...Sure, Hunan-based Better Life probably hung the portrait simply out of respect for their native son. But I would also believe it if someone told me that Better Life’s CEO is a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist who always believed Mao’s communist fantasies were folly and, now swollen with riches from selling jewelry and clothes to China’s ovine masses, has decided to take a victory lap by hanging a portrait where Mao’s weary, unblinking stare will forever be greeted by the former proletariat scrambling for earthly pleasures on the ruins of his communes.
Remember last week’s senseless beating of an old man in Zhengzhou, Henan province just because he dared to criticize Mao Zedong? A similar case sprung up recently in Beijing, featuring a significantly higher-profiled Maoist. As exposed by @1798旅行者, the incident began Tuesday when an old man out for a walk took issue with the slogan,... Read more »
Though China's modern-day Maoists may advocate larger government, wealth redistribution, and a return to a backward agrarian society, they strike me, by and large, as Bible Belt conservatives in their longing for past glories and comforts, their love for a transcendent leader, and their fondness of ideology. They also have this annoying habit of cherry-picking only the best parts from Mao's rule and forgetting that millions were purged, starved to death, and slandered/slaughtered by their coworkers, students, neighbors, friends.
