Wednesday - December 28, 2011

 Mao waves "hello" in his Bathrobe

One of the choicest presents I got when I was in Shanghai was the statue of Mao my wife found in a market. It was of Mao in his bathrobe after he had swum the width of the Yang-tse River. 

Like any good dictator Mao wanted to show that he had superior physical powers and therefore was worthy of ruling China. He used to swim the width of the Yang-tse river unassisted and then emerge, wrap himself in a bathrobe, and acknowledge the universal acclamation of the adoring Chinese people. The image of him dressed in this fashion was used for propaganda purposes as the poster above indicates. Here is another:

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