Ahead of China's National Day on Oct. 1, "red collectors," who collect memorabilia from the era of Chairman Mao, display their collections at an antique market in Beijing. They consider themselves to be preserving an important part of the country's history.
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00:00These are statues of Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party who founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.
00:09Chairman Mao is a critical figure in China's history, but he also has a complex legacy.
00:15He was chiefly responsible for the man-made disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution,
00:21which caused the deaths of tens of millions of people.
00:25But still, Feng Gang, a former soldier, chooses to display these statues of Mao in his home.
00:32He collects them, along with other memorabilia from the Mao era, known as red relics.
00:55Feng is just one of many so-called red collectors in China, hunting for items made between the 1920s and 1970s,
01:14a period that ranges from the founding of the Communist Party to Mao's death.
01:19Such collectors often have personal connections to the Mao era and believe deeply in socialist values in the Communist Party.
01:26And in rapidly changing China, they see their work as preserving an important part of history.
01:50In recent years, China has seen a wave of nostalgia for the Mao era,
02:06as its current leader, Xi Jinping, has ramped up nationalist education, aiming to deepen patriotism and love for the Party.
02:14We often think, perhaps outside of China, that the Mao era, that the revolution is just something in the past, it's just history.
02:21But these legacies really continue to exist into the present in China today, and they really have importance for a lot of the individuals.
02:29So a lot of the individuals who are part of the field of red collecting, they have personal, often family connections to the revolution.
02:37They have a deep love and respect for Chairman Mao, for the Communist Party.
02:42And this love was on display at a large antiques market in Beijing last month.
02:46Ahead of China's National Day on October 1st, hundreds of red collectors showed off their memorabilia as part of a special four-day event,
02:54including Feng, who drove seven and a half hours to be there.
02:58It's been nearly 50 years since the death of the man who was called the Great Helmsman.
03:03But these artifacts, and the people who collect them, show that Mao's life and legacy remain finely woven into the fabric of the nation.
03:12Howard Chang and Cadence Koronta for Taiwan Plus.