Russia: Wisdom in Watermelons

The grey pages of the Soviet press are seldom relieved by satire, but in recent weeks Russian editors have been turning to that form of wit as a means of ridiculing their truculent fellow Communists, the Red Chinese. Spread across a recent issue of Moscow's Literaturnaya Gazeta was one of the more hilarious examples of the current Mao-knows-best school of Chinese journalism. The Moscow editors reprinted the article from a Chinese paper without comment, presumably because its title fully signaled its inanity: "Let Us Speak of the Philosophic Questions of Selling Watermelons in Big Cities." The author, Shanghai Fruit...

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