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China’s Memories of Mao Fade Into Nostalgia 50 Years After His Death

From Asharq Al-Awsat · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth From a news agency Context piece
  • Residents and visitors in two Chinese villages are expressing nostalgia for Mao Zedong’s egalitarian ideals as economic growth slows and inequality persists.
  • Nanjie maintains collective ownership and Maoist imagery, while Dazhai markets souvenirs linked to Mao’s personality cult.
  • Public discussion of the famine and Cultural Revolution remains tightly controlled despite the Communist Party’s acknowledgment that the Cultural Revolution was a grave mistake.

In Nanjie, crimson flags hang limp above East is Red Square as tourists photograph a gleaming white statue of Mao Zedong. Nearly 50 years after his death, the former Chinese leader remains a powerful presence in this central Henan village, often called China’s last Maoist village.

I still revere him very much.

· Xie KaiyueA 22-year-old university student in Nanjie explaining her admiration for Mao.

Nostalgia for Mao’s promise of equality is growing as memories of the violence and hardship of his rule recede. China is also confronting a slowing economy and widening inequality, giving renewed appeal to the village’s shared-ownership model. Nanjie’s residents still live under Maoist principles, while most of the country has moved far beyond collective ownership.

“I still revere him very much,” said Xie Kaiyue, a 22-year-old university student from Nanjie. Although Mao died almost three decades before she was born, she said young people today lacked the spirit of earlier generations. “People were purer,” she said. Electric carts carry visitors past uniform apartment blocks covered in socialist slogans, while guides explain how cooperative enterprises finance free housing.

People were purer.

· Xie KaiyueXie comparing young people today with earlier generations.

The same longing appears in Dazhai, a mountain village in Shanxi province that Mao once promoted as a national model after residents transformed its dry hills into irrigated fields. Li, a 64-year-old visitor from Xi’an, recalled that people had little food or clothing, but said the country had “a spirit of struggling with heaven, earth, and people to change every aspect of China.” “Of course I miss it,” he said.

A spirit of struggling with heaven, earth, and people to change every aspect of China.

· LiA 64-year-old visitor recalling the atmosphere of his childhood under Mao.

Dazhai now sells posters, playing cards, crockery and copies of Mao’s quotations. Yet the darkest parts of his rule remain heavily censored in public discourse. The Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao in 1966, targeted intellectuals as class enemies and closed schools. Collectivized property and land, combined with economic mismanagement, helped drive China toward the Great Famine, which historians blame for mass starvation and millions of deaths. The Communist Party still presents Mao as a revolutionary hero, while acknowledging that the Cultural Revolution was a “grave mistake.”

Of course I miss it.

· LiLi expressing nostalgia for that period despite recalling its material hardship.
About this summary

Originally published by Asharq Al-Awsat in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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