Mao Zedong – the man who founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and ruled it in absolute terms until his death in 1976 – is now paradoxically both omnipresent and semi-invisible in the Middle Kingdom. Anyone buying or selling goods in China will, of course, see Mao every day; his face adorns all Chinese currency notes. And tourists encounter myriad Mao-morabilia, such as posters, T-shirts, fridge magnets and alarm clocks, in markets from Kunming to Haerbin and Shanghai to Xi’an. Mao’s name has even been co-opted by China’s neon-lit nightlife scene: Music, Oasis and Art (or MAO) is a pulsing Shanghai nightclub, while Mao Livehouse is Beijing’s hippest live music venue.

But, China’s currency aside, the official use of Mao’s image and revolutionary slogans – which were once daubed across buildings and public squares nationwide – is almost non-existent. Apart from a museum in his hometown of Shaoshan, a mausoleum and portrait in Beijing and downtown statues in a handful of cities, such as Chengdu, Guiyang and Shenyang, and outside major universities, Mao is rapidly disappearing from view as China seeks to present a futuristic face to a newly engaged outside world.

Read our full-length feature about the tourism legacy and artistic inspiration of the Great Helmsman in 21st-century China, published in CNN Traveller magazine.