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| MAO ANQING, the second son of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, died Friday (Mar 23) in Beijing at the age of 84.
A mourning hall for Mao Anqing was set up in Beijing's Western Hill service center.
Mao Anqing, born in 1923 in Central China's Hunan Province, was the only son of Mao Zedong to bear offspring. Unfortunately, he suffered from mental problems all his life after being beaten by Kuomintang soldiers on a Shanghai street in the early 1930s.
There were few things Mao Anqing could recall about his brief happy childhood spent with his father. Once, he broke a porcelain cup carelessly. Instead of reprimanding him, Mao Zedong explained to him with patience how a cup was produced. "Father tried to teach me to treasure things because everything is created with other people's efforts," he reminisced. Another time, when Anqing was playing with a piece of broken glass, Mao Zedong stopped a nanny who was about to restrain the boy. "It's not a big deal. If he really got hurt by the glass, he would learn a lesson and keep away next time," the father said.
Since early childhood, Mao Anqing led a tough life.
He was sent to Shanghai together with his elder brother Mao Anying and younger brother Mao Anlong after their mother Yang Kaihui was killed in October 1930 by a rival warlord.
Mao Zemin, his uncle who lived in Shanghai then, sent the three children to Datong Kindergarten, which was sponsored by a Communist Party institution. In April 1931, the brothers were sent to live with a communist named Dong Jianwu after the kindergarten was closed when the Communist Party of China (CPC) suffered a major setback in Shanghai. When Dong was forced to leave for Wuhan soon after, the Mao brothers had to lead a vagrant life. After Anlong died of disease (many say he went missing.) Mao Anqing and his elder brother had served as apprentices at a bakery, sold newspapers, collected garbage and helped push rickshaws.
In 1936, CPC members in Shanghai found the two boys.
Dong Jianwu, a good friend of Kuomintang official Zhang Xueliang, asked for Zhang's help to draw up plans for the Mao brothers during a meeting with him early 1936.
Zhang agreed. He sent his old subordinate Li Du to escort the two children, together with Dong's son, to Russia by way of France. Zhang also provided 100,000 francs (US$14,000) for the trip. Li arrived with his "three sons" in Marseille in August 1936. |
Late Chinese Leader Mao Zedong (M), his son Mao Anqing (R) and his daugther in law (L)
Yang Kaihui, Mao Zedong's first wife, her son Mao Anying (R) and Mao Anqing
Mao Anqing (Front), his wife Shao Hua (1st from Right), his son Mao Xinyu (2nd from left)
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When Mao Anqing was 14, the Mao brothers moved into an international children's home in the suburbs of Moscow, where Anqing got his Russian name Alexander and began to speak Russian.
It was then that Mao Zedong, in Yan'an, saw his sons in photos after years of separation. "I feel so sorry for Anqing, who suffered from the memory of being beaten up by cops," Mao Zedong told his entourage later. To avoid hurting them, he seldom mentioned his new wife Jiang Qing to the two brothers in letters during that period.
In the 1940s, Mao Anqing lived for six years with his father's second wife He Zizhen, who took care of him. "Mom He was very nice to me and I miss her," he recalled. After reuniting with his father in 1949, Mao Anqing never saw He again. She had provided him the maternal love he had been missing since his own mother died 10 years ago.
Mao Anqing returned to China in 1947 and joined CPC. He had worked as a Russian translator in the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the CPC from 1949.
Mao Anqing translated a dozen books on Marxism and Leninism and some books on politics. A good translator who spoke Russian even better than Chinese when he returned to China, Mao had difficulties finding a girlfriend. "Don't think yourself to be special just because you are my son," Mao Zedong told him. "If you pursue a girl who is much more competent than you and does not like you, you will not be happy. What's the point of being together if you are unhappy?" he asked.
During that period, there were dances in Zhongnanhai each weekend attended by government officials. Mao Anqing, young and lively, had been the heart of the parties. Jiang Qing, who tended to be jealous, heard some rumors about him and scolded him harshly.
Mao Anqing, pricked by the strong words, collapsed and had to be sent to a sanitarium in Dalian, a sea resort in Northeast China's Liaoning Province.
His father paid him a visit in the summer of 1957. Then, Mao Anqing recounted to him a dream he had about his late mother Yang Kaihui. "Mom came to visit me in a dream last night. She told me in smiles to practice calligraphy. 'I cannot copy essays for your father any more. Now you can do it instead,'" Mao Anqing told Mao Zedong. Coincidentally the father had just completed writing a poem in memory of Yang. In deep sorrow, Mao Zedong recited to his son: "I lost my wife Yang and you lost yours Liu."
It was then that Mao Anqing talked to his father about his wish to have a girlfriend.
In 1949, his elder brother had married Liu Siqi. Later Mao Zedong recommended Liu's half-sister Shao Hua to Mao Anqing, who had long cherished a secret love for her.
In 1960, Shao happened to be at the same sanitarium as Mao Anqing. A Beijing University student majoring in Chinese, Shao had helped Mao perfect his Chinese, since the latter had forgotten much of it during his years in Russia.
Shao, an avid photographer, took many photos of Mao Anqing. One picture taken in 1994 captured Mao playing snooker; another taken in 1998 had Mao playing chess.
Mao Anqing would often play chess with his son Mao Xinyu and watch TV in the evening. Apart from news, he preferred war films.
The couple visited East Lake Guest House in Wuhan on a number of occasions, where Mao Zedong lived for long periods in his final years.
"He (Mao Anqing) was very kind and spoke in a soft voice," recalled Luo Yizhen, a waitress who had attended to both Mao Anqing and his father.
"He shed tears when his wife pointed to him the photos of his father. He was a big guy, but skinnier than his father. Dressed in gray Sun Yat-sen uniform and cloth footwear, people might mistake him for his father Mao Zedong since the two had very similar faces," the 50-year-old woman recalled.
Mao Anqing and his wife co-authored an essay once included in textbooks for Chinese high school students. The essay described the red azalea blossoms of Shaoshan Mountain in Mao's hometown.
Mao Anqing paid a last visit to Shaoshan on Feb. 22, 1995. He shed tears for his father when he looked at his 10.1-meter-tall bronze statue that day.
Editor: Wing
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