China celebrated the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong today.
Many have drawn parallels between president Xi Jinping and Mao, especially now that Xi has taken to hardening Party indoctrination.
Mao has become a powerful symbol for leftists in the Communist Party.
"In venerating Mao, they sometimes seek to put pressure on the current leadership and its market-oriented policies while managing to avoid expressing open dissent," write Ben Blanchard and Benjamin Kang Lim at Reuters
To mark his birth, Chinese leaders bowed three times in front of the statue of Mao and visited his mausoleum.
And 37 years after his death, Mao's presence is still felt and seen all over China.
A portrait of Mao is seen at the Democracy Elementary and Middle School in Sitong town, where students are required to sing revolutionary songs and recite quotations from Mao's Little Red Book.
A giant peter of Mao is seen at a thermal power plant in Nanjie village in China's central Henan province. The village is said to be one of the last remaining models of communist China where collectivism still guides daily life.
This statue of Mao in his youth in Changsha, Hunan province was unveiled to the public in 2009.
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