Mao Zedong's Infamous Mango Cult
In August 1968, factory workers across China were given a glass box encasing a golden wax replica of a mango, given to them from the country’s communist leader, Chairman Zedong.
At the time, many Chinese citizens had never laid eyes on a mango. The mere sight of the fruit, associated directly with the Great Helmsman himself, elevated it to a symbol of Mao’s benevolence and the Communist Party’s favour.
Some of the 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 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 what was the true meaning behind Mao’s gesture?
Was it affection? Gratitude? Or something much darker…
The Cultural Revolution - 1966
This was a sociopolitical movement initiated by Mao Zedong aimed at preserving Chinese communism by purging capitalistic and traditional elements from society, leading to widespread chaos and persecution. The Cultural Revolution was characterised by violence and chaos across Chinese society. Estimates of the death toll vary widely, typically ranging from 1 to 2 million, including a massacre in Guangxi that included acts of cannibalism, as well as massacres in Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Yunnan, and Hunan.
It began with the formation of the Red Guard: a student-led paramilitary group, which Mao enlisted to help eradicate the “Four Olds”, with a vaguely defined set of customs, habits, and ideas often associated with the elite upper-class. Mao used the group as propaganda and to accomplish goals such as seizing power and destroying symbols of China's pre-communist past, including ancient artifacts and gravesites of notable Chinese figures.
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 escalating chaos unleashed by the Red Guards, Mao Zedong withdrew his public support and authorized decisive action against the very movement he had helped to create. In 1968, he ordered approximately 30,000 factory workers to enter Qinghua University, a major stronghold of Red Guard activity, to suppress the violent factional fighting that had spiralled out of control. Backed by the People’s Liberation Army, these workers successfully defeated the student militants, marking a turning point in the Cultural Revolution. To express his approval, Mao presented the workers with a crate of forty mangoes, an exotic and unfamiliar fruit for most Chinese citizens at the time. However, the symbolic value of this “gift” was less sincere than it appeared, as Mao was merely redistributing mangoes he himself had received from Pakistan’s foreign minister. Despite this, the mangoes were swiftly elevated into sacred political icons, revealing the extreme personality cult surrounding Mao.
The Cultural Revolution’s ideology transformed these ordinary fruits into objects of near-religious veneration. Replicas of Mao’s mangoes were displayed in glass cases in factories and workplaces, while mandatory exhibitions were organized across the country. Workers were required to endure freezing temperatures and long journeys on unheated buses to pay homage to the fruit. Any perceived lack of reverence was harshly punished. Factory workers were reprimanded for holding mango replicas improperly, and the slightest hint of mockery was treated as a counter-revolutionary crime. In one notorious case, a dentist from Fulin, Dr. Han Guangdi, allegedly remarked that the mango looked no different from a sweet potato. This offhand comment was deemed “malicious slander.” Dr. Han was publicly denounced, paraded through struggle sessions, and eventually executed — demonstrating how even trivial remarks could lead to fatal consequences under Maoist fanaticism.
Approximately a year and a half later, for reasons that remain unclear, the mango cult disappeared. As Mao dissolved the Red Guards and sent millions of young participants to the countryside for “re-education” through manual labour, the mango quietly vanished from official propaganda. Yet this bizarre episode represents only a tiny fragment of a far larger and far more painful decade of suffering.
Today, open discussion of the Cultural Revolution remains heavily restricted in China. Although some former Red Guards have attempted to confront this past by publicly acknowledging their wrongdoing and expressing remorse, they almost never criticize Mao himself. Within China’s tightly controlled political environment, the legacy of the Cultural Revolution remains unresolved, and it is uncertain when — if ever — this traumatic chapter of history will be openly examined.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango_cult
https://commonplacefacts.com/2025/03/04/mango-cult-mao-china/
Daya Sangha
