China Beat Archive

 

Authors

Alec Ash

Date of this Version

2011

Document Type

Article

Citation

2011 in The China Beat http://www.thechinabeat.org/

Comments

Copyright 2011. Used by permission.

Abstract

When I left Beijing after two years studying Mandarin at Peking and Tsinghua Universities, my Chinese friends from those universities threw me a leaving dinner at the Cultural Revolution restaurant, far on the outskirts of Beijing, outside the 5th ring road. While punters ate, drank and sang along with Mao era songs, waitresses dressed as Red Guards performed patriotic dances, clutching prop rifles. “Long live Chairman Mao!,” the diners would shout, tucking into red-braised pork – good thing this wasn’t the Great Leap Forward restaurant, or it would perhaps have been a quarter bowl of rice each. “Death to capitalist roadsters!,” as the bill came in at a distinctly capitalist 900 yuan.

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