“[Snow’s book] established Mao as a global political personality,” says Julia Lovell, Professor of Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck University and author of Maoism: A Global History. “The image was published at a time when Mao wasn’t even the supreme leader of the CCP. It’s only during the 1940s, through various machinations, that he becomes its paramount chief.”

It was during this time that Maoism – called “Mao Zedong Thought” in China – began to crystallise. An ever-evolving pick’n’mix of ideologies clustered around the figure of Mao, “Mao Zedong Thought” was the substance behind the image Snow gifted to the CCP.

By the early 1960s, Mao had seen off his political rivals and established himself as the supreme leader of China. His persona was part-avuncular godfather, part Aztec emperor: demanding loyalty, homage and blood. Mao’s chief propandagist, Lin Biao, orchestrated this fervour with precision: in 1964, he published Quotations from Mao Tse-Tung, otherwise known as Little Red Book. A copy was issued to every Chinese citizen, with his image emblazoned on cover; today, there are an estimated five billion copies in circulation worldwide.