On the shoulders of giants
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After returning from the US in 2001, Kong set about retracing her family's footsteps. She interviewed family members and old acquaintances, dug into historical archives and published four bestsellers: Opening My Family Album: My Grandfather Mao Zedong; Grandmother's Story: Mao Zedong and He Zizhen; Those Days Changed the World - Conversations with Wang Hairong about Mao Zedong's Diplomacy; and Quotations from Chairman Mao.
"It is a way of getting to know more about them, and at the same time it is a journey to my roots," she says.
Kong was deeply moved by the love story between her grandparents, who were married between 1928 and 1937. Mao married Jiang Qing in 1938 and had a daughter, Li Na.
In order to treat her wartime wounds, grandmother He went to the Soviet Union and only returned to China 10 years later.
It wasn't until 1959 that He once again met Mao, on Lushan Mountain. It was the first time in 22 years and the last time. She so cherished the memory that she revisited the mountain three times, in 1962, 1965 and 1975.
Kong says Mao was tearful and wrote He a letter when he learned of her stroke in 1954.
"Grandmother stayed up the whole night, listening to grandfather's speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the first session of the first National People's Congress, which was broadcast repeatedly.
"It was the first time in 17 years that she heard his voice. The next morning she was found, sitting paralyzed in her chair, and the radio was burned out."
During the years Mao and He were apart, Kong's mother became a kind of messenger and used to travel between Beijing and Shanghai with gifts from both parties.
"Grandfather once sent grandmother a handkerchief he had been using. She often held it to her face, lost in reminiscence."
When He was allowed to enter Beijing in 1979, she insisted on bidding Mao farewell at his memorial hall in Tian'anmen Square.
"They met for an hour in Lushan, but her visit to his mausoleum was just a few minutes because of her failing health," Kong says, sighing.
Kong says the family gathers each year on December 26 and September 9, the dates her grandfather was born and passed away, in order to honor his memory.
Grandmother He died in 1984 and was buried at Babaoshan, along with her old comrades. Kong's father passed away in 1999.
Her mother has been a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference since 2003.
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