CHINA | Mao Incorporated

In China, communist ideology has mutated and been rebranded for modern times. "Red tourism" is a booming government supported industry that reinforces national pride and drives Chinese tourists to spend more money inside the rural heartland. Grand monuments, battle reenactments and tours of model communist villages glorify the deeds of past communist leaders, but hardly a reference can be be found to the tens of millions who perished during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural...
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In China, communist ideology has mutated and been rebranded for modern times. "Red tourism" is a booming government supported industry that reinforces national pride and drives Chinese tourists to spend more money inside the rural heartland. Grand monuments, battle reenactments and tours of model communist villages glorify the deeds of past communist leaders, but hardly a reference can be be found to the tens of millions who perished during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

Among the unmissable "red tourism" hotspots is Nanjie, a village of 3,500 inhabitants that re-collectivised in 1990. All property is municipal, residents live in identical apartments, and workers are paid in coupons, not currency. The government provides for all its citizens' needs, supplying them with everything from cough medicine to funerals. Inspectors visit homes and workplaces to award Nanjie residents gold stars for things like hygiene, effort, respect and discipline, as well as the all-important "being a good communist." The town is plastered in Mao iconography and speakers on lampposts blast patriotic songs and famous Mao quotes every morning. Despite its collectivist internal structure, even Nanjie relies on China's consumer economy to survive; residents work in 26 factories producing everything from noodles to Mao statues.
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