Why China's Gen Z is embracing Mao

In a sign of the times, Jack Ma is seen as the villain while Mao is a hero who speaks to its unhappiness

Visitors dressed in Red Army uniforms in front of the monument of Chinese leader Mao Zedong at the Revolutionary Memorial Museum in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, China last month. In a modern China grappling with widening social inequality, Mao's words p
Visitors dressed in Red Army uniforms in front of the monument of Chinese leader Mao Zedong at the Revolutionary Memorial Museum in Yan'an, Shaanxi province, China last month. In a modern China grappling with widening social inequality, Mao's words provide justification for the anger many young people feel towards a business class they see as exploitative. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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They read him in libraries and on subways. They organised online book clubs devoted to his works. They uploaded hours of audio and video, spreading the gospel of his revolutionary thinking. Chairman Mao is making a comeback among China's Generation Z.

The Communist Party's supreme leader, whose decades of non-stop political campaigns cost millions of lives, is inspiring and comforting disaffected people born long after his death in 1976. To them, Mao Zedong is a hero who speaks to their despair as struggling nobodies.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 10, 2021, with the headline Why China's Gen Z is embracing Mao. Subscribe