Forty years after his death in 1976, Mao Zedong, the embodiment of evil, is revered as the father of modern China. How is it possible that the greatest mass murderer of the Chinese themselves attained such a cachet? Do the Chinese suffer from an apparent mass delusion that Mao himself created the current vibrant capitalist economy when Mao in reality would have been virulently opposed to its current non-socialist modus operandi?
China is currently experiencing an unprecedented revival of the Maoist Personality Cult almost four decades after his death. Shrines and gargantuan monuments are being constructed in his honour. Devotees will spend their weekend travelling to these places of worship in the latest luxury vehicles to lay wreaths or to have their photographs taken with the latest high-tech equipment exemplifying modernity.
