Zuppe di teste di scimmie e teste di Mao, ovunque

Il 1971 passa alla storia come l'anno della 'diplomazia del ping pong': Glenn Cowan, capitano della squadra statunitense di tennistavolo viene invitato a disputare una tournée in Cina, insieme ad altri otto compagni. Era dal 1949 che un americano non metteva piede in Cina. Una svolta epocale: dopo Cowan, sarà la volta di Nixon, e i cinesi usciranno dall'isolamento.
Connie Sweeries faceva parte di quel team e racconta a Newsweek quei giorni indimenticabili. Dall'ubiquità di Mao - Portraits of Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong were everywhere. One hotel had a 10-foot-tall white statue of him in its lobby. Another had a shot of him standing in clouds on a mountaintop. And most places had red books of Mao's quotations where you would expect to find bibles. On top of all that, people had on yellow or red badges with Mao's picture on them - alle sue esperienze coi cibi estremi della cucina cinese - The food was probably the most memorable part of trip. Meals were routinely eight to 10 courses, four or five times a day. At first, I would ask what we were eating, but after I got answers like shark's stomach soup, chicken-feet soup and monkey's head, I stopped. Sometimes you just don't want to know...