China can't let go of Chairman Mao

„It might seem odd that a man responsible for the starvation of more than 30 million people could be chosen to promote a restaurant, but there is no mistaking the avuncular features of Mao Zedong staring from the portrait above the entrance to the »Red Leader« Hot Pot eatery. »Comrades! Welcome Comrades!« breezes a pretty hostess dressed up as one of Chairman Mao's Red Guards, complete with armband and Mao lapel badge.

She is, of course, far too young to remember the Cultural Revolution, the Mao-inspired political civil war of 1966-1976 that tore her parents' generation apart. Back then »comrade« was the standard form of address; today it is only used by young Chinese as slang for »gay«. Welcome, then, to China 2011: a country of such abiding contradictions that the ruling Communist Party's darkest moment can be the subject of a vapid theme-restaurant, even as a battle rages between conservatives and reformers over the country's political direction.

Today the party that Mao brought to power will mark its 90th birthday, celebrating its founding by a small group of revolutionaries in Shanghai in 1921 with an outpouring of "Red" propaganda. Groups of party faithful will gather to sing »Red« songs; cinemas will show the state's latest star-studded propaganda epic, The Founding of a Party, while newspapers and television stations will lionise the party's achievements.”