Chairman Mao Zedong - Background

Mao Zedong had been born and raised in a peasant household in the village of Shaoshan, less than forty miles from Hunan's capital of Changsha. Most of the 2,00 residents of Shaoshan bore the name of Mao. It is a clan village. Mao's father was a tough, upwardly mobile peasant. He was hard, ambitious, greedy, and a money grubber. Mao's father was determined that his firstborn be educated. He needed a son to write and read and keep books as he was illiterate himself. His mother was a strong influence on his earlier years. She was a hard working, kind, and thoughtful woman ready to help others in need. Mao adored her. In 1913 he entered the Changsha Normal School No. 1. One of Mao's heroes was George Washington. He had read an article of the American Revolution that contained a sentence like "After 8 years of difficult war Washington won a victory and built up a nation." Mao said "China should have such great men as Washington."