The Ballet That Helped Wreck Relations Between The USSR And Mao’s China

In a spirit of solidarity (or so they thought) with Communist rebels in Nationalist China, the Bolshoi developed The Red Poppy in 1927, and it became a huge hit all over the Soviet Union. When Mao and his delegation visited Moscow shortly after the Chinese Revolution, the Bolshoi enthusiastically revived The Red Poppy as a tribute. As writer Eveline Chao explains, the visitors from Beijing were not flattered.