In 1968, Mao Zedong met with Pakistan’s foreign minister
Mian Arshad Hussain. Hussain gifted Mao with a mango, a fruit unfamiliar to
China. Mao, in turn, symbolically gifted the mangoes “to the people of China”.
Everyone went crazy for mangoes… The Mango Cult was born.
People didn’t eat the gifted mangoes — they worshipped them. [1]
Some of the mangoes were sealed in wax, others preserved
in formaldehyde, or put behind glass to be shown off. They were Mao’s “gift
to the working class people” and they attached an insane degree of emotional
value to the exotic fruits. Things soon spiraled out of control in a major way:
Workers soon began to venerate
wax models of mangoes and parade them around the country, punishing anyone who
disrespected them as counterrevolutionaries. One dentist from Fulin, Dr. Han,
saw the mango and said it was nothing special and looked just like sweet
potato. He was put on trial for malicious slander, found guilty, paraded
publicly throughout the town, and then executed with one shot to the head.[2]
Wax and plastic replicas of mangoes were in high demand.
Various mango-themed products were sold, such as bed sheets, vanity stands,
enamel trays and mugs, pencil cases, mango-scented soap, and mango-flavoured
cigarettes, often accompanied by patriotic slogans and images of Mao. A set of
medallions was crafted to commemorate Mao's gifting of the mangoes, and Mao
badges were manufactured with the image of a mango under his face.
There are many instances of mass hysteria. But millions
of deranged workers worshipping mangoes to the point of attacking and even
killing those who weren’t impressed by the fruit… that really takes the cake,
people. Thankfully today, mangoes no longer deemed exotic in most of China and
you won’t be executed by a mob of peasants from being unimpressed by them.
Footnotes
[2] The Mao Mango Cult of 1968 and the Rise of China’s Working Class
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