15 February – 16 June 2013
June 1969, colour printing on paper
72.0 x 106.3 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich
Gift of Alfreda Murck
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger
Why would anyone have the idea of preserving a half-rotten mango
in formaldehyde and cherish it as a great treasure? Why would wax
imitations of mangoes be carried in processions, and venerated like
religious relics? How could an innocuous fruit become the bearer of
a powerful political message? This exhibition tells the story of a
most unusual propaganda symbol in China during the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). In 1966, Mao Zedong
launched the Cultural Revolution as a mass movement: he called upon
school and university students to set about creating a new society
and eradicating everything that belonged to the past. The young
people accepted this task with enthusiasm – and rapidly plunged the
country into chaos. Two years later, Mao decided to bring the
movement back under the control of the Party. But officially he
pronounced that from now on the working class should be leaders in
everything. It was at precisely this time that Mao received a box
of mangoes as a gift from the visiting foreign minister of
Pakistan. The very same night Mao ordered that these exotic fruits
should be presented to the workers. The mangoes were quickly seen
as a symbol of Mao’s benevolence and devotion to the masses, and
became the focus of cult admiration. The symbol soon entered
popular culture, with mangoes decorating cups, bowls, cigarette
packets, badges, blankets and other everyday objects. For more than
a year China was gripped by mango fever. And then the mango
vanished from the propaganda repertoire, as quickly as it had
come.