This is something that I totally do not get. Mao's body, perfectly preserved, has been on display in Beijing Tiananmen Square since 1977 and to this day there is an hours long line to get in to see him. The building itself is strikingly similar to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, and includes a larger than life Mao. That seems tribute enough, and far less gruesome than viewing a long preserved corpse.
It also seems profoundly disrespectful of the memory of Mao, as he was a proponent of cremation. He was trying to move into modern times and leave the past behind in every way, including how the dead are handled, and wanted to be an example of that. He failed miserably in that goal, but through no fault of his own. he was, after all, dead at the time. He is just one of a surprisingly long list of totalitarian dictators (either in name or in practice) who are embalmed for all eternity. The Russians are the masters of this and can be credited with perfecting the technique, having both lenin and Stalin preserved. Other Asians who have undergone the treatment are Ho Chi Min, Kim Jong-Il, Kim Il Sung, and Ferdindand Marcos. The latest leader to be so preserved is Hugo Chavez. So one can make a tour of sorts to see these specimens, years and even decades after their deaths.
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