Wen with a Mao badge from the Qinghua factory.

Guo and Wen, 1968.

By Yi Ling, China Features

In an antique store run by Luo Zhuqing, a porcelain badge with the portrait of Mao Zedong sells for around 40 yuan ($5.58).

"The most expensive ones in my store are worth more than 10,000 yuan ($1,464)," the 59-year-old collector whose shop is in Leshan, Sichuan Province explained. For former Mao badge makers Guo Zhiquan and Wen Jiyan, the collectables are priceless.

Guo and Wen, both 67 and both from Leshan, have known each other since they began work at the State-run Leshan Qinghua Porcelain Factory in 1962. Guo made porcelain blanks, while Wen was a paint worker. The two youngsters, both lovers of art and literature, soon became good friends and in 1966, when the Cultural Revolution began, they both became Red Guards.

"We believed that Chairman Mao was sent to change the world then, so were we," Guo recalled. He soon became a leader of a Red Guard faction and took over the management of the factory in March 1968.

Guo was eager to find a new direction in his work and turned his focus to Mao badges.

The badges became popular in Beijing in August 1966, when Mao received the Red Guards.

"First came the metal badges and then those made of plastic and bamboo. Porcelain ones were regarded as the best," Guo explained. "I thought 'that's our opportunity.'"

Guo took a team to the Jianxiang Porcelain Factory in Changsha, they returned with badge-making skills and samples and set up a special "badge platoon."

Wen was fired from the team after passing on his skills to his colleagues because he was born to a "business" family.

"The Mao badge was a holy article that allowed no stain," Wen recalled.

To show their love to Mao, badge team members performed a loyalty dance before and after work everyday. They held both hands high toward the sky to show faith in Mao, bowed to indicate their loyalty and clenched their fists to symbolize their revolutionary fervor. They also shouted slogans such as "Long Live Chairman Mao!"

"Our work was a serious political task," Guo explained. "We didn't say 'make' badges, but 'produce badges with full respect.'"

The workers produced 40,000 badges in September 1968, however, more than 80 percent were defective.

"Small grains of sand were mixed into the badge mud and caused pinhole-sized pores on the surface," Guo said. "I was dumfounded and some workers cried as it was a sin to distort the leader's image."

After a review of the processes, quality badges were produced in 10 days, featuring Mao's portrait at different ages. Guo took the badges to the Leshan county government.

"It was such a sensation as nobody had ever seen a porcelain Mao badge before. People across the county talked about it and were thrilled," Guo added.

The county government recognized Guo's efforts and he was selected as a delegate of Sichuan to attend National Day celebrations in Beijing. The Qinghua factory's badges were among gifts presented to Mao and Guo was received by the great leader.

"He was much taller than I expected and his hands were very soft," Guo recalled. "I was so nervous that I couldn't stop trembling when shaking hands with him, as if I was sick."

Demand for the badges soared after Guo's Beijing trip and worker numbers increased from 300 to more than 500. The varieties of Mao badges exceeded 30 in 1969. The badges were not for sale, but instead used to recognize "heroes from different fields."

The factory's prosperity came to an end with an order from the central government in June 1969 to stop producing the badges to avoid wasting materials. The Qinghua factory had produced more than 100,000 badges before the order was given. Nationally, more than 8 billion badges had been made.

Guo was faced with the problem of dealing with storage and the many defective badges. "Mao's portrait was on them, so we couldn't bury or abandon the badges," he explained. After repeated requests for instructions from the government were unanswered, Guo put the defective badges in several big bamboo baskets and loaded them on a small boat.

"We secretly poured all the badges into the Dadu River nearby at night. Only a few factory officials knew it. That was the best solution we could figure out."

Since his early days in the factory, Guo attended university and became a successful artist and scholar. Wen retired from the factory as general a. airs manager in 2002.

Original Mao badges witnessed a revival in the 1990s and it is estimated that 300 million badges survived with 2 million badge collectors on the Chinese mainland today on the lookout for high quality pieces of history.