BEIJING-Here in the land of Mao, the Great Helmsman who changed the fate and face of China has been dead for more than 30 years and his body lies in a mausoleum at Tiananmen Square as proof.
Yet, very few Chinese know that Mao's disciples are still waging revolutions in his name in Nepal and some parts of India. The few here who have heard that there was an election in Nepal are the ones who watch CCTV 9 International which has covered the polls.
But even they don't know that the winning party is known as Maoists. It's an indication of how far China has distanced itself from Mao that not many people think about their great leader, and know even less about Maoism elsewhere in the world.
Even Chinese intellectuals are slightly puzzled about why a Nepali party had to name itself after Mao Zedong. "Don't you have any leaders of your own that you could have named the party after?" asked one over dinner the other day.
My joke with friends here is: "We exported Bhrikuti and Arniko to you, and imported Mao." But some Chinese have never heard of Bhrikuti, the Nepali princess married to a Tibetan king or Arniko, the master builder from Kathmandu Valley who is supposed to have brought the architecture of the pagoda (called dagoba here) to China.
China has been transformed in the last 30 years with Dengonomics and from an underdeveloped country it has become the fastest growing economy in the world and still growing. It does not mean that China doesn't have problems like the growing gap in incomes, social issues. But the government seems to be well aware of them and has the resources and the commitment to address them.