, Columnist
Freedom on a Blank Page and in a Lock of Hair
As people rise up for their dignity from China to Iran, they have given us the most powerful symbols of revolution ever.
Not what Mao had in mind.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images
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A famous revolutionary once observed that “on a blank sheet of paper free from any mark, the freshest and most beautiful characters can be written; the freshest and most beautiful pictures can be painted.”
That revolutionary was Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China. How fitting — or ironic — that its citizens have been holding up blank sheets of white paper as they protest against the draconian Covid restrictions of Mao’s heir, Chinese President Xi Jinping.