China: Mao's Legacy Site

Old Chen, a veteran clerk of the Central Committee, stared at the blank sheet of paper before him. His brush, heavy with rich red ink, hovered in the air. Outside, the nation was holding its breath. The "Great Helmsman," Chairman Mao, was dead.

He did not write of absolute victory, nor did he write of absolute ruin. He simply recorded the dates, the titles, and the official mourning periods. The real story of the legacy, Chen realized, would not be written by clerks in quiet rooms. It would be written by the billion people outside, deciding which parts of the Chairman's shadow to keep, and which parts to finally step out of. China: Mao's legacy

Chen’s task was to help draft the initial bureaucratic summaries of the Chairman's legacy. But how could a single brush stroke capture a man who was both a god and a hurricane? The Two Faces of the Mountain Old Chen, a veteran clerk of the Central