On a sultry summer afternoon, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) stand face to face in Beijing’s Longtan Park. In spite of the oppressive heat and the vicious civil war they waged, the chairman gazes at his old foe with serene benevolence.
For a moment, the passing tourists freeze. Then they break into grins and crowd around China’s best-known figure for photographs and handshakes.
“We saw him on television and were impressed, but this time it was for real, standing in front of us. We’re really honored to meet him in person,” 40-year-old Wang Fei said.
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Photo: Reuters
Mao is not, of course, quite the person he was. Thirty-five years after his death, his shoes are filled by impersonator Shang Qingrui. And as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) prepares for its 90th anniversary, demand for his services has boomed, with guest appearances already lined up at a string of official events.
The CCP has plenty to celebrate. It began in 1921 when 13 men gathered on a boat in eastern China to create an illegal organization. Today it is the world’s largest and most powerful political party, with more than 80 million members and control of the world’s second-largest economy.
Despite this, it seems necessary to keep today’s members in awe of the glory of the past, hence a busy campaign complete with revolutionary tours, red song concerts and a new patriotic movie that sprinkles its account of the party’s creation with a host of star cameos aimed at younger viewers.
As the party moves ever further from its roots — the new film is co-sponsored by Cadilllac — it exploits them to bolster its relentless, Leninist grip on political power.
“This is an absurd era,” He Bing (何兵) of the China University of Politics and Law told graduates in a bold speech this month. “They encourage you to sing revolutionary songs, but do not encourage you to make revolution; they encourage you to watch [the new movie] The Great Achievement of Founding The Party, but they do not encourage you to establish a party.”
He’s view is clearly not part of the official campaign.
“Let history tell the future!” booms Shang, in between drags on a cigarette that seems as much prop as habit. The impersonator is reliving the highlights of his last engagement — a party for cadres in Inner Mongolia — where he paid tribute to young red heroines who lost limbs to frostbite fighting to save a herd of sheep. His next booking is at a Beijing jail, to raise the morale of staff and re-educate prisoners. He also takes on corporate work although he drew the line at promoting a spa, judging it too undignified.
He is one of several “Mao Zedongs.” However, imitating Mao is no joke: This act is deadly serious. Shang, who has also played the leader in television dramas, is hired not for boozy weddings, but staid official events.
Others make their living impersonating Soong Ching-ling (宋慶齡), revolutionary and widow of Republic of China founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), and Deng Xiao-ping (鄧小平), who began China’s economic reform in the 1980s.
But what does it take to become a successful impersonator?
“First we need a person to look like them, and then we need the right character and a high level of thought like the great leaders,” Shang said. “Even though China is huge, it’s not easy to find someone combining those aspects.”
Only bushy-eyebrowed former Chinese premier Zhou [Enlai] (周恩來) — Zheng Jianshan to friends — actually belongs to the party. However, Shang, 56, sees their work as a vocation.
“In Mao’s generation, the spirit was to serve the people. Now everyone has got their eyes on money,” he said. “We grew up learning this culture. It is my responsibility to pass it on, otherwise it will be lost and young people will be lost.”
Others believe the real problem is too much reverence for an imagined past. Last month the Caixin Web site published a taboo-breaking essay on Mao by influential liberal economist Mao Yushi (茅于軾) — no relation. It accused the chairman of wrecking the country and unleashing the turmoil of the cultural revolution to avoid blame for the Great Famine — observations commonplace among westerners but heretical in China. While the party has admitted Mao made mistakes, it cannot dwell on them without jeopardizing its own position.
Though swiftly deleted, the piece sparked a mass petition demanding the arrest of the “traitorous” author. Some even threatened the 82-year-old with violence. For these Maoists, many of whom are relatively young and stand against what they see as capitalist excesses and foreign influence, this competing version of history represents a struggle between left and right.
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