China: | Mao's Legacy

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.

The heavy curtains in the Beijing study were drawn tight against the biting autumn wind of 1976. On the massive mahogany desk sat a single porcelain cup of green tea, long gone cold. 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