China’s memories of Mao fade to nostalgia 50 years after his death

In Nanjie village, crimson flags hang limp in the summer heat above the “East is Red” Square. A trickle of tourists takes photographs beside a towering statue of Mao Zedong, whose white surface still gleams nearly 50 years after his death.

Mao, who died on September 9, 1976, remains a visible fixture in the village as memories of him increasingly fade into nostalgia.