1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,639 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: For as long as humans have walked the earth, we've 7 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:41,200 Speaker 1: wondered what happens after we die. But in the mid 8 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:44,800 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, a poor merchant from northern India found out 9 00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 1: the hard way. His name was Lal Bihari. In nineteen 10 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:50,840 Speaker 1: seventy seven, he was twenty two years old and getting 11 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: ready to expand his small hand loom business. In order 12 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:56,319 Speaker 1: to apply for the bank loan, he traveled to his 13 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 1: birth city to collect proof of identity. But when he 14 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: met with his local village officer who controlled the documents, 15 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:05,760 Speaker 1: he got some shocking news. Lal Bahari was dead. The 16 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: bureaucrat told him the official registry indicated that he had 17 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,400 Speaker 1: died just the previous year. When the surprise wore off, 18 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: Bihari started asking questions. This wasn't a joke and it 19 00:01:16,040 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: wasn't an innocent clerical error either. Bihari would soon learn 20 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: that he was the victim of a bizarre and sinister 21 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:25,640 Speaker 1: form of fraud. His own uncle had bribed public officials 22 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: to falsely record Bihari's death, allowing Bihari's cousins to inherit 23 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: a plot of ancestral land that should have gone to him. 24 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:36,039 Speaker 1: The young businessman could accept the loss of the tiny 25 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:38,639 Speaker 1: plot of land, which didn't even amount to an acre, 26 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,759 Speaker 1: but being dead, just even on paper, presented a serious problem. 27 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:45,560 Speaker 1: If Bihari couldn't prove that he was in fact alive, 28 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 1: he couldn't get the loans or licenses that he needed, 29 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: and his business would never have a chance at success. 30 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: As it turned out, getting the government to correct the 31 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: records was more difficult than Bihari could have ever dreamed. 32 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: For several years, his letters to public officials went ignored, 33 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: but rather than giving up, he became more determined to 34 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:08,080 Speaker 1: get the government to acknowledge his existence. So he started 35 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:11,839 Speaker 1: to cause trouble. Bihari interrupted a meeting of state legislators 36 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,800 Speaker 1: and had to be dragged out by guards. He intentionally 37 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:18,560 Speaker 1: got himself arrested and then ran for public office, all 38 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: in an attempt to get his name on official records, 39 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,240 Speaker 1: but none of that worked. Bihari threw himself a funeral 40 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: and added the Hindi word for departed to his name. 41 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: He also applied for widow's pension for his wife, but 42 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: was denied without explanation. Bihari eventually became so frustrated that 43 00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,320 Speaker 1: he resorted to kidnapping his cousin, the child of that 44 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:41,079 Speaker 1: uncle who had defrauded him. For five days, he took 45 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: the boy to the movies, then waited to be arrested, 46 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 1: but the police never came. Bihari considered sending his uncle 47 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: the boy's shirt soaked in goat's blood as a scare tactic, 48 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,240 Speaker 1: but he lost his nerve and sent his cousin home instead. 49 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:57,959 Speaker 1: Almost a decade after his crusade began, Bihari's cheeky spectacles 50 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: finally got the attention of a journalist. His story was 51 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 1: published in a state newspaper, but the government still did 52 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: not act. Lal Bahari remained legally dead to the world. 53 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,320 Speaker 1: By this point, he learned that he was not alone 54 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: in his plight. He had met countless others who had 55 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 1: been recorded dead in fraud schemes, usually by family members 56 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:20,120 Speaker 1: like his to champion their cause, he created the Association 57 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: of Dead People. Under Bihari's leadership, the organization continued to 58 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:28,359 Speaker 1: organize protests and exert political pressure on the state government 59 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 1: to address the epidemic of the living dead. For Bihari, 60 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 1: at least, the story has a happy ending. In nineteen 61 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:38,920 Speaker 1: ninety four, the government finally hurt his complaints, changing its 62 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: registry to record him as alive. His ancestral land was 63 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,400 Speaker 1: officially returned, but Bihari decided to let his uncle's family 64 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: keep it. It never had been about the land for 65 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,520 Speaker 1: him anyway. Bihari had been fighting for his life. He 66 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:55,400 Speaker 1: had lost almost two decades to the crusade, though, but 67 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,760 Speaker 1: he wasn't done yet. For years to come, Bihari continued 68 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,120 Speaker 1: to lead the Association for Dead People to raise awareness 69 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: for the organization. He actually ran for a seat in 70 00:04:04,640 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: Parliament and did surprisingly well, and in two thousand and 71 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: three he received these satirically named Ignobel Prize, honoring those 72 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: who quote make people laugh and then make them think. 73 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: Most recently, Bihari's life has become the subject of a 74 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:23,039 Speaker 1: Bollywood film, turning him into something of a celebrity. Not 75 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,839 Speaker 1: bad for a man who spent two decades dead on paper. 