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Chairman Mao Zedong swam in the Yangtze River on 25th July, 1966. Despite being in his Seventies, the leader was said by party propagandists (and hence every newspaper in China) to have set a world-record pace of nearly 15 km in 65 min.\xa0\nThis piece of political theatre showed the world that the public face of the Chinese Communist party was in robust physical shape (despite reports in the West to the contrary), and reset Mao\u2019s image in China after his disastrous \u2018Great Leap Forward\u2019 had claimed the lives of millions of people.\n\xa0\nIn this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly unpick the symbolism of this iconic event; explain how Mao leveraged the publicity to reconsolidate his power; and reveal what Mao got VERY wrong about sparrows\u2026\xa0\nFurther Reading:\n\u2022 \u2018The Chairman's Historic Swim\u2019 (TIME, 1999): http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2054250,00.html\n\u2022 \u2018Power of symbolism: The swim that changed Chinese history\u2019 (SupChina, 2021): https://supchina.com/2021/07/14/power-of-symbolism-the-swim-that-changed-chinese-history/\n\u2022 \u2018This photo triggered China\u2019s Cultural Revolution\u2019 (Vox, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXByOrRrO7c&feature=emb_ti\nFor bonus material and to support the show, visit\xa0Patreon.com/Retrospectors\nWe'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts:\xa0podfollow.com/Retrospectors\nThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.\nTheme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Sophie King.\nCopyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2022.\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices