What's in a Face? Portrait Shift Hints At China's Next Step

"Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution destroyed traditional China, but in its place created only class hatred, violence, and disillusionment," says a former democracy activist who asked not to be identified.

Who are the heroes now?

"Although the reform era of the 1980s led people once more to dream that a savior could arise from the party, the June 4, 1989 attack on Tiananmen killed those illusions for most," he adds. "Few Chinese youths look to Tiananmen any more for heroes." Instead, "pop stars, rich entrepreneurs, even the gangsters in films and pulp fiction have become heroes or antiheroes for nearly an entire generation of Chinese."

The quest for new guiding figures and principles during China's rapid and sometimes chaotic social changes, some say, has burgeoned among the nation's 800 million peasants. There has been a rise of cult figures who promise riches, longevity, or some sort of salvation in some areas of the countryside.

And in one of the most curious twists of Chinese history, Mao, who spent much of his life attacking superstitious thinking, is being transformed into a folk deity, says Thurston.

"China has a long history of elevating great military leaders into supernatural heroes, and Mao is becoming an angry god that has to be appeased with alms," she says. "In Mao's hometown, villagers have built a great imperial tomb for Mao and light incense before his statue."

Even among better-educated, urban residents, interest in religion is gaining ground, say Chinese scholars, and that in turn has the party leadership worried.

"The government is trying to put out the 'bush fires' of cult leaders and their followers wherever they break out, along with waging a low-profile crackdown on established religions," says a social science researcher here.

Party's 'mandate of heaven'

For thousands of years, China's emperors were leaders of not only the temporal world, but also spiritual life, and they were believed to be mediums between the heavens and the Earth.

"The party has lost the 'mandate of heaven,' and is experimenting with using nationalism, Confucianism, and the promise of prosperity to regain its moral authority," he says.

But it appears nationalism alone will not fill the void created by the disintegration of communist beliefs.

"Of course, all Chinese will unite to oppose any threats to the country's sovereignty over Taiwan or Tibet, but that is not the same as active support for the party," the lecturer says.

"The party's renewed respect for Sun Yat-sen is admirable," he says. "But merely changing symbols at Tiananmen Square will not reignite the idealism that filled most Chinese during the founding of the People's Republic or during the [pro-democracy protests] in 1989."

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