|
|
|
The chairman's house
 |
|
| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
In the building in the background Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893. During the Cultural revolution his home village Shaoshan in Hunan province became a major pilgrimage centre.
When this picture was taken, in 1986 as you can see from the sign, there was some ambivalence among the Chinese leadership regarding how to handle Mao's heritage. The excesses of the Cultural revolution were admitted and the former "renegades" and "running dogs" had been politically rehabilitated. Deng Xiaoping was in power and advocated economic liberalization. Generally, the ideas of Mao Zedong had been thrown in the garbage-can, but he was still needed as a unifying symbol and a reason for the Communist party to retain its grip on power.
People were still visiting Shaoshan from all over China, but not many bothered to see the house where Mao was born, and I was totally alone in the nearby museum. However, those few who came here wanted to remember their visit by having their picture taken in front of the Chairman's house. There must be thousands and thousands of photographs like this in Chinese homes.
This was scanned from a Kodachrome slide. |
mikolaj_kawa, drt100, saxo042 has marked this note useful
Only registered TrekEarth members may rate photo notes. |
|
|
|
- aadilj
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1859 W: 62 N: 1497]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(10708) - [2008-05-30 1:06]
-
You are really taking us into those lovely corners of China through such documentary lke images that are well composed as well. I like this group as it poses.
Hello Gert! Fantastic scene. Good POV, very good capture. Nice light and colors. Original picture. Well done!
Hello Gert,
An interesting documentary of an era gone by!
All of us living through the later days of Mao will remember him as one of the pillars of orthodox communism...
I was reading the note twice in hope of finding an explanation for the people so nicely posed in front but no...
Greetings,
Pablo -
Hej Gert,
A fine documentary picture. Did you stand beside the professional photographer? Would be fun if someone in the photo would remeber this and find him- or herself on TE.
Hälsningar
Gunnar
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 1231 W: 0 N: 2455]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-n-g.gif)
(14917)![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 81 W: 37 N: 113]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-s-g.gif)
(435)
This is an interesting historical photo? 1986 was a much different time than China of today. The clothing fashion seems rather modern for the mid-80’s times. I live in Beijing now and have been in and out of China many times over the years.