Mao Running a Factory in Afterlife?

China's phenomenal economic growth had certainly resulted in massive upheavals, as Tim Harford had rightly pointed out in his book The Undercover Economist.

But what was revealing was when he pointed out that among the confused, unemployed and dislocated Chinese, "a group of workers in Sichuan (四川) came to believe that Mao was running a factory in afterlife - according to socialist principles, naturally. One account claims that some of them killed themselves with the aim of joining him."

Though interesting, I would really like to know the exact source for this refreshing bit of information.

Separately, Harford made a fairly common mistake in his book when he referred to Hong Kong as a "country" when he noted that "over half of all investment into China in 1990 came from the tiny country of Hong Kong."

Before Hong Kong was reverted to Chinese rule, it was generally referred to as a colony, and after its reversion, a special administrative region. Depending on the context, describing Hong Kong or Taiwan as a country usually invites a swift rebuke from China.

And even though I have no intention of nitpicking, there is something seriously wrong with the way Harford spelt the name "Zhou Shien Pin". Harford was clearly referring to a mainland Chinese name, and all such names are spelt using hanyu pinyin (汉语拼音). But in hanyu pinyin, "Shien" clearly does not exist, though it might exist in Taiwanese or Southeast Asian Chinese names.