"Come on, make a wish to Chairman Mao," said a woman to her two young children as they bowed to a 6m bronze statue of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) in his home village of Shaoshan.
"We come here every year to pay our respect -- Chairman Mao is a great man," said the woman in her thirties, one of hundreds of tourists who flock daily to the birthplace of Mao, who died 30 years ago on Sept. 9, to pray at his statue, believing his divine power can grant them peace and protection.
Mao, architect of the Cultural Revolution that killed millions and took China to the brink of collapse, is still revered by many across China as a god-like figure.
PHOTO: AFPN
At a family-run restaurant in the southern village, relatives played mahjong next to a life-sized bronze statue of Mao beneath a poster depicting the "great leader" speaking to the patriarch during a visit in the late 1950s.
Asked why the family offer incense to the figure, one woman said: "It is a show of respect -- after he died, he became a god and so are his parents."
Even today, villagers in Hunan Province enthusiastically recount three "miracles" that supposedly happened in 1993 on the 100th anniversary of Mao's birth.
According to local legend, the lorry transporting his bronze statue stalled as it passed through Jiangxi Province, giving rise to the myth that Mao's spirit wanted to spend the night at the place where he started a revolutionary uprising against the troops of the then ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Also on that day, the sun and the moon shone brightly in the morning above his home village and azaleas flowers miraculously flourished in mid-winter, residents said.
"I believe his spirit really came back ... he is still watching over us," said Guo Dongru, a 37-year-old farmer.
Mao is revered across China in much the same way the Virgin Mary is viewed by many Christians as a guardian and protector. Drivers dangle his picture in their cars, people make incense offerings to his statues in their homes and travelers carry Mao lucky charms to ensure a safe journey.
"These 24-carat gold-plated wallet-sized `protection cards' have absorbed the spirit of Mao and can grant you safety wherever you go," said a sales assistant at the Mao Zedong museum shop in the village.
"Only 38 yuan [US$4.75]" the clerk said.
Mao's portrait still hangs prominently on the gate of Tiananmen Square, the symbolic center of China's political power. And hoards of Chinese tourists make pilgrimages there to see his embalmed body.
Numerous Mao-backed movements, like the "Great Leap Forward," a disastrous attempt at speedy industrialization, and the Cultural Revolution, led to tens of millions of deaths and the persecution of innocent people.
But ask anyone on the streets of China today and they would say Mao was "a great figure," even among those who acknowledge his faults.
In the Mao family ancestral temple at his birthplace, a bronze bust of the former leader stood on a table, amid cigarettes, rice wine and floral offerings.
Tour guides encouraged people to make an offering before leading them to a 1m-tall stone they said Mao was dedicated to as an infant, and whose divine blessings led to his charmed life.
"Mao stayed healthy and sturdy throughout numerous wars and tumults -- touch this if you want to get the same blessings," said a tour guide as a flock of tourists rushed to touch the stone.
Analysts said such worship of Mao in China where the regime keeps a tight control on ideology, restricts free flow of information and debate of historical issues, is to be expected.
"Now people view Mao Zedong as a legendary figure like any other folk gods," said Xu Youyu (徐友漁), a philosophy professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.
"Under a system where no debate of Mao has been allowed, their adoration comes as no surprise," Xu said.
And paradoxically, to those who were educated under communist China's atheist philosophy, Mao offers spiritual comfort.
"My mother doesn't believe in God or the Buddha, she puts all her trust in Chairman Mao all her life," said 27-year old Xiao Biqiang, an information-technology engineer, who bowed at Mao's bronze figure on behalf of his sick mother.
"It is a solace to her," he said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including