However, even though Mao s resurgent popularity is merely the externalization of popular disaffection with present Chinese society, this only emphasizes his extensive cultural currency which freely lends itself to use as a Chinese icon, a unifying symbol of national, ethnic and cultural power. On the one hand, the commercialization of Mao could be interpreted as an act of subversive disrespect and shameless capitalism. However, an alternative, kinder viewpoint might perceive the proliferation of Mao images as implicitly acknowledging his paramount stature in Chinese history while appropriating it for capitalist uses a reasoning Deng Xiaoping might have winked at but never seeking to convey ridicule or disrespect. Rather, the Mao phenomenon constantly reminds us of Mao s omnipresence in Chinese culture, establishing his ongoing presence in kitsch and contemporary culture, and as a cultural motif on a level no other leader has come close to. The faceless Chinese protestor who single-handedly held up a column of tanks heading for Tiananmen Square was identified by Britain s Daily Express as one Wang Weilin, but other reports claimed that may have been an alias for fear of retribution.
Conflicting sources suggest that the man has either been executed or gone into hiding underground.
Wang, or whatever his real name is, is a poster-boy David against the Chinese Goliath but he also represents larger issues of alienation and rebellion in the masses which are addressed in different ways. The distinction is significant because of Wang s prevailing popularity in China and his massive readership, which includes intellectuals as well as the general reading public. Like the Mao portraits which have been appropriated into popular culture as symbols of contemporary disaffection, Wang Shuo s novels are also vehicles for their readers expression of perceived estrangement. However, Wang s novels and Mao paraphernalia are not self-contained resolutions, but are themselves indications of a deepset social malaise and an ongoing search for a relevant Chinese identity. While these fundamental issues are constantly evolving questions which will always be symptomatic of any society, they do indicate the intensifying rate of inability to find meaning, or signification, in contemporary Chinese society.