BBC发的关于纪念文化大革命50周年的芒果文章

来源: 禅心禅意 2016-02-10 22:56:15 [] [旧帖] [给我悄悄话] 本文已被阅读: 次 (35499 bytes)
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这是BBC的一篇关于芒果和五十年前的文化大革命的关系的文章,我还是第一次听说芒果的故事。

这是原文的LINKhttp://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35461265



China's curious cult of the mango


Fifty years ago, China was plunged into the most chaotic and traumatic decade of its recent history - the Cultural Revolution. During this period, the nation was gripped by a peculiar hysteria: a mania for mangoes. Benjamin Ramm discovers how the fruit became an object of deep veneration, and a vehicle for the promotion of the cult of Chairman Mao.
In 1966 Mao had called on the student Red Guards to rebel against "reactionary" authorities. His aim was to reshape society by purging it of bourgeois elements and traditional ways of thinking. But by the summer of 1968 the country had become engulfed in fighting, as Red Guard factions competed for power.
To quell the forces that he had unleashed, Mao sent 30,000 workers to Qinghua University in Beijing, armed only with their talisman, the Little Red Book. The students attacked them with spears and sulphuric acid, killing five and injuring more than 700, before finally surrendering. Mao thanked the workers with a gift of approximately 40 mangoes, which he had been given the previous day by Pakistan's foreign minister.
They had a huge impact.
1969 poster Chairman Mao, with mangoes in the background
White line 10 pixels
Close-up of Mao propaganda poster
Image captionA 1969 propaganda poster showing Mao and detail of a worker with a plate of mangoes
"No-one in northern China at that point knew what mangoes were. So the workers stayed up all night looking at them, smelling them, caressing them, wondering what this magical fruit was," says art historian Freda Murck, who has chronicled this story in detail.
"At the same time, they had received a 'high directive' from Chairman Mao - saying that henceforth, 'The Working Class Must Exercise Leadership In Everything'. It was very exciting to be given this kind of recognition."
This power shift - from the zealous students to the workers and peasants - offered respite from the anarchy.
"Some people in Beijing told me that they perceived that Mao had finally intervened in the chaotic random violence, and that the mangoes symbolised the end of the Cultural Revolution," Murck says.

Mao's Cultural Revolution
Parade, with mangoes
Image captionWax replica mangoes cushioned on silk are carried in glass cases during the re-enactment of Beijing's National Day Parade in Harbin, October 1968
  • In May 1966, Chairman Mao launched the Cultural Revolution
  • The 10-year political and ideological campaign was aimed at reviving revolutionary spirit and purging the country of "impure" elements
  • Young Chinese people were sent to the countryside to learn from the hard life of the peasants
  • Millions of people were persecuted and killed during Mao's rule

