Rediscovered while sorting out items for storage in an archival bin were two different copies of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung , his so called Little Red Book, each calling on workers of the world to unite , once all the rage .
As it is uncertain how long we are going to be locked in for due to the pandemic , could be a period equal to the duration of the Long March the way things are going , decided to put them in the growing pile of other reading material and ephemera for close attention over the coming months .
The larger is a Foreign Language Press edition printed in the People's Republic of China , Peking , l966, the front free endpaper bears the stamp of the Australian University Library Cooperative stating it did not necessarily agree with the views expressed herein . A Chairman Mao portrait stares out at the reader from behind a torn tissue guard .
From memory , it was found in a jumble of books in a Hindley Street, Adelaide , bookshop back in the l980s.
The smaller book may have been given me by my late father who admired Mao for " freeing his many people" . It opens with a swag of photographs of Mao , text in Chinese and English . The opening message from the translator contains spelling errors and there are literals throughout, including a page three heading ,THE COMMUNIST PAPTY.Wonder if the proof-reader or chief sub editor , or both , were punished for this gross blunder.
