalist China almost non-existent then (or at least not obvious). As I visited his house-museum in nearby Shaoshan, together with thousands of local tourists, the museum guide shouted out in her loudspeaker, “Visit Mao’s Home, Learn from Mao Thoughts and Help to Turn China Modern!” I nearly laughed aloud at the obvious irony of it all. Wasn’t it Maoism that devastated China economically? Isn’t it capitalism, albeit practiced with a vengeance in this officially communist state, that has now turned China into the new emerging economic superpower?
Shaoshan’s residents, mostly farmers, now make much more hawking Mao souvenirs. They mobbed tourists with Mao caps, Mao statues, Mao CD’s, Mao videos, Mao mousepads and even Mao cuisine (i.e., try Mao’s favourite dishes in the countless Mao cafes and restaurants in Shaoshan).
In the eyes of the peasants and ordinary workers, especially in Hunan Province, Mao has become a kind of god. Here in Hunan, local houses have Mao statues on their rooftops (instead of the typical dragon or bull which symbolizes good luck and prosperity) – they say this would frighten away demons and evil spirits. Taxi drivers have Mao talismans just above the steering wheel – this brings good luck too. Touts tried to sell me Mao statues – “This would help you win the lottery!” they said. From Communist ruler to pop icon, Mao must be turning in his grave!
Enough of Mao trinkets. I got onto another train to Yunnan, Land South of the Clouds. This is China’s geographically and ethnically most diverse province. You will hear next about this most exciting land in my next email.
Zaijian! Goodbye!