Power tip for Chinese women's volleyball? Read Mao.
| Beijing
Female volleyball players of the world, unite!
You might need a little Marxist inspiration to help you combat the Chinese team鈥檚 secret weapon at next year鈥檚 London Olympics 鈥� Mao Zedong鈥檚 poetry.
In a further sign of the Mao-stalgia that is creeping into official circles here, the Chinese women's volleyball squad spent a week recently studying 鈥淭he Long March,鈥� a stirring poem by the former Chinese leader, according to the Chinese Volleyball Association鈥檚 website.
This 鈥渢raditional revolutionary education鈥� taught the women 鈥渘ot to be afraid of difficulties and to dedicate themselves to their daily training with the Red Army鈥檚 Long March spirit under Mao鈥檚 leadership,鈥� the association explained.
The Long March was an epic, year-long, 6,000-mile trek that Mao鈥檚 armies undertook in 1934 to avoid annihilation in the civil war. Generations of Chinese schoolchildren have been made to memorize Mao鈥檚 poem about the ordeal.
It is sinew-stiffening stuff. 鈥淭he Red Army fears not the trials of the March,鈥� it begins, 鈥淢aking light of ten thousand crags and torrents.鈥�
That female volleyball players should be seeking inspiration from "the great helmsman" 鈥� reading his poem out loud after each training session and studying background material during their spare time 鈥� is perhaps not surprising.
Mao-era culture is making a comeback in some parts of China. In Chongqing, a giant city in the southwest of the country, the ambitious head of the local Communist party, Bo Xilai, is making a name for himself by reviving the sort of revolutionary songs, films, and art that had their heyday 40 years ago.
