Mao is history as China pins hopes on Potter

WENZHOU (China): Businessman Chen Jiashu ditched Mao Zedong in favour of Harry Potter long ago, because that is what his customers want.

The owner of a small family-run factory that produces pins by the millions, Chen has been in a better position than most to watch as China has quietly abandoned the heroes of communism in favour of icons of commercialism.

"We used to get many orders for Mao Zedong pins, but today there is very little demand for Mao products," Chen said at his small plant in a suburb near Wenzhou, a city in the east of China famed for its entrepreneurial spirit. 

His single order for 10,000 pins of China's most famous communist revolutionary early in the year was a mere fraction of the 200 million he assembles annually.

"Now I do pins for companies that are having promotional events for something like Harry Potter, Star Wars or Coca-Cola," said 50-year-old Chen, a straight-talking man, who served in the Chinese Army in the 1970s.

Thirty years after his death Mao may be regarded by some as the country's greatest modern leader but his once iron grip over Chinese society has been reduced to a superstitious if somewhat sinister tourist trinket.

"Buyers are gift companies, travelers or shops in Mao's hometown of Shaoshan. Most people buy Mao badges to collect, as a lucky pendant to hang on the wall or in a car as some believe Mao will bring them luck and peace," Chen said.

"I believe in that too," he added with an embarrassed smile, recalling how 30 years ago the fervor of the times had demanded that all Chinese show their loyalty to the nation by owning some piece of Mao memorabilia. "Nobody will buy Mao pins to wear now," he said.

In China today, Mao's vision of an egalitarian, communist utopia has become an anachronism in a country that increasingly defines itself by the competition of market capitalist values.

Deng Xiaoping's call in 1979 for a loosening of the Marxist-Maoist ideology that had straitjacketed the nation for decades was the first step in China's long march toward becoming today one of the globe's biggest economies.

Wenzhou, a city cut off from the mainland by lush mountains, snaking rivers and marshy farmland, but blessed with natural harbors seized the chance to return to its traditional trading roots after long being ignored by Beijing's central planners.

As the nation emerged from communism, many were still unsure how to resolve the conflict between Marxism and capitalism, but Wenzhou, a city of 7.5 million people in China's Zhejiang province, was quick to become a beehive of entrepreneurial activity.

It was not long after Chen's return from the army in 1980, that Wenzhou gained nationwide fame for becoming the first Chinese city in which the private sector dominated the economy.

"One year after China had started the economic reform and opening many families here had already begun producing pins and badges," Chen said, recalling his own start in the business in 1985.

Wenzhou's early experiment with capitalism has been instrumental in the city's growth, with its economy last year valued at 160 billion yuan, more than 90 percent of which came from the private sector.

The bet has paid off handsomely for Chen, whose pins selling between one to 30 yuan, have made him a millionaire.

Chen insists he is not yet successful and aims to become the world's number one manufacturer. Mao would surely turn in his grave, especially if he heard that Chen's 300 workers now concentrate on making badges for many of the world's armed forces, including the United States, Mongolia and the Japanese police.