MCLC: Maoism on the menu

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Maoism on the menu
Source: China Real Time, WSJ (9/12/14): http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/09/12/at-this-new-beijing-restaurant-maoism-is-on-the-menu/
At This New Beijing Restaurant, Maoism Is on the Menu
By Liyan Qi and Olivia Geng
For those who feel nostalgic about the old days of Maoism in China, a new restaurant in Beijing has you covered. This month, Cu Liang Ren Jia, or “Coarse Grains Family,” opened its doors with an unusual sales pitch.
While many restaurants in China these days are trying to tickle the palate of China’s new bourgeoisie, this restaurant wants to help people remember the rough days of peoples’ communes in the 1950s, specifically those in China’s northeast. It’s a trend that’s caught on: Cu Liang Ren Jia now has five branches in the country’s capital city.
Upon entering the restaurant, guests are greeted with the sight of a large red star and one of Mao Zedong’s most famous quotes: “Be resolute, fear no sacrifice. Surmount every difficulty to win victory.”
Inside the restaurant, old newspapers from the 1950s to 1970s cover the walls. Many of them are emblazoned with Chinese propaganda lines, such as one newspaper from the 1960s that blares, “American Imperialists get out of South Korea! Get out of Japan! Get out of South Vietnam! Get out of our nation’s territory Taiwan!”
Another Cultural Revolution-era slogan that decorates the wall declares, “Our aspirations to settle in the countryside are unwavering.”
To further foster the atmosphere, the dimly lit restaurant has also hung dried eggplants, chili and garlic from the rafters. All three are commonly grown in northeast China.
On a recent day, middle-aged and elderly customers crowded the restaurant during lunch hour.
“I feel like I’m back in my hometown in the North East,” said 62-year-old Li Shuhua, a native of northeastern Jilin province, who was dining in the restaurant for the first time. Ms. Li, who was dining alongside her husband, daughters and granddaughter, said she met her husband thanks to Mao, who sent millions of urban youth to farm and be “reeducated” in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.
Sipping a large bowl of coarse corn porridge, Ms. Li and her husband said that the food reminded them of the home-style dishes they used to eat, including goose stew and a dish of stewed pig.
Still, she said the restaurant presented a rosy vision of the past. “We were so poor. Ordinary families could hardly to afford newspaper to cover the wall,” Ms. Li said.
Her 66-year-old husband, Dong Lisheng, said that when he was young, he was never able to eat goose stew. “I knew the dish was made in that part of the countryside, but we could never afford it,” Mr. Dong said.
A few tables away, another older couple also reminisced about the early days of their romance, which they likewise struck up thanks to Mao’s campaign.
“I chased her. She was so beautiful!” said 66-year-old Wan Jiajun, beaming at his 63-year old wife, Yu Min, who was originally from Beijing but met Mr. Wan in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution, when the two were herding sheep and horses. The duo moved to Beijing in 1994.
In addition to the hanging vegetables and Maoist slogans, the restaurant also accentuates the old-timey feel with scattered farm tools. Likewise, wait staff wear red armbands and nametags that identify their commune title.
While Mao Zedong presided over years of mass, manmade famine, as well as violent political turmoil, Shi Hongliang, a manager whose nametag identified him as “village party chief,” told China Real Time he was very grateful for the leader’s legacy. “Chairman Mao’s radiance shines over tens of thousands of generations. There would be no new China without Chairman Mao!”
In addition to the kitschy slogans and décor, the restaurant has also augmented the countryside atmosphere through the addition of a few baby pigs, who on a recent day frolicked in a small pen outside the restaurant.
The pigs, too, are living happier lives than their predecessors. “Those pigs are for show only. We don’t eat them,” Mr. Shi said.
– Liyan Qi and Olivia Geng
by denton.2 at osu.edu on September 12, 2014
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