Mao Zedong Obituary (1893-1976) By: Wilma Soetomo People’s Republic of China’s founder, Chairman Mao Zedong passed away in Beijing on September 9th, 1976. Although numerously misunderstood by his people, there is no mistake that he is considered to be both hero and villain in the development of modern China. Mao Zedong was born in December 26th, 1893 in a village known as Shaoshan, a part of the Hunan Province, and as the son of a prosperous grain dealer. Aspired with ambition, Mao Zedong managed to put himself through school despite having to suspend his education for several years. At the age of thirteen, his father pulled him out of school and made him work in the fields. Still ambitious, Mao Zedong continued to self-study and when he turned sixteen, he decided to leave home and complete his …show more content…
As being one of the chairmen of the party, this situation then lead him to rise as the leader and founder of People’s Republic of China in 1949. As leader of China, Chairman Mao Zedong was responsible for many political ideas that transformed China. One of his well known ideas was ‘The Great Leap Forward’ in 1958. The purpose of this initiative was to establish China’s economy to rival the United States of America in a time period of thirty years. He planned to develop the industrial and agricultural sector, which seemed to be a crucial factor towards the economic development. In his belief, when both sectors were developed side by side, they would benefit each other than to be developed individually. Although at the beginning of ‘The Great Leap Forward’ everything seemed to be in order, nevertheless after a year things started to fall apart. Farm machinery started to fail, crops couldn’t get harvested, injured workers and China’s citizens started to die due to the starvation and various diseases. Due to guilt because of the failed idea, Mao Zedong resigned as Head of State in