In Nanjie village in central Henan province, crimson flags hang limp in the summer heat as tourists photograph a towering white statue of Chairman Mao Zedong, nearly 50 years after his death on September 9, 1976. The village, often called “China’s last Maoist village,” remains a striking reminder of an era that most of China has moved beyond.
Nostalgia for Mao’s egalitarian ideals is growing across China as memories of his turbulent rule fade and the country faces a slowing economy and rising inequality. Mao led the 1949 communist revolution and ushered in an era of collectivized ownership intended to drive industry and unite the country. However, historians blame his drastic policies for mass starvation and millions of deaths. While the Chinese Communist Party maintains Mao was a revolutionary hero, it publicly acknowledged after his death that his Cultural Revolution was a “grave mistake.”
In Nanjie, countless murals of Mao plaster the village, and residents still live under Maoist principles of shared ownership. Xie Kaiyue, a 22-year-old local university student born almost three decades after Mao’s death, said: “I still revere him very much.” Electric carts whisk visitors past uniform apartment blocks decorated with socialist slogans, with guides explaining how cooperative ownership in local enterprises funds free housing for residents.
Around 500 kilometers north, in the mountain village of Dazhai in Shanxi province, tourists reminisce about Mao’s era. Li, a 64-year-old retiree from Xi’an, recalled his childhood: “We didn’t have enough to eat or to wear. But the whole country was full of vigour, and there was a spirit of struggling with heaven, earth, and people to change every aspect of China. Of course I miss it.” Dazhai now overflows with shops selling Mao memorabilia—posters, playing cards, crockery, and copies of the “Little Red Book.”
References to dark chapters of Mao’s rule remain tightly censored. The Cultural Revolution, instigated in 1966, brutally targeted intellectuals as “class enemies” and shuttered schools. The Great Famine that followed killed around 15 million people according to the government, though historians estimate 20-43 million deaths.
Scholar Xu Chenggang, targeted as a child during the Cultural Revolution, noted: “Everything you see in the public domain is the party line. No one is allowed to deviate from this.” Mao’s face appears on banknotes, his portrait overlooks Tiananmen Square, and his body is preserved in a mausoleum. Public discussion has been further restricted under current leader Xi Jinping, who warns against “historical nihilism.”
The sanitized history has created space for romanticized interpretations among youths frustrated by intense competition and long working hours, with some viral content on platforms like Bilibili celebrating Mao-era nostalgia.
Source: Kuwait Times
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