Mao More Than Ever

Mao Zedong died on September 9, 1976. Fifty years later, Jeremiah and David compare notes on a mostly quiet anniversary. Jeremiah reports that there were enough tributes to beat the over/under, but David argues that the Party would still prefer to keep things as ritualistic as possible. Mao is still dead. We will all bow. And moving on.

David recalls how Mao was remembered in the 1980s, when Deng Xiaoping's (reputed) formula that the chairman's policies were two-thirds correct, one-third incorrect was treated as the last word, even as xiangsheng artists could still mock the Cultural Revolution so long as the punchlines landed squarely on the Gang of Four. Jeremiah discusses how and why Mao nostalgia never goes out of fashion, morphing with the times and the exigencies of the era.

The two also catch up on their summer vacations. David is back in Beijing, his broken leg mended with the help of a dominant physical therapist. Jeremiah reports in from a 27th-floor balcony overlooking a container port in Shenzhen.