Visit to Mao’s tomb, Chinese cuisine and the Great Wall

Excerpted from volume two of Sarath Amunugama’s autobiography

Accordingly our delegation should travel and see the damage caused by the Gang. Shanghai was the headquarters of the Gang from where they tried to get hold of the centres of power. Hangchow was an equally bad place. Foreign guests could not be taken there because of the fighting, but now things had changed, and we could visit the city.

After the meeting Deng spoke individually to members of our delegation and walked with them to the foyer to see them off. It was a fantastic, once in a lifetime experience with a heroine of the great Chinese revolution.

A Visit to Mao’s Memorial

A cold wind blows across Beijing. Large crowds line up four abreast from early morning. Most are young people. There are also groups of party veterans, professionals and a sprinkling of PLA and Navy personnel. The memorial is built on the eastern approach to the Tien An Men [Gate of Heavenly Peace]. Though scheduled to be built in eight months the workers completed in six. It faces a vast ‘Red Square’ which frames the Great Hall of the People, many administrative buildings and the ‘Heaven’s Gate’ built in traditional style from which Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] in 1949.

As the line of visitors reach the steps they react hurriedly-buttoning up tunics, straightening their coats, combing their hair and taking off their caps, all as marks of respect. We slowly climb up the steps and enter a large hall to face a lifelike white marble statue of Mao seated. Behind the statue is a gigantic mural depicting the rivers and mountains of China done in the traditional style of painting. We then enter the main hall where Mao’s catafalque is placed. It is in a glass box. Mao’s body is covered with a red flag with the hammer and sickle- the symbol of the Communist Party uppermost. The face is of an old man badly made up. But the sense of power and respect is overwhelming.

There is low moaning, crying and blowing of noses by the obviously moved visitors. Mao dominates the red square with its memorial to the martyrs, a statue of Mao with arm outstretched and a gigantic display picture of his beatific face alongside similar pictures. of Marx, Lenin and Stalin which gives a clear signal to the onlookers regarding the four giants of Marxist thought and practice.

Since China was still in the transitional phase between the `Gang of Four’ and the Deng Xiaoping reforms to a more liberal economy the current leader is Hua Gua Feng whose posters, much reduced in size, were also seen at the Tien An Men. Mao was glorified because Hua’s legitimacy was based on an alleged death bed wish of the ‘Great Helmsman’.

We know now that Hua was quietly sidelined later when the veterans under Deng took control of the party and country with the willing support of the generals of the Red Army. The adulation we saw on our tour of Mao was because only he could be claimed as the leader of all the factions that were just then jostling for power. Even Madame Chou En Lai, whose husband had been badly treated by Mao in his final days, could only tell us that Mao had been misled.

Later historical research has shown that Mao had indeed backed the Gang while at the same time tempering their more obvious outbursts against the veterans. Through all this drama behind the scenes, the common people, as we saw with our own eyes, were still in thrall to Mao as their deliverer from the evils of the ancient regime.

Chinese Cuisine

This being my first visit to China I was naturally interested to savor as well as learn about Chinese cuisine. The frequent visits for meals to Chinese restaurants in Colombo had only whetted my appetite to experience more of Chinese cooking. On our very first day in Beijing we were entertained to lunch at the famous Peking Duck restaurant. The first impression is of the elegance of the building and the politeness and etiquette of the serving staff.

As hors d’oeuvres we were served successively meat, fish and prawns which were to be dipped in different sauces. Then a duck was brought in and exhibited to the guests just as a French waiter would display an unopened bottle of expensive wine for approval. The guests approve and the waiter disappears to the kitchen with the unfortunate bird. Then the different dishes start coming. Each dish serves a different part of the duck – gullet, liver, breast and so on.

They have to be rolled in wafer thin wheat pancakes which have a thick brown sauce spread lightly over it. Experienced diners use their chopsticks to wrap the pancakes into a roll, dip it in different sauces on the table and expertly guide it to their mouths in one motion. Each mouthful gives a different taste because of the different meats on offer and the varying sauces available as dips. Some diners show off by twirling the pancake with their chopsticks before making a roll ready for dipping.

Chinese soups come at the end of the main meal. In traditional cooking all the leftovers from the dishes are put into a pot with boiling water. Nothing is wasted because that would be unthinkable in a society where famines and starvation were a common place. A delicious ‘pot-pourri’ is then served as a soup. In China the refusal to drink that soup with meats and greens bubbling to the top is considered to be an insult to the chef.

Finally sweets and fruits are served including home grown apples and tangerines. All the while eating is interrupted by toasts proposed by the hosts in local wines and fiery Mo-tai. On the way many of our delegates said politely that they missed the hot chillies they were used to eating at home. After that at all our meals a special dish of hot curry was provided and our hosts appeared to be shocked by our consumption of chillies which is not a general ingredient of northern Chinese cuisine. The exception were the chillie eaters of Szechuan province. Deng who became the supreme leader came from that province. He was fond of hot food and was given the nickname of ‘little hot chillie’ by his close friends.

On our last evening we were dined at one of the famous restaurants of Beijing. It offered delicious Szechuan food. The restaurant was located in the house of a warlord of the pre-revolution period, Yuang Shi Kai, who was for a short period the virtual ruler of China.The service is excellent and the waiters perform their duties with exquisite etiquette. There were many toasts and the officials who accompanied us were all agog as a high personage was to join us for dinner.

This senior official represented the secretariat of the party. He toasted us and delivered a speech which echoed the sentiments of Madame Chou when she entertained us at the Great Hall of the People. The following morning we left for Shanghai.

The Great Wall and Ming Tombs

No visit to China is complete without an outing to the Great Wall. It was built by the famous medieval ruler Chan Chi Wang who wanted to prevent the Mongol hordes who swept in from the north entering the heartlands of China. It is a stupendous undertaking and we were told that it was the only earthly feature that was visible from a satellite in the sky.

Emperor Chan was a heroic figure in Chinese history for many advances including safeguarding the unity of the country and reforming the alphabet. During the Cultural Revolution the Emperor had been criticized as a tyrant for having used forced labour to build the Wall. But, we were told, Mao had put a stop to that by proclaiming him to be a good ruler. But some of the polemicists continued even to criticize Mao in wall posters.

But all that had stopped with the end of the Gang of Four. The delegation then visited the Ming tombs where thousands of terra cotta life size statues have been unearthed by the new administration. It is a find of great archeological value and I was particularly impressed by the ‘avenue’ of clay lifelike figures of the Generals of the Emperor with their horses by their side. Only a stupendous civilization could produce artefacts on such a grand scale and sensibility.