BEIJING â€" With air readings of “hazardous†or “very unhealthy†seemingly the new normal, antipollution face masks are becoming a common sight on the streets of China. Even Mao Zedong has donned one. At least his image has, in doctored photos circulating online to widespread amusement (Mao, of course, died in 1976.)
I first spotted the joke when my 10-year-old came home from his state school on Monday with a forwarded image from his classmates on the We Chat app they all use. It showed Mao’s giant portrait above the Gate of Heavenly Peace, just north of his embalmed body in the Mao Mausoleum in Tiananmen Square, doctored to show a large bluish-white mask over the lower half of his face. His eyes were squeezed shut and his normally immaculately combed-back hair was flapping in the breeze. (By Tuesday noon, the image was apparently being censoredso it’s unclear how long the joke will survive on th blogosphere, but it has already spread widely. Here are some examples from Sina Weibo, a microblogging platform, if the link still works.)
Of course, Beijing recently experienced a sandstorm with strong winds, a traditional weather event for which residents have long donned face masks. Yet it’s clear that the joke is also about pollution, which has become one of the most sensitive social and political issues in the country.
Also, giving “Grandfather Mao†a facemask is bordering on sacrilegious in a country where many view him with almost religious awe and the government extols him as a hero and the founder of the nation. Mao’s face is on China’s paper currency to this day.
Some people reposting the image were taken aback at their own audacity.
“I know it’s not good to forward this but, , really†funny, wrote @Running Villa, using a yellow giggling face w! ith a hand over the mouth in place of the word funny.
“The wind is big,†wrote @Sun Wei. “But this kind of facemask won’t keep out PM 10,†referring to the larger particulate air pollution (people are more worried about smaller particulate that can enter the bloodstream from the lungs, known as PM 2.5.)
“Grandfather Mao should wear a mask, we can’t let the old man suffer any longer,†wrote Pure Ripple Sister.
Last week, chinadialogue, an environmental online magazine, called the efforts by the government’s Ministry of Environmental Protection to protect the environment “utterly disappointing.†It noted that in 2011, “the number of environmental protests increased 120″ percent.
Why the mess
“The key reason is the nationwide worship of GDP figures,†chinadialogue wrote, and: “The peole can no longer overlook the government’s failure to act on the environment.†(Here it is in Chinese, too.) Giving Mao, the hallowed ex-leader, an anti-pollution face mask suggests that’s true.
