Christian Persecution in "Atheist China"

[Confused Ape]

What I find interesting is the comment that it was once easy to know what to believe in - the Communist party.

The Chinese people had more than just Communism - there was the Personality Cult of Mao Zedong. After looking round various sources I chose the article on the Cultural China website.

In 1962, Mao proposed the Socialist Education Movement (SEM) in an attempt to educate the peasants to resist the temptations of feudalism and the sprouts of capitalism that he saw re-emerging in the countryside from Liu's economic reforms. Large quantities of politicized art were produced and circulated — with Mao at the center. Numerous posters, badges and musical compositions referenced Mao in the phrase "Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts" and a "Savior of the people".

In October 1966, Mao's Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, which was known as the Little Red Book was published. Party members were encouraged to carry a copy with them and possession was almost mandatory as a criterion for membership. Over the years, Mao's image became displayed almost everywhere, present in homes, offices and shops. His quotations were typographically emphasized by putting them in boldface or red type in even the most obscure writings. Music from the period emphasized Mao's stature, as did children's rhymes. The phrase Long Live Chairman Mao for ten thousand years was commonly heard during the era, which was traditionally a phrase reserved for the reigning Emperor.
Today, Mao is still regarded by some as the "never setting Red Sun". He has been compared to the Sage Kings of the classical China. Since 1950, over 40 million people have visited Mao's birthplace in Shaoshan, Hunan.

I found an article giving further information about how the cult has developed. Cult Of The Chairman

Mao Zedong has clearly entered the pantheon of Chinese folk deities, along with the Yellow Emperor and other legendary sages and heroes in Chinese history. And Shaoshan, visited by millions over the years, is the Lourdes of his cult.

This is not so strange. Humans have been worshipped as gods for thousands of years in China, and the point of Mao, in the eyes of the believers, is no longer whether he was good or bad; such categories do not apply to godmen. The point, as a taxi driver in Hunan pointed out to me when I asked him about the Mao charm dangling from his rearview mirror, is that Mao was Great, or weida . Greatness, in the sense of projecting great personal power, is much admired among the Chinese peoples; think of the continuing popularity of Mein Kampf in Taiwan.

A godman in China or Japan can still have entirely human characteristics - more so, perhaps, than Jesus Christ, whose status with some Chinese is somewhat similar to Mao's. In Changsha, the capital of Hunan, where Mao went to school and founded the regional communist party, I visited the provincial museum, where there is a lavish display of Mao's underwear. That is the interesting thing about godmen: they are both divine and very human.

This kind of behaviour isn't exclusive to Chinese people. I think it's related to something we don't think too much about in Western culture - celebrity worship. I'm going to quote the bit about fandom from the following article.

Do You Worship The Celebs?

According to psychologists, fan bases often resemble religions. The strong similarity of Star Trek fans to a religious cult has been widely noted, with fans organising conventions and recruiting new followers.
The obsessiveness of celebrity followers can also resemble religious worship. For example, fans will frequently pursue an interest in one celebrity and denigrate competing stars.
Fans will also perform rituals which have parallels in religion or cults. For example, they make sure they watch all of a celebrity's television appearances and try to collect items that have been touched by their chosen star.

Anyone who investigates fandom will soon find examples of rabid fanaticism and flame wars where virtual fur is flying over opinions such as "My favourite TV show/actor/interpretation of a story etc is better than yours.

Maybe humans, as a species, have some kind of need to worship something.