Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 25, 1993 TAG: 9312250067
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: BEIJING LENGTH: Medium
With the approach of the 100th anniversary of his birth Sunday, the predictable hoopla is afoot.
Communist Party boss Jiang Zemin made a pilgrimage this week to Mao's hometown to unveil a new statue of the late leader.
Researchers are turning out mounds of new treatises on Mao. The state press is rife with articles about almost anyone who crossed his path, even an elevator operator who served him.
But don't be misled: More than 17 years after his death at 82 - or 83, by the Chinese way of figuring age - Mao and his failed vision of radical collectivism have become irrelevant here. Mao's successor - 89-year-old Deng Xiaoping, himself now believed at death's door - essentially has eclipsed him.
"Class struggle," a main thrust of Maoism, has been replaced by the struggle for cash. "Self-reliance," another ideological cornerstone, has been swamped by foreign capital and technology.
Under Deng, China embraces a form of state-led capitalism as raw as anything in the West in the 19th century.
Even Mao's surviving relatives are virtual recluses. His only grandson to bear his surname is a 23-year-old obese diabetic who spends a lot of time in the hospital.
But Mao still is revered. To many Chinese - even many who suffered in Mao's last demented campaign, the decade-long Cultural Revolution which only ended with his death - Mao is the equivalent of George Washington (founding father), Thomas Jefferson (essential philosopher) and Abraham Lincoln (liberator), all combined into one persona.
Not surprisingly, there's a lively market for kiss-and-tell memoirs from those claiming to know the intimate details of his life.
A book by one of Mao's former bodyguards has the leader prowling around late at night in the Forbidden City searching for an appropriate spot to relieve his constipation.
The latest revelation - that Mao was comforted by a steady stream of young girls - comes from his doctor of 22 years, Li Zhisui, who now lives in Chicago.
by CNB