Society‘Long live the teacher’: Why China’s Gen Z is embracing Mao Zedong again

Fifty years after Mao Zedong’s death, he remains highly visible among young Chinese online. Many members of Gen Z call him “the teacher”; his videos attract millions of views, while Selected Works of Mao Zedong has topped Tsinghua University library’s annual borrowing list for years. Analysts link the renewed interest to job pressures, inequality and China-Western competition, while questioning what young people remember—and forget—about the Mao era.