[peterbonney]

This is obviously refuted by the fact that Chinese ex-pats associated with the KMT in Taiwan (i.e. the very people who fled Mao) have been practicing "traditional Chinese Medicine" to varying degrees since their pre-Mao childhoods. To believe that Slate article is to believe that somehow Chinese herb shops appeared in Taiwan in response to propaganda from either Mao or the US Government and that these peoples' childhood memories were subsequently "revised". That makes absolutely no sense.

Edit: Perhaps what you mean is that the Western notion of Chinese medicine as a viable alternative to Western medicine was invented by Mao? That might have some shred of truth. But it's a very narrowly defined truth, and a very semantic one.

[asdfasdfa11112]

Revision of distant childhood memories is very common. We all trust our memories too much, especially in a legal context. Childhood memories are just as, if not more, malleable.

It's more useful to think of memories as Michael Bay's version of "Pearl harbor".

[peterbonney]

Yes. But it's one thing to question whether the chicken soup your mother made used canned or homemade stock. It's quite another to question whether she ever actually made chicken soup when you were sick, and then repeat that for the millions of other people who remember having chicken soup.