Book Description

The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before — and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned, and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule — in peacetime.

Customer Reviews:

a very detailed account.......2007-10-20

This is a VERY detailed account of Mao's life and I give credit to the author for the research that went into this book. Anyone would be hard pressed to match that in a book in comparison. The 'outing' of Mao's atrocities are ghastly revealing and the power of mind control over his people is the worst revelation. The first 100 pages of this book are hard to get thru. I felt it lumbered a bit but after Mao is in charge, the flow is smoother and the description of Mao's relationships with Stalin and other world leaders is priceless.

Evil Mao.......2007-09-24

Very well researched book. Gives you an overlook on the real Mao and how the rest of the world misinterpreted him. Shows how America was superficial in assessing how the real Mao would be and how it applied pressure on Chiang Kai Shek to enforce cease fire on Mao's critical turning point of the civil war thus making it possible for Mao to conquer China. Mao killed his colleagues and his enemies alike for the sole purpose of gaining and retaining power. All means were legitimate in his eyes to achieve that goal. It looks like we never learn from these mistakes. This attitude makes us helping the Taliban to be a prominent force and Al Qaeda flourish in Iraq, a place they have never been before the invasion. Easy reading with simple language with tons of new info reflecting our lack of knowledge about someone so important.

what a joke!.......2007-09-22

The newest tome of bathroom entertainment. "Entertainment" is what this is. you know when movies are "based on true events"? this book is like that. I don't blame the authors for trying to make a couple of dollars by sensationalize and distort history to their liking. no one can really say their version of history is 100% accurate, but this is almost cartoonish in nature. I just hope some poor person don't actually believes any of this non-sense.

So read this book for fun, but please don't take it seriously, and god forbid please do not bring anything up from this in a discussion with your friends or family who are knowledgeable in Chinese history. You will be laughed right out of the room.

The Black Book...and the Red one... .......2007-09-14

Amidst all the controversy over this book, I can't fault the authors for their claim of Mao's responsibility for 70 million domestic peacetime deaths. That figure is indeed confirmed by the Black Book of Communism, which was written by avowed leftists.

It seems such a short time since it was oh so trendy to be seen carrying around campus a copy of the Chairman's Little Red Book.

Caveats, but well worth the price of admission.......2007-09-13

If nothing else, this book is deeply fascinating. The questions of historical precision are raised in even a rudimentary Google search for reviews, yet this is still a book very much worth your time to read. The authors make it eminently obvious they hold no love for Mao, but partisanship or bias are not synonyms for dishonesty - they simply require the reader to attach qualifications to the conclusions. We would not discard out of hand a biography of Hitler written by an Auschwitz Jew.

Concerns for the precision of her statistics and conclusions are justified, but only to a point. Discrepancies, such as whether or not the Great Leap Forward killed 30 million or 38 million, do potentially indicate scholarly sloppiness, but myopic focus on C&H's precision only validates Stalin's notation that once you kill enough people, they're only numbers. I'm willing to accept they exaggerated their numbers, but frankly, I don't care. I'm more concerned about a lot of people getting killed than about exactly how many it was.

Ultