Heated issue of keeping Mao cool

Proud of his task: Xie showing a book with a photo of the embalmed body of Mao in Beijing. — AFP

Beijing: Days after Communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong died 40 years ago, the problem of what to do with his corpse was becoming increasingly heated – ­literally.

Mao himself had requested cremation, but powerful officials, including his mercurial widow Jiang Qing, decided he would join the likes of Vladimir Lenin and Ho Chi Minh in being embalmed and put on display.