Mao Zedong’s Infamous Mango Cult

The Mysterious Mango Gift

One morning in August 1968, a factory worker named 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. As it turned out, 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.

Preserving and Consuming the Mangoes

Some workers 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 involves 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.

The Darker Truth Behind the Mango Mania

However, this mango mania wasn’t as frivolous as it might seem. Its 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.

The Red Guard’s Rampage

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.

Mao’s Mangoes as a Propaganda Tool

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.

The End of the Mango Fever

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. The wax from the replicas was 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.