Monday, April 28, 2008

Shaoshan, the Guessing Game

Masquerade by The Carpenters. This unveiled statute lies besides the statute of Mao Zedong, in the centre of the village-town of Shaoshan, the birth-place of Chairman Mao. As it is barricaded tourists were not allowed to go near. So we were all puzzled as to the statute's identity.
Is that the statute of Liu Shaoqi, the Chairman of the Peoples' Republic of China from April 1959 to October 1968? He was born on November 24 1898 in the village of Huaminglou 30 kilometres north of Shaoshan, Hunan. Liu Shaoqi was arrested in 1967 during the Cultural Revolution and accused to be the Number 1 "Capitalist Roader". He died incarcerated on November 12 1969 after he was expelled from all party positions in October 1968.
Ticket to Ride by the Beatles. Like many cable cars they link the foothill to the summit. What is the name of the mountain? Well it is Shao Hill Peak or Shaoshan Feng which lies north-west of the village of Shaoshan, close by.
Like A Prayer by Madonna. Deification of Mao Zedong. When Mao was alive he was a demi-god. After he joined Marx and Lenin in the Netherworld he was still revered and worshipped by some although the Communist Party of China now considers that he was 70 % correct and 30 % wrong in his deeds and actions. This ancestral altar with the image of Mao Zedong is found in one of the shrines close to the summit of Shao Hill Peak, Shaoshan.
Three Times a Lady by Lionel Ritchie. Who are they and where do they come from? They are local villagers living close to Mao Zedong's ancestral home in the village of Shaoshan. The villages comprise mainly farms and paddy fields.
On a Golden Pond by Katherine Hepburn & Henry & Jane Fonda. This is a typical rural scene in China, rustic and idyllic. This pond lies in front of Mao Zedong's ancestral house. His parents were relatively rich farmers. He considered that he came from a peasant background.