It is said that many millennials and generation Z do not have children, but cats or dogs, for different reasons: because precariousness does not allow them to give their offspring the life they would like and because they are aware of the ecological impact of bringing a person to the world Adopting a pet is an option that convinces many to satisfy their desire for company and care, but anyone who has had a four-legged friend knows that they need adequate space, that time and attention must be dedicated to them, and that the economic expense generate is considerable. Perhaps that is why in China, there are people who are cultivating a friendly relationship with a mango stone.
The Jiupai News reported it as a result of different users of the Chinese social network Xiaohongshu posting videos of their new pets. In them, they show how they have taken care of the mango bone until they get that hairy texture that they comb and caress in the videos just as if it were a small mammal.
First of all, and as is obvious –although paradoxical, in the case of a future pet–, they have bought a mango and, quite possibly, have eaten it. Second, they have thoroughly washed the mango bone to remove the pulp and combed out those fibers that would later, by analogy, be regarded as hair by pet guardians. Finally, they have dried the mango bone in the sun or with a hair dryer to prevent moisture from favoring the appearance of mold.
Since May, Liu Xiaomeng, a 19-year-old student from Tianjin, has shared her experience taking care of the two mango pits in Xiaohongshu, where she says that taking care of them brings her the same pleasure as taking care of a dog or a cat, and that also serves as therapy. She has even given them a name with which she has attributed gender: Da Mao and Er Mao, that is, ‘Hairy 1’ and ‘Hairy 2’.
Like in a diary format, Liu has been documenting Da Mao’s and Er Mao’s changes in appearance, how their hair has become softer, and how the color has changed from yellowish to white. He applies aloe vera gel and jewelery clips to his “two daughters”, which he describes as “a cheap substitute for hamsters” and whom he regards as “ideal pets”. For future tutors, Liu explains that you have to buy the right variety of mango, but he doesn’t specify which one. The truth is that most mangoes have hard fibers next to the stone or seed, although the variety ‘mango de hilacha’ is one of the varieties with the most fibers.
Reactions to this trend have not been long in coming. Some users have criticized it, even though it is a completely harmless practice and you were not that far from playing a video game. The narrative remains the same: invest an amount of time or a series of actions to maintain and improve the state of something inanimate. The therapeutic effects of such care can be the same as those of cooking, reading or cycling, or any other activity that is pleasurable to the person who performs it.
Taking care of a mango may seem strange to us, but we have always given other uses to food or its discards. For example, apples and quinces have traditionally been used to perfume clothes in wardrobes, laurel branches –sometimes blessed on Palm Sunday– have been placed on door lintels, both in homes and stables, due to their effect insecticide and to ward off bad luck. But perhaps the case that is most similar to having a pet mango is that of that potato that we carved as children and inserted toothpicks to give it the shape of a pig, and that we cared for with all enthusiasm, even feeding it, until oxidation it ended up making her smelly.