76 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:44,279 Speaker 1: There's nothing like receiving the perfect gift. When a friend 77 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,080 Speaker 1: or loved one gets us something that really speaks to us, 78 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: it makes us feel seen and appreciated. It doesn't matter 79 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: if the gift was made by hand or bought in 80 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 1: a store. It could be something as original as a 81 00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 1: handwritten poem or as classic as a fruit basket. But 82 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight, some factory workers in China received 83 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: a gift unlike anything they had gotten before. This present 84 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,719 Speaker 1: took on such importance a cult soon emerged to venerate it. 85 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: People bled and died for it. What was the gift Mangoes? 86 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: It all started in nineteen sixty six, when Mao Zetung 87 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:20,839 Speaker 1: launched his Cultural Revolution, calling for workers and students to 88 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:25,840 Speaker 1: overthrow the bourgeois academic authorities across the country. Students banded 89 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:29,800 Speaker 1: together in paramilitary groups known as the Red Guards. While 90 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:31,920 Speaker 1: the many factions that made up the Red Guards were 91 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: loyal to Mao, they did not get along with each other. 92 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:38,479 Speaker 1: As the revolution took off, skirmishes between the groups became 93 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: increasingly violent. Then, in the spring of nineteen sixty eight, 94 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:45,440 Speaker 1: the in fighting came to a head. At Singua University, 95 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: fighting broke out between two rival Red Guard groups. Students 96 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: hurled spears, stones, and even acid at each other. The 97 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: fighting wore on for several months before July twenty seventh, 98 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: when Mao got fed up. He summoned thirty thousand Beijing 99 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:02,440 Speaker 1: factory workers and so them to intervene. The student Red 100 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: Guards immediately turned on the workers, and the fierce battle 101 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 1: broke out. The workers great numbers eventually prevailed, but not 102 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:11,919 Speaker 1: before five of their members were killed and over seven 103 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: hundred were injured. The next day, Mao responded by officially 104 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:18,920 Speaker 1: disbanding the Red Guards for good. To show his appreciation 105 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: for the factory workers, he sent them a box of 106 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,520 Speaker 1: forty mangoes, which he had recently received as a gift 107 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: from the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Now, clearly, forty mangoes 108 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:31,839 Speaker 1: split between thirty thousand people might not seem like the 109 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:35,039 Speaker 1: most sincere thank you gift, especially after what the workers 110 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:38,000 Speaker 1: had been through, But the fruit wasn't common in China 111 00:06:38,040 --> 00:06:40,360 Speaker 1: at that point, and few of the workers had ever 112 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: seen them before, let alone tasted them. They may even 113 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,920 Speaker 1: have believed that the mangoes were peaches of immortality, an 114 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:50,279 Speaker 1: important fruit from Chinese legends. One of their most memorable 115 00:06:50,279 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: appearances comes from the Journey to the West, where the 116 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: mischievous Monkey King steals and consumes an orchard full of 117 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: the magical peaches, causing his power to increase many times over. 118 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: The workers were amazed by the gift and responded by 119 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:09,160 Speaker 1: praising Chairman Mao's limitless generosity. Rather than attempting to divide 120 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: the mangoes up amongst themselves, they decided to preserve the 121 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: fruit so that everyone could appreciate them. The mangoes were 122 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:20,160 Speaker 1: submerged in formaldehyde, taken through the country, and paraded through 123 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,400 Speaker 1: the streets. Within months, mangoes took on a cult like 124 00:07:23,440 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 1: status across China. Wax replicas were created and distributed. Images 125 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: of mangoes began to appear in communist artwork. A massive 126 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: mango adorned float became the centerpiece of the National Day parade. Meanwhile, 127 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:42,600 Speaker 1: anyone who disrespected the mangoes were severely punished. One dentist 128 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: was executed for simply suggesting that they looked like boring 129 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:51,119 Speaker 1: old sweet potatoes. Eventually, the mango mania dwindled, then died 130 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,160 Speaker 1: when Mao passed away in nineteen seventy six, but for 131 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: a brief period, mangoes served as an unexpected but potent 132 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:02,680 Speaker 1: symbol for the promises of the Cultural Revolution. For centuries, 133 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:07,160 Speaker 1: China's emperors had been viewed as semi divine figures, benevolent 134 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: envoys of heaven who had stepped out of myth to 135 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:13,680 Speaker 1: rule over mortals. By calling back to the peaches of immortality, 136 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:17,960 Speaker 1: Mao had once again transformed myth into reality, only this 137 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 1: time the power of heaven had been handed over to 138 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: the common people. It's hard to say for sure whether 139 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: Mao expected the extreme reaction to his gift. Supposedly he 140 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,920 Speaker 1: disliked mango's which would explain why he regifted the fruit. 141 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:33,599 Speaker 1: Most likely, he never guessed that by sending them to 142 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 1: the workers, he would effectively transform ancient Chinese myth into 143 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: communist propaganda. And it just goes to show the impact 144 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: that a single sweet gesture can make. I hope you've 145 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:53,199 Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe 146 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:55,840 Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the 147 00:08:55,840 --> 00:09:00,679 Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show was 148 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:04,560 Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manke in partnership with how Stuff Works, 149 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is 150 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show and you can 151 00:09:11,679 --> 00:09:15,680 Speaker 1: learn all about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And 152 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 1: until next time, stay curious.