Shaoshan’s kitsch magnificence is almost too much for words, so I turned to a traveling companion who is never short for them for this guest post about our recent trip.
In early 1990, in the days before he was himself the subject of fulsome leftist hagiographies, New York Times Beijing Correspondent Nicholas Kristof visited Shaoshan and observed that the town was fast becoming the “Bethlehem of Maoism,” a veritable “Chinese Monticello.” In the wake of the Tiananmen incident, work units had shepherded comrades en masse to this erstwhile unassuming village, with the hope that patriotism, or at least contagious obedience, might be aroused once more.
After unabated traffic throughout the Cultural Revolution, Shaoshan had gone relatively quiet during the 1980s, as Reform and Opening took a debilitating toll on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. It is unlikely that trips to Shaoshan changed many minds in 1990, and in 2010 it seems all but impossible. As the Mao era recedes further into the past, it is becoming ever-easier for the Chairman to be viewed at a dispassionate remove. No more are tears shed in front of his old schoolhouse or before the various shrines erected in his honor. Instead, most of the things to see and do in Shaoshan now make it feel more like a routine Chinese tourist attraction than a new Mecca: some stone gardens, a refurbished pagoda, a mountain topped with unused temples, and a healthy surfeit of gewgaws and tchotchkes are its dominant features.
Most of the Chinese visitors to Shaoshan would admit with equanimity that Mao was a successful leader who made some mistakes. This is the politically correct way of saying that the man was no saint, which is a fitting understatement, because Bethlehem this ain’t.
Dan muses, briefly, on life and travels in China at Changsha et. al. He is currently 16/34ths of the way towards the goal of visiting all of China’s administrative regions, among which he rather dubiously counts Taiwan.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
what is your point?
nice little town, simply what is in all countries of the world, a place of homage and pilgrimage for the common people to some sort of physical symbol of the collective mindset ….
“…a healthy surfeit of gewgaws and tchotchkes are its dominant features….”
And for those unwilling or unable to leave the country for a visit to Shaoshan, there’s always Graceland.