YAN'AN: Yang Yang travelled halfway across China with a singular purpose: to pay her respects to Mao Zedong.
Like many young Chinese, she grew up idolising Chairman Mao, told by her high school teachers he was not just the country's greatest leader and the founder of New China, but a role model for them all to emulate.
So, while her friends headed to the sunny beaches of Qingdao, the 23-year-old college student boarded a train for Yan'an, the dusty town in central Shaanxi province that once served as Mao's base for 12 years as he planned his revolution.
“In China, Mao is like a God,” Ms. Yang said. “I came here to see how he lived.”
In China's hinterland, small towns like Yan'an that were once associated with the Communist revolution have spawned a thriving “Red tourism” industry, driven by affluent young Chinese like Ms. Yang, who are looking to learn more about their country's past.
Yet, for them, Mao is more cultural curiosity than political role model — a far away figure who inspires passion, though little is known about his life or ideas.
As the Communist Party of China (CPC) marks its 90th anniversary this year, Mao's legacy is in the spotlight. Even as the Party encourages interest in Mao and “Red values” among young Chinese, it is closely guarding his legacy, barring any efforts to critically examine his life and failings.
In Yan'an, this renewed interest has translated into handsome profits for a fast-growing tourism industry. Last year, 14.5 million tourists visited Yan'an, bringing in $1.17 billion in revenue. Numbers are set to soar this year because of the anniversary celebrations.
Ms. Yang, a history student from the eastern province of Anhui, admitted young Chinese know little about Mao, whose ideas were increasingly irrelevant in today's China “where everyone cares about money.”
“We learnt about Mao's sacrifice and hard work to overcome difficulties during the revolution in our textbooks,” she said.
“Today, we don't practise this.” She said she came to Yan'an “to feel and experience the Yan'an revolutionary spirit.” She did so by purchasing a light-blue replica of the Red Army's uniforms, as well as a pair of plastic guns.
Also on offer outside Mao's humble one-bedroom mud home in Zaoyuan, a town near here, were Mao key-chains, t-shirts, posters, mugs and wallets.
“The Yan'an spirit has become a form of branding here,” said Tan Huwa, a historian at Yan'an University. This was not necessarily a bad thing, he said, suggesting it could stir interest in history among young Chinese.
One Yan'an cigarette company, he said, was even advertising its brand as “the only cigarettes which can give you the revolutionary spirit.”
Mr. Tan said Mao's legacy was “sensitive” as the Party turned 90. His failings — from the 1958 Great Leap Forward, which resulted in famine claiming more than 30 million lives, to the violent Cultural Revolution (1966-76) — are ignored. “Academics can study these sensitive events, but there are rules for propaganda purposes,” he said.
Mao Yushi, a liberal Beijing-based economist who, in an essay, recently called for a more objective and critical examination of Mao's life ahead of the anniversary, has come under attack from groups identifying themselves as Maoist supporters. His essay, which appeared in a liberal Chinese magazine, was subsequently censored.
One popular Maoist website accused him of “creating the chaos on purpose when the Party's 90th anniversary is approaching,” and has filed a case calling for his arrest.
In an article calling to “restore Mao Zedong as a man,” he highlighted Mao's direct responsibility for the deaths of the famine and the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, which find no mention in history textbooks here. He described the first three decades after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 as “misery.”
Mao, he said, felt no regrets for the deaths and devastation. “The backstage boss who destroyed the country,” he wrote, “still has his portrait on Tiananmen Square.”
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