Mr. Mao

I got in a taxi yesterday and, like countless other drivers, the man had Mao's face on a trinket hanging from the rearview mirror.  This always perplexes me.

There are many wonderful things Mao did for China as a nation: abolished polygomy and concubines, got rid of foot binding, promoted the role of women in society and generally eradicated many other archaic customs.  However, in the West, he is most well-known for other, more detrimental, actions: The Great Leap Forward (estimates say up to 30 million people died, mostly from Mao's policies bringing pointless starvation - to put this into perspective, Holocaust estimates are around 11 million) and The Cultural Revolution (politically motivated punishment/executions) spring to mind.  

In China however, even with increased access to Internet and sites like Wikipedia, Mao continues to be revered almost as a god.  He, of course, embraced and perpetuated Communism in China - the materialistic side of which has since been overturned.  Current China embraces a bit of Mao's authoritarianism combined with Deng Xiaoping's introduction of capitalism.  

As a result of Mao's staunch Communistic views, I always find humor in seeing his face used as a marketing tool or trinket to be sold.  If he had a grave (and wasn't immortalized in his Tiananmen Square viewing center), he'd surely be rolling in it.

Thinking about this, I started the following conversation with the taxi driver:

April: "That's Mao Zedong?"

Driver: "Yes."

April: "Do you think Mao Zedong would recognize China today?"

Driver: "What?"

April: "I don't know, in China today people have money, they can go where they want to go and do what they want to do, they can study abroad and use the internet, do you think Mao would recognize China now?"

Driver: - - - Silent and thinking- - -

a minute passes....

April: "I mean, I know Deng Xiaoping would recognize it because a lot of this was his idea, but what about Mao?"

Driver: "Deng Xiaoping would definitely recognize China....(long pause for consideration)....Mao would too...."

At this point in the conversation the old man rattled on for about 5 minutes at a very loud volume explaining why Mao would recognize our version of China.  He got really fired up about it and I'm sure had a lot of interesting things to say.  But, to my dismay, he was speaking too fast and using vocabulary I didn't understand.  

I start Chinese classes again next week and conversations like this are the main reason why.  There's so much more to learn.