Glorifying a Murdering Dictator: The Mao Eatery in Cherry Creek, Colorado 又一个“毛的厨房”（科罗拉多）

Correction of the photos: Mao is the Biggest Mass Murderer in Human History: Mao murdered more than 70 million people in peace time, not 30 million. 更正：毛是人类历史上最大的屠夫：毛在和平时期屠杀了七千多万无辜的平民，不是三千多万。

Glorifying a Murdering Dictator: The Mao Eatery in Cherry Creek, Colorado 又一个“毛的厨房”（科罗拉多）

02/05/2004

Today on The Alex Jones Show a caller told Alex how he had run across something he couldn't believe: a restaurant in Colorado called the Mao Eatery, featuring a bust of Chairman Mao and images of his red army.

For caution's sake, and to make sure that such a distasteful place did indeed exist, we researched Mao's on the web and found an article reviewing it from the Denver Business Journal. You can read the article below.

Alex, facetiously, stated that someone might as well open a restaurant with a Hitler theme, since Mao was responsible for far more deaths than Hitler.

In an article from the International Herald Tribune titled "Mao, the Mass Murderer," the author notes:

"Mao was a destroyer of the same class as Hitler and Stalin. He exhibited his taste for killing from the early 1930's, when, historians now estimate, he had thousands of his political adversaries slaughtered. Ten years later, still before the Communist victory, more were executed at his guerrilla headquarters at Yan'an.

Hundreds of thousands of landlords were exterminated in the early 1950's. From 1959 to 1961 probably 30 million people died of hunger - the party admits 16 million - when Mao's economic fantasies were causing peasants to starve and he purged those who warned him of the scale of the disaster.

Many more perished during the Cultural Revolution, when Mao established a special unit, supervised by Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, to report to him in detail the sufferings of hundreds of imprisoned leaders who had incurred the chairman's displeasure.

One of the chairman's secretaries, Li Rui, wrote recently, "Mao was a person who did not fear death, and he did not care how many were killed." The writers of the Kaifang article tell us what this meant for China: "Mao instilled in people's minds a philosophy of cruel struggle and revolutionary superstition. Hatred took the place of love and tolerance; the barbarism of 'It is right to rebel!' became the substitute for rationality and love of peace. It elevated and sanctified the view that relations between human beings are best characterized as those between wolves."

From rock stars posing as communist leaders to tv show participants dressing in hammer and sickle t-shirts, the push to promote communism is in your face. The TV executives, restaurateurs and trend setters are pushing it as"trendy" or "funny." The truth is, it's just plain sick and wrong to glorify a man and a system responsible for the death of so many.

Related article:

Cherry Creek's Mao eatery sets late-summer opening
Denver Business Journal

May 9, 2003

Denver's restaurant community has been trying to read the tea leaves for nearly a year about the fate of restaurateur's Charlie Huang's Mao Asian Bistro and Sushi Bar.

After missing several opening dates, the new restaurant is scheduled to open in August or September 2003 in the upscale Cherry Creek North retail district in Denver.

Originally scheduled to debut in late 2002, Huang said construction is finally moving ahead on the bistro and sushi bar. The restaurant saw its opening date pushed back for a variety of reasons, Huang said.

He blames the nearly $2 million eatery's delay on everything from an intricate restaurant design to a sluggish economy and the recent war against Iraq.

"It's a combination of everything," Huang said. "It doesn't make sense to rush into this. It's going to open and be fully prepared."

The nearly 7,000-square-foot restaurant, located across the street from the Whole Foods/Sears shopping complex, has been teasing diners since late last summer when Mao's signage appeared in its oversized windows.

Mao will be Huang's third eatery since opening the popular Little Ollie's Chinese restaurant in 1997 in Cherry Creek North with his late brother and business partner Richard Huang.

Huang followed the success of the nearly 3,000-square-foot Little Ollie's restaurant with Asie, a French-Asian fusion eatery he opened last year in Aspen.

Huang said operating the two locations also contributed to Mao's extended delay.

"Every place I do, I make sure it is unique," Huang said. "It doesn't matter how late or early you open. What matters is how ready you are."

But many restaurant industry watchers say delaying a restaurant opening is standard.

"It's a big project," Huang said. "There was so much detail from the design point."

Huang added that many details are still being finalized, including the restaurant's menu. But he said Mao's dinner prices will average from $20 to $30 per person.

Huang said the sushi bar will offer an extensive menu of fresh fish flown in daily, while the remainder of the menu will have what he calls a Pan Asian fusion theme featuring dishes from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines.

Additionally, Huang has secured a cabaret license from the city that allows Mao to feature live music or a DJ playing music in its lounge.

Mao will carry between 15 and 20 brands of sake and nearly 100 kinds of wine overseen by Jon Schlegel, the restaurant's general manager and sommelier.

Former manager of the Sushi Den in Denver's South Pearl Street neighborhood, Schlegel said Mao will stand out from the nearly 50 eateries in Cherry Creek North, including two high-profile sushi restaurants.

"This is going to be a destination restaurant for people looking for something new to Denver," Schlegel said. "This is not going to be a white tablecloth restaurant."

Named after China's infamous Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the new eatery will seat nearly 220 people between its dining room, patio and lounge.

Huang said the restaurant will feature an intricate design theme that includes a variety of images of the late dictator, including a custom-made bust of Mao and a ceiling mural of Mao's Red Army that leads diners into the Chairman's Room, a private dining room that seats 16 people.

The restaurant's interior was created by the Dallas-based Paul Duesing Partners design firm that specializes in hospitality and resort design.

With its imported marble countertops, bamboo floor and emphasis on detail, Huang describes Mao as "eclectic, dramatic and fun."

Ashley Walter, a Paul Duesing Partners designer working on the project, said the restaurant's interior will display a theme she calls "a happy Mao."

"It's done in a tongue-and-cheek way," Walter said. "It's centered around Gen. Mao Tse-tung. It's looking at him in a fun and unusual way."

Despite Mao's presence, Huang said the restaurant shouldn't be considered a homage to the controversial leader.

He admits people have openly questioned the decision to name his latest restaurant after the Communist dictator, but Huang said it's important to keep in mind that the restaurant is having fun with Mao's image.

"This place is not a worship of Mao," Huang said. "It's a sarcastic look at Mao."

John Imbergamo, Denver-based restaurant consultant, said the majority of diners aren't likely to think twice about the restaurant's namesake. Instead, Imbergamo said, the moniker is a direct way to communicate what the restaurant is about.

"I'd say that pretty much everybody under 40 doesn't have a clear recollection of Chairman Mao," Imbergamo said. "It's all the things you want in a name. Whether there will be any baggage or not we'll know in the first three months of it being open."