Private museum on Mao opens in Beijing

A private museum displaying 4,000 treasured antiques dedicated to China's founding father Mao Zedong opened here today.
The museum, founded by furniture enterprise boss Zhang Fuqi and one of the biggest memorabilia collectors of Mao, Yang You, will be free to the public.
With the same interests and nostalgia for history, the two decided to open just such a venue for their memories, shared by generations of Chinese people.
Yang, who has collected more than 10,000 pieces of Mao era memorabilia, sent nearly 4,000 treasured antiques for display at the museaum, which included art, statues, photos, posters, coins, quotation books, antique cups, radios, sewing machines and vinyl records from the revolutionary's time.

Zhang said he didn't really know how much he invested into this project, but since he made money from furniture sales, he did it for personal interest.
Yang, who also has a private museum in Gaobeidian, Hebei Province, said he believes in Mao Zedong Thought and the virtues of the people he advocated in society at that time, state run China.Org.Cn reported.

Yang added he would love to open similar museums in other cities; the next city to have such a museum may be Cangzhou, Hebei Province.
The private museums he founded have not yet received any funding or support from the government.

Mao, a Chinese Communist revolutionary, was the founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.