"Come on, make a wish to Chairman Mao," said a woman to her two young children as they bowed to a 6m bronze statue of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) in his home village of Shaoshan.
"We come here every year to pay our respect -- Chairman Mao is a great man," said the woman in her thirties, one of hundreds of tourists who flock daily to the birthplace of Mao, who died 30 years ago on Sept. 9, to pray at his statue, believing his divine power can grant them peace and protection.
Mao, architect of the Cultural Revolution that killed millions and took China to the brink of collapse, is still revered by many across China as a god-like figure.
PHOTO: AFPN
At a family-run restaurant in the southern village, relatives played mahjong next to a life-sized bronze statue of Mao beneath a poster depicting the "great leader" speaking to the patriarch during a visit in the late 1950s.
Asked why the family offer incense to the figure, one woman said: "It is a show of respect -- after he died, he became a god and so are his parents."
Even today, villagers in Hunan Province enthusiastically recount three "miracles" that supposedly happened in 1993 on the 100th anniversary of Mao's birth.
According to local legend, the lorry transporting his bronze statue stalled as it passed through Jiangxi Province, giving rise to the myth that Mao's spirit wanted to spend the night at the place where he started a revolutionary uprising against the troops of the then ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Also on that day, the sun and the moon shone brightly in the morning above his home village and azaleas flowers miraculously flourished in mid-winter, residents said.
"I believe his spirit really came back ... he is still watching over us," said Guo Dongru, a 37-year-old farmer.
Mao is revered across China in much the same way the Virgin Mary is viewed by many Christians as a guardian and protector. Drivers dangle his picture in their cars, people make incense offerings to his statues in their homes and travelers carry Mao lucky charms to ensure a safe journey.
"These 24-carat gold-plated wallet-sized `protection cards' have absorbed the spirit of Mao and can grant you safety wherever you go," said a sales assistant at the Mao Zedong museum shop in the village.
"Only 38 yuan [US$4.75]" the clerk said.
Mao's portrait still hangs prominently on the gate of Tiananmen Square, the symbolic center of China's political power. And hoards of Chinese tourists make pilgrimages there to see his embalmed body.
Numerous Mao-backed movements, like the "Great Leap Forward," a disastrous attempt at speedy industrialization, and the Cultural Revolution, led to tens of millions of deaths and the persecution of innocent people.
But ask anyone on the streets of China today and they would say Mao was "a great figure," even among those who acknowledge his faults.
In the Mao family ancestral temple at his birthplace, a bronze bust of the former leader stood on a table, amid cigarettes, rice wine and floral offerings.
Tour guides encouraged people to make an offering before leading them to a 1m-tall stone they said Mao was dedicated to as an infant, and whose divine blessings led to his charmed life.
"Mao stayed healthy and sturdy throughout numerous wars and tumults -- touch this if you want to get the same blessings," said a tour guide as a flock of tourists rushed to touch the stone.
Analysts said such worship of Mao in China where the regime keeps a tight control on ideology, restricts free flow of information and debate of historical issues, is to be expected.
"Now people view Mao Zedong as a legendary figure like any other folk gods," said Xu Youyu (徐友漁), a philosophy professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.
"Under a system where no debate of Mao has been allowed, their adoration comes as no surprise," Xu said.
And paradoxically, to those who were educated under communist China's atheist philosophy, Mao offers spiritual comfort.
"My mother doesn't believe in God or the Buddha, she puts all her trust in Chairman Mao all her life," said 27-year old Xiao Biqiang, an information-technology engineer, who bowed at Mao's bronze figure on behalf of his sick mother.
"It is a solace to her," he said.
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