The curious case of Pakistani mangoes in China
No fruit in the world can replace the sweetness that mangoes fill in my life. When I am away from home, I am unable to find this same sweetness.
As a student of history, I discovered Pakistani mangoes were considered worthy of idolisation during a tumultuous moment in the 20th century: they were devotional objects during the Cultural Revolution in China in 1960s and 1970s.
Research has been done on how these mangoes played a significantly important role during that period. Art historian Alfreda Murck has a book-length study on Chairman Mao’s 'golden mangoes', which were in fact Pakistani mangoes.
On August 4, 1968, Mian Arshad Hussain, the foreign minister of Pakistan, visited China and gifted a crate of mangoes to Chairman Mao. But this became more than just a present.