Unlikely hero
A local leader jailed for extremism during the Cultural Revolution has many devoted followers
WHEN Zhang Qinli’s ashes were carried to his native village in a white pickup truck in May 2004, mourners lined the streets. They wept and clapped and set off firecrackers as the vehicle started its journey from the county seat of Lankao. “He died a wronged man,” shouted some. It was a hero’s send-off; so many knelt before the truck, sobbing, that it took about five hours to make its way from the dusty town to the hamlet, tucked in a grove of poplars 30km (20 miles) away.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Unlikely hero”
China August 6th 2016
From the August 6th 2016 edition
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