Why Chinese mourn Li Keqiang, their former prime minister

The umbrellas gave them away. Even from a distance, these were unmistakably townsfolk, shielding themselves with parasols from an autumn sun that no Chinese farmer would fear. On and on they trudged: a long column of outsiders, following a country lane between rice paddies and fishponds towards the village of Jiuzi, ancestral home of Li Keqiang, China’s prime minister until his retirement earlier this year.They were mourners, turning out in their hundreds on this warm Sunday, a few days after Li’s sudden death at the age of 68. Most held bunches of white and yellow chrysanthemums, a funeral flower in China. Under their umbrellas some were formally dressed in black and white. Parents cajoled young children to keep walking, after parking cars in fields well outside the village.