Zhang Kui, a worker who occupied Qinghua, says that the arrival of one of Mao's mangoes at his workplace prompted intense debate.
"The military representative came into our factory with the mango raised in both hands. We discussed what to do with it: whether to split it among us and eat it, or preserve it. We finally decided to preserve it," he says.
"We found a hospital that put it in formaldehyde. We made it a specimen. That was the first decision. The second decision was to make wax mangoes - wax mangoes each with a glass cover. After we made the wax replicas, we gave one to each of the Revolutionary Workers."
Workers were expected to hold the sacred fruit solemnly and reverently, and were admonished if they failed to do so.
Wang Xiaoping, an employee at the Beijing No 1 Machine Tool Plant, received a wax replica. The fruit itself was destined for higher things.
"The real mango was driven by a worker representative through a procession of beating drums and people lining the streets, from the factory to the airport," says Wang.
The workers had chartered a plane to fly a single mango to a factory in Shanghai.
Poster of a mango
Image captionThe text on this poster from 1968 reads: "Our Great Leader Chairman Mao forever joins his heart with the hearts of the people"
When one of the mangoes began to rot, workers peeled it and boiled the flesh in a vat of water, which then became "holy" - each worker sipped a spoonful. (Mao is said to have chuckled on hearing this particular detail.)
"From the very beginning, the mango gift took on a relic-like quality - to be revered and even worshipped," says Cambridge University lecturer Adam Yuet Chau. "Not only was the mango a gift from the Chairman, it was the Chairman."
This association is reflected in a poem from the period:
Seeing that golden mango / Was as if seeing the Great Leader Chairman Mao!
Standing before that golden mango / Was just like standing beside Chairman Mao!
Again and again touching that golden mango: / the golden mango was so warm!
Again and again smelling the mango: / that golden mango was so fragrant!
The mangoes toured the length and breadth of the country, and were hosted in a series of sacred processions. Red Guards had wrecked temples and shrines, but destroying artefacts is easier than erasing religious behaviour, and soon the mangoes became the object of intense devotion. Some of the rituals imitated centuries of Buddhist and Daoist traditions, and the mangoes were even placed on an altar to which factory workers would bow.
People celebrate around a plate of mangoes
Image captionThe worker-peasant propaganda team in Qinghua cheers the gift of mangoes - the ribbon reads: "Respectfully wishing Chairman Mao eternal life"
China has a long history of symbolic associations with food, which may have encouraged extravagant interpretations of Mao's gift. The mangoes were compared to Mushrooms of Immortality and the Longevity Peach of Chinese mythology. The workers surmised that Mao's gift was an act of selflessness, in which he sacrificed his longevity for theirs. 
Little did they know that he disliked fruit. Nor were they concerned to learn that Mao was simply passing on a gift he had already received. There is a tradition in China of zhuansong, or re-gifting. It may be regarded as vulgar in the West, but in China re-gifting is widely seen as a compliment, enhancing the status of both the giver and the recipient.
The mangoes also proved to be a gift to the propaganda department of the Communist Party, which quickly manufactured mango-themed household items, such as bed sheets, vanity stands, enamel trays and washbasins, as well as mango-scented soap and mango-flavoured cigarettes. Massive papier-mache mangoes appeared on the central float during the National Day Parade in Beijing in October 1968. Far away in Guizhou province, thousands of armed peasants fought over a black and white photocopy of a mango.
Items with mango illustrations
But not everybody was so enthusiastic about the fruit. The artist Zhang Hongtu told me of his scepticism.
"When the mango story was published in the newspaper, I thought it was funny, stupid, ridiculous! I'd never had a mango, but I knew it was a fruit, and any fruit will rot."
Those who expressed their doubts, however, were severely punished. A village dentist was publicly humiliated and executed after comparing a "touring" mango to a sweet potato.
The mango fever fizzled out after 18 months, and soon discarded wax replicas were being used as candles during electrical outages.
On a visit to Beijing in 1974, Imelda Marcos took a case of the Philippine national fruit - mangoes - as a gift for her hosts. Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, known as "Madame Mao" in the West, tried to replicate the earlier enthusiasm, sending the mangoes to workers. They dutifully held a ceremony and gave thanks, but Jiang Qing lacked her husband's sense of political timing. 
The following year, as Mao lay ill and with no clear successor in sight, she commissioned a new film, Song of the Mango, to enhance her credibility. But within a week of its release, Jiang was arrested and the film was taken out of circulation. It was the final chapter in the mango story.

Find out more 
Glass case with Mango inside
Image caption"The precious gift presented by Great Leader Chairman Mao to the Capital Worker-Peasant Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Teams - a mango, 5 August 1968"
Listen to Mao's Golden Mangoes, on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 12 February at 11:00 GMT or catch up later on the BBC iPlayer.

Now mangoes are a common fruit in Beijing, and Wang Xiaoping can buy "golden mango" juice whenever she likes.
"The mystery of the mango is gone," she tells me. "It's no longer a sacred icon as before - it's become another consumer good. Young people don't know the history, but for those of us who lived through it, every time you think of mangoes your heart has a special feeling."
Mao, like the mangoes he gave the workers, now lies preserved in wax in a crystal glass case.
Historians have tended to regard the mango craze as a bizarre fad, but it is one of the few occasions when culture was created spontaneously from the bottom-up, initiated and interpreted by the workers. During a period of great cruelty, the mangoes represented for people an emblem of peace and generosity. They wanted to believe the promise written on the enamel trays: "With each mango, profound kindness."

