Mao Zedong was dying a slow, agonizing death. Diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in July 1974, he gradually lost control of his motor functions. His gait was unsure. He slurred his speech and panted heavily. The decline was precipitous.
Mao lies in state as people file past in Beijing, three days after his September 9, 1976 death. China's official news agency Xinhua released the photo with the following caption: ‘Peasants from Peking’s outskirts, with boundless profound proletarian feelings, paying respects to the remains of the most esteemed and beloved leader Chairman Mao Zedong.’
Posters of Chairman Xi Jinping and Chairman Mao on sale in Mao’s hometown of Shaoshan, 2015.
U.S. President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai stand to applaud, under a picture of Chairman Mao, at a gymnastic show in Beijing, 1972.
A Mao poster in Harlem, New York City, 1970.
Red Guards carry large portraits of Mao, as they parade through the streets of Beijing, 1967.
Mao, accompanied by his then second-in-command Lin Biao, passes along the ranks of revolutionaries during a rally in Tiananmen Square, 1966.
Chairman Mao meets with New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, 1976. It was the first official visit by a New Zealand prime minister.
The South African government’s 2015 decision to start offering Mandarin Chinese classes as a foreign language option at schools nation-wide sparked an uproar that baffled people in other, often more affluent, societies around the world where the demand to learn Chinese outstrips the supply of qualified teachers.
Ai Xiaoming is one of China’s leading documentary filmmakers and political activists. Since 2004, she has made more than two dozen films, many of them long, gritty documentaries that detail citizen activism or uncover whitewashed historical events.
