Jottings from the Granite Studio

A Qing historian reads the newspaper…

Jottings from the Granite Studio header image 2

Hua Guofeng, 1921-2008

August 20th, 2008 ·

courtesy of Stefan Landsberger's collectionI had heard a sad rumor last week regarding Granite Studio fave Chairman Hua Guofeng, and sent a message out through my new favorite procrastination device “Twitter”:

Hearing a rumor that former Chairman (and Granite Studio fave) Hua Guofeng has passed away in a Beijing hospital. Tracking…

I couldn’t confirm it and my source said that the CCP was probably sitting on the news to get their political ducks in a row and to not upset the happy-happy clappy-clappy atmosphere of the Olympics.

Well, the Chinese media is declaring that China has already “won” the Games (how somebody ‘wins’ a celebration of sport and culture is a whole other topic…) and with Liu Xiang limping off the Olympic stage, Xinhua probably figured now is as good at time as any.

Via AP:

Hua Guofeng, who briefly ruled China as communist founder Mao Zedong’s successor but was pushed aside by Deng Xiaoping as a prelude to reforms that launched an economic boom, died Wednesday, state-run media reported.

Sad day indeed here at the Studio.  I’ll write a more fitting tribute later, until then, see below for previous articles on Hua Guofeng:

Come Back Hua Guofeng, All is Forgiven” (October 11, 2007)

This Date in History: Hua Guofeng” (October 6, 2006)

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Haohao
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Reddit

Tags: Chinese History

From the archives