 

所有跟帖: 

是吗,好年少啊。那时候家家都有蜡做的芒果,供在玻璃罩里。 -nyagela- 给 nyagela 发送悄悄话 nyagela 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 02/10/2016 postreply 22:59:20

真的是孤陋寡闻,没听说过 -禅心禅意- 给 禅心禅意 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/10/2016 postreply 23:00:19

纪念章和头像都见过,就是没见过或听说过芒果的故事 -禅心禅意- 给 禅心禅意 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/10/2016 postreply 23:04:26

为什么是芒果? -七彩奶油- 给 七彩奶油 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/10/2016 postreply 23:00:20

同问 -禅心禅意- 给 禅心禅意 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/10/2016 postreply 23:08:29

参考这里的链接。呵呵,那时我们那里没供的 -阿尤- 给 阿尤 发送悄悄话 阿尤 的博客首页 (245 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 00:11:08

终于知道前因后果了,谢谢:)Red Guards=红卫兵 -禅心禅意- 给 禅心禅意 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 04:59:16

我那时也只是依稀记得,大人们抬着巨大的芒果游行。芒果基本上成了神果 -阿尤- 给 阿尤 发送悄悄话 阿尤 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 05:04:29

what? 阿尤居然经历过文革? -ghost_in_shell- 给 ghost_in_shell 发送悄悄话 ghost_in_shell 的博客首页 (229 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 07:06:50

听我妈说过~~ -meowzilla- 给 meowzilla 发送悄悄话 meowzilla 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 06:34:57

看电视说过 -紫色海洋- 给 紫色海洋 发送悄悄话 紫色海洋 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 07:27:40

紫洋都知道,我和奶油有问题:) -禅心禅意- 给 禅心禅意 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 10:04:44

文化大革命的回忆,比较沉重。不知道为什么 -佛布袋- 给 佛布袋 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 06:36:59

西哈努克送给毛泽东的,老人家说我们不吃,送给清华大学的工人宣传队员们吃。于是到处敲锣打鼓,我们只有追着看的份儿。不过很快就吃到了 -da124- 给 da124 发送悄悄话 da124 的博客首页 (278 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 10:25:21

非洲某国元首送给老毛的,毛再给工宣队.于是复制送往全国各城市. 举国皆狂,万人空巷.某日, 当时是小学生的我上街随队去迎接 -wsnyy- 给 wsnyy 发送悄悄话 wsnyy 的博客首页 (97 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 11:07:50

那是你们家有病,哪来的万人空巷?哪来的举国狂热?毕竟是少数人!!! -reader007- 给 reader007 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 11:25:57

还有忠字舞,早请示晚汇报,吃饭前要全家高唱“天大地大不如。。。” 不折不扣的邪教啊。 -不言有罪- 给 不言有罪 发送悄悄话 不言有罪 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 11:58:33

一群傻货。 -THR太行人- 给 THR太行人 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 12:23:31

那时候不知道芒果是什么东西。工宣队拿着展览才知是黄色水果。非洲人进贡的。 -SUNNE- 给 SUNNE 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 13:44:08

殷培田有个相声讲的就是这个事。 -千里一盏灯- 给 千里一盏灯 发送悄悄话 千里一盏灯 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 17:13:36

不知道就别瞎说了。芒果是巴基斯坦总统送的,人家送了20吨。当时7.27刚刚过,工宣队进了清华,北京满大街的人围着狂欢。听说那些供 -湖说- 给 湖说 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 17:32:38

至今吃芒果,心中犹恶心。 -一半西窗- 给 一半西窗 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 19:54:25

那时芒果没吃过,以为好吃的只有神仙才能吃到。 -cgh- 给 cgh 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/11/2016 postreply 22:48:17

我印象中是阿尔巴尼亚的头子送来的吧。 -mlchina- 给 mlchina 发送悄悄话 (0 bytes) () 02/12/2016 postreply 11:46:13

原来是这么回事。我当初看见芒果,不知道怎么回事,为什么大家贡着它不吃 -无法弄- 给 无法弄 发送悄悄话 无法弄 的博客首页 (0 bytes) () 02/12/2016 postreply 12:41:11

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