I was fortunate(??) enough to be one of the first Americans in china when the U.S. was in negotiations to re-establish diplomatic relations with mainland China in 1972. I traveled to China from Manila in the Philippines. I Flew to Hong Kong from Manila, took a train to the border, crossed into China, a train to Canton and flew on a Russian built bomber that was configured to hold passenger seats instead of bombs to Peking (not Beijing that time.)
One of the many things that I noticed back then was the (almost) total lack of color — everyone wore beige or gray “Chairman Mao” suits. The exception was that occasionally small children wore colorful clothes..
Before I get too far, a bit of background — although most older people know already…. Chairman Mao, or more properly, Mao Tse-tung was a Chinese communist revolutionary and the founding father of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In addition to being the founding father of the PRC, Mao was also a poet and political theorist — his Marxist-Leninist theories, military strategies and political policies are collectively known as Maoism or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. From 1949 until 1972, China was pretty much a closed society to the western world.
In 1972 Chairman Mao was still very much in control and tributes to him were everywhere. When we arrived in Peking, we drew large crows of people… they were very orderly and kept their distance, but they seemed to just want to see us. I’m sure part of this was our dress, which stood out from the crowd, but also that we just looked different — we weren’t Chinese. Many had never seen someone that didn’t look Chinese. Anyhow, everywhere we went , we drew a crowd.
Chairman Mao’s presence was everywhere. Mao published a very famous book, “Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book.” It contained Mao’s philosophy and quotes about almost everything. The books were printed in just about every language on earth and distributed freely on the streets.
Since I was one of the first to visit China, I naturally tried to find gifts for family and friends. One Sunday afternoon I passed a clock shop. All the stores in Peking were much like many stores when I grew up… all the merchandise was in glass cases or on shelves on the wall behind counters. You had to ask the merchant to help you and hand you the item you wanted to touch or examine. Anyhow, in the window of the clock shop was this bright red alarm clock with a picture of the Red Army being led up a hill with someone waving Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book (see the picture.) The book waved back and forth to count the seconds. Well, I decided this would be a perfect gift to bring to our families and a couple of friends. I went into the store and the Chinese man behind the counter was very helpful. I bought six of the clocks. Each came with a “guarantee” that was beautiful — it consisted of gold Chinese writing on a black background. The man carefully told me all about the guarantee in excruciating detail — in Chinese. And — he told me all about it six times as he filled out the guarantee for each and every clock. He put each clock (along with its guarantee) in a box. As far as I could tell, there were no paper bags in Peking in 1972. He stacked the boxes one on top of the other and tied them together with string. I took my purchases back to the hotel and put them in my room, not giving them any more thought. Later that night, after I’d gone to bed (actually it was 2 o’clock in the morning) all the alarms went off!! Six very loud alarm clocks…it certainly got my attention, and probably half the people on the fourth floor of the hotel.
I’ve thought about that over the years and I’ll bet the shopkeeper still tells the story of this American that came in and bought six alarm clocks… I can just hear him now “… and I set them all to go off at 2 a.m.”
The only thing he could have done to improve on the prank is to have set them to go off an hour apart…
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