The Corner

Maoist Ballet

This is irresistible.   I am ashamed to say I can actually hum the main theme from Red Detachment of Women.  For a few weeks ca. 1971 I was holed up in a crummy hostel in Hong Kong with an American comsymp who had the thing on cassette tapes, which he played all day long.   Thirty years later, in China itself, there was a campy craze for old Cultural Revolution artefacts, and RDoW was re-issued.  My wife has it on CD.

John Derbyshire — Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.
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