Mao Zedong's Birthday

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Beijing silent as Mao Zedong birthday proves low-key affair

• No official acknowledgement on the 126th anniversary of the birth of the divisive former leader
• Videos on social media show people marking the occasion at Mao’s birthplace in central China

Workers installed a new portrait of the late Mao Zedong on the Tiananmen gate in Beijing this year, but his birthday was not marked. Photo: AFP

 

 

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Several events took place on Thursday in Shaoshan, the county-level city in central China’s Hunan province where the former leader was born in 1893.

 

One video on social media showed wreaths placed around a statue of Mao, while another showed groups of attendees wearing red caps and standing on a flight of steps in the city.

 

“Bow once towards the statue of Chairman Mao,” an announcement said.

 

. . .

 

In line with the Communist Party’s official position, President Xi Jinping acknowledged on the former leader’s 120th birthday in 2013 that Mao “made mistakes” despite his achievements.

 

Yet historians have said that Xi, since becoming the paramount leader in 2013, has resurrected the patriotic values of the early Communist regime, ruling in a powerful style reminiscent of the Mao era.

 

As part of October’s celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, Xi and other top officials visited Mao’s mausoleum in Beijing and bowed three times to the former leader, whose body is embalmed and kept in the building’s central hall.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

We had found these fellows for sale in Pingxiang on our visit there in 2014

 

[Randy W]

https://www.facebook.com/globaltimesnews/videos/765685550707806/

Mao's birthday

 

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【Video】Local residents and officials gather at a special event in Shaoshan, Hunan Province, the birthplace of the late Chinese leader #MaoZedong, on Saturday, singing The East is Red, to commemorate the 127th anniversary of Mao's birth. https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1211052.shtml

Netizens pay tribute to Chairman Mao on 127th birthday

The reentry capsule of the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft was officially handed over to Shaoshan in Central China’s Hunan Province – the birthplace of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong on Friday, a day ahead of the 127th anniversary of Mao’s birth. Photo: IC

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Chinese netizens paid tribute to Chairman Mao Zedong by activities such as posting his poems on Saturday, the 127th anniversary of the birth of late Chinese leader, after China completed a successful moon-probe mission earlier this month.

His 1965 poem Reascending jinggangshan was widely cited in the tributes, as the words say "We can bring down the moon from the ninth heaven, or catch the giant turtles in the sea, and come back amid triumphant songs in high glee," echoing China's recent Chang'e-5 mission. 

China's space industry could not have made today's achievements if it were not for chairman Mao's great vision and passion marked by his approval of developing the country's first satellite, Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space program, told the Global Times.

Even when China was in dire economic situation in the 1960s, Chinese leaders, including Mao, were determined to develop "Two Bombs, One satellite." "Two Bombs" refers to the atomic bomb (and later the hydrogen bomb) and the ICBM, while "One Satellite" refers to the artificial satellite. His strategic vision greatly boosted the industrial development of China, Zhou noted.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)