Would you believe that a simple item on our dinner menu could lead to an impromptu history lesson about a relatively obscure phase of China's Cultural Revolution?  If you spent just a little time hanging around our house, well folks, you'd buy it.

A few weeks ago, Thomai prepared some fresh mangoes for dessert.  She's always doing her best to make sure that the girls and I get as much healthy stuff as possible.  On the night in question, I sat there at the table with the girls watching Thomai peel and cut the mangoes when a thought popped into my brain:

"Have I ever told you about China's 'Mango Worship' period?" I asked.

"Yes," Thomai groaned.

Then from across the table came the voice of our older daughter, K.  "I haven't heard it!" she exclaimed.  Our younger daughter Z followed up with a resounding, "Me neither!"  Intelligent, inquisitive and enthusiastic; Yeah…those are my kids, for sure.

From that point on, I had the pleasure of recounting the story for our girls – now ages 10 and 6 – as we ate the mangoes together.  I was working from memory only, so I started in the middle of the tale, explaining that Mao had sent a number of mangoes to factories and schools around China as a gesture of something or other.  In turn the folks who received the mangoes, treated the fruits as venerated objects, preserving them and – in some cases – constructing intricately detailed replicas of the mangoes to commemorate the occasion on which they were received.

I was fortunate to have my BlackBerry nearby, so I used the web browser to visit Stefan Landsberger's outstanding online archive of Chinese Propaganda Posters to check my facts.  I was happy to find a rather detailed summary of the entire "Mango Worship" period which allowed me to correct a few inaccuracies in my off-the-cuff version of the story.  In addition to the narrative, a picture of one of the celebrated fruits is included on his "Chairman Mao's Mangoes" page.  Additionally, Dr. Landsberger's page features a link to another site which has pictures of one of the handcrafted replica mangoes.

After listening to an updated version of the story (courtesy of the information from Dr. Landsberger's site), the girls gathered 'round to look at the pictures of the mangoes with me and I couldn't help feeling like they were just a little bit impressed with some of the stuff that their dad comes up with from time to time.

It's a nice feeling to be appreciated like that.

Further Reading from greeklish.org
An actual conversation at our house 11 May 2005
An actual conversation at our house, part 2 14 May 2005
Parenting tips from Dr. Mike  17 March 2006
Parenting tips, continued: Notes on Herbert Marcuse 15 Dec 2008