# Chairman Mao's English Teacher Dead at 72 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chairman-maos-english-teacher-dead-at-72/435465 "2008-01-29T16:18:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chairman-maos-english-teacher-dead-at-72/435465/1 "2008-01-29T16:18:20Z")
Story [here](http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/28/china.mao.ap/index.html). Name of Zhang Hanzhi. “She described Mao as an ambitious student who was keen on vocabulary – especially political terms – and proper word usage, although he had no interest in grammar and correcting his accented pronunciations.” ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chairman-maos-english-teacher-dead-at-72/435465/2 "2008-01-29T16:43:35Z")
Not to be snarky, but is there some reason we _care_ about this? I saw the story at the top of the AP list this morning and wondered how this was any different than say Mao’s gym teacher dying. The story itself didn’t really clear the matter up for me. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chairman-maos-english-teacher-dead-at-72/435465/3 "2008-01-29T16:47:18Z")
Well, it’s mundane, it’s pointless, and I couldn’t resist sharing it.