The gift of the "Great helmsman" or As China struck mango madness

In ancient times people worshiped the different animals, plants, and natural phenomena. It seems the whole world has no place in such remnants, but do not rush to conclusions. In 1968, when people have been in space and widely used nuclear reactors in China at the blue there was a cult... fruit. The usual mango, which can be bought in any supermarket, became the object of worship hundred million people in China and all thanks to the great leader Mao Zedong.

Today, China is not only one of the world's largest exporters of mango, but also a major center of the selection of the fruit, giving the world dozens of new varieties. But 50 years ago it was different and this tasty and useful fruit, the Chinese didn't grow. In 1968, Mao Zedong accepted the government delegation of Pakistan, which brought the "Great helmsman" generous gifts. Among others was a basket of exotic fruit called mango.

One of the most powerful rulers of the planet it was hard to surprise fruit. Mao already tried the mango and he doesn't like it. Therefore, the "Great helmsman", following Lenin founded the Communist tradition "best for children", sent a basket with Goodies a group of red guards, bringing "new order" at Tsinghua University.

But the natives of the worker-peasant environment, administers the Cultural revolution, mango've never seen. But even if the chief sent them a head of cabbage, it wouldn't have mattered. Fruit basket perceived as the greatest generosity is the gift of comrade Mao loaded with wisdom and imbued with love for the common people and the revolution.

Therefore, the fruit reverently removed from the recycle bin and sent to different parts of China, as relics. The subsequent history of the import of Pakistani mangoes are similar to the plot of the primitive Comedy. One of the textile enterprises mango coated with wax and placed under a glass dome in a separate room to keep for posterity.

On other factories, who were lucky enough to get a great gift, mango placed on a kind of altar with a portrait of Mao Zedong and worshiped the fruit as a Shrine. In one of the Beijing printing Agency mangoes preserved in tanks of formaldehyde, hoping to keep the fruit forever. When the fruit is blackened and shriveled under the action of chemicals, the desperation of the authors of this idea was difficult to describe.

The workers of one of the metallurgical plants put mango in the water tank and every employee in the morning, before you begin to perform their duties, drank a small amount of water to be filled with the spirit of Mao. About the same was the case in other places, where the gifts of the national leader.

To the great regret "mango cultists", the fruit, including specially treated, sooner or later started to deteriorate. To avoid missing any grams of precious product, rotting mangoes are boiled and the decoction, with a piece of precious pulp or peel, were given to the most worthy.

Mango but soon ended and had to be manufactured. In China began to produce layouts of the fruit rubber, plastic and even cardboard, which were sent to the factories, agriculture, schools, universities and public institutions. Not everywhere you can see the fruit of Mao, so people from remote regions of the country came and came hundreds of miles to the big city to see through the glass a plastic dummy.

It is not surprising that appeared in China and mango dissidents, refers to the cult of the fruit with skepticism and even ridicule. These bastards are quickly put in order, including battering, and one nerd-doctor even tried a show trial and executed. He dared to compare the taste of the fruit Mao mundane sweet potato!

For thousands of years the symbol of longevity and health in China was considered a peach. Through the gift of the Pakistani delegation and wisdom of Mao Zedong its place in a matter of days took mango.

Such poetic lines dedicated to the blessed fruit national news Agency, "people's daily" and this verse was spread through Newspapers, magazines and banners.

It got to the point that the layout mango took the place of the disgraced statues of Buddha at home altars. The cult of fruit prevailed in China for many years, until the death of the "Great helmsman" in 1976, but after this product is habitually treated with respect.