One morning in August 1968, factory worker Wang Xiaoping overheard news of a mysterious mandatory meeting. Rumors whispered through the cafeteria described shipments of a gift from the country’s communist leader, Chairman Mao Zedong. And sure enough, managers soon dispersed a gift to every factory worker— a glass box encasing a golden wax replica of a mango.
Wang Xiaoping’s factory wasn’t the only facility to receive this unusual offering. The Chairman gifted fresh mangoes to factories across China, leading employees to stay up late, touching the fruits and contemplating the meaning behind Mao's gesture. Some tried to preserve the fresh mangoes in formaldehyde, while others ate the fruit and commissioned wax replicas of their prize. In one factory, workers initiated a strange ritual: peeling and boiling their mangoes to create a “holy” broth that was spooned into their mouths. Since traditional Chinese medicine often involved boiling ingredients, it's possible this mango wine was concocted as a kind of healing tonic. Soon, fables formed that the fruit ensured a long life like the Peaches of Immortality from Chinese mythology. And by refusing to eat the mangoes himself, Mao had generously sacrificed his own longevity for the working class. But whatever Mao's intentions, this mango mania wasn’t as frivolous as it might seem. And in fact, it’s harmless appearance hid a much darker truth.
Two years earlier, Mao Zedong had launched the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long political and ideological movement intended to erase capitalist thought and cultural traditions from Chinese society. To enact this plan, Mao called on the Red Guards, a student-led paramilitary group. He enlisted them to help eradicate the “Four Olds”— a vaguely defined set of customs, habits, and ideas often associated with the elite upper-class. Mao’s dogma was militant, and the Red Guard interpreted his vision as achievable only through violence. The Red Guard acted above law and order, ransacking temples and tombs, including those of dynastic royalty and Confucius. Homes were raided and piles of books burned in the streets. But the Red Guard’s rampage went far beyond property damage. They began holding “struggle sessions”— public spectacles designed to shame so-called class enemies. Victims were accused of holding elitist, capitalist values, and were often forced to wear heavy signs detailing their crimes. The Red Guard pressured people to accuse their friends and family. They manipulated students to denounce their teachers and parents. They gradually morphed into torture and executions.
After two years of the Red Guards’ chaos, Mao recanted his support and sent 30,000 factory workers to fight the Red Guard at Qinghua University. With the help of the People’s Liberation Army, these factory workers succeeded, and Mao thanked them for their service with a crate of 40 mangoes. This gesture wasn’t quite as generous as it appeared since Mao was actually passing along a gift he received from Pakistan’s foreign minister. But much worse, this reward was quickly tainted by the ideology of the Cultural Revolution. As a propaganda tool, Mao’s mangoes demanded high levels of respect. Workers boarded unheated buses in sub-zero temperatures to visit mandatory mango exhibitions organized by the government. Factory workers were scolded for not holding their replicas securely. And in Sichuan, a man who remarked that the mango was “nothing special” and “looked like a sweet potato” was arrested, tried, and executed.
For reasons mostly unknown, the mango fever broke a year and a half later. After the Red Guard was dissolved and participants were sent to the countryside for re-education, the mystifying mango faded from official propaganda. Wax from the replicas were repurposed for candles during power outages. And today you’d be lucky to find an antique mango tray or medallion while perusing a Beijing flea market. But the tale of Mao’s mangoes is just a minor story amidst a decade of painful, buried history. Discussion of the Cultural Revolution is restricted across China. And though some former Red Guards have attempted to challenge this policy by publicly reflecting and apologizing for their actions, they still avoid maligning Mao Zedong. Given the current political landscape of China, only time will tell when this history will be discussed openly and freely.
