Your podcast discovery platform
Curious minds select the most fascinating podcasts from around the world. Discover hand-piqd audio recommendations on your favorite topics.
piqer for: Global finds Globalization and politics Technology and society
Turkish journalist, blogger and media expert. Writes regular columns for The Arab Weekly and contributes to Süddeutsche Zeitung, El Pais and the Guardian. An European Press Prize Laureate for 'excellence in journalism' in 2014, Baydar was awarded the prestigious 'Journalistenpreis' in Germany by Südosteuropa Foundation in February 2018.
What Is The Favourite Taste Of The True Revolutionary?
This is the story of genus capsicum, a spice known to us mortals as chili pepper. Yes, it is hot. But, as we find out, it is the essence of uprisings and change — revolutions.
It goes all the way back to 1932, when Stalin sent one of his most prolific agents, Otto Braun, to China, to assist the Chinese communists who were in a tough battle against Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists.
The full story of Braun’s misadventures in China’s Communist revolution is packed with enough twists and turns for a Hollywood thriller. But in the domain of culinary history, one anecdote from Braun’s autobiography stands out. Braun recalls his first impressions of Mao Zedong, the man who would go on to become China’s paramount leader. The shrewd peasant organizer had a mean, even “spiteful” streak. “For example, for a long time I could not accustom myself to the strongly spiced food, such as hot fried peppers, which is traditional to southern China, especially in Hunan, Mao’s birthplace.” “The food of the true revolutionary is the red pepper,” declared Mao. “And he who cannot endure red peppers is also unable to fight.”
For years, the connection between chili pepper and the Sichuan province of China, which had become the epicenter of its import from America, remained a big puzzle.
Food historians have pointed to the province’s hot and humid climate, the principles of Chinese medicine, the constraints of geography, and the exigencies of economics. Most recently neuropsychologists have uncovered a link between the chili pepper and risk-taking. The research is provocative because the Sichuan people have long been notorious for their rebellious spirit; some of the momentous events in modern Chinese political history can be traced back to Sichuan’s hot temper.
The research on the chili pepper's trail through history, and why certain human beings love the excitement of hot spices, seems vast. And here we have the opportunity to reflect whether or not chili pepper fuels revolutions as well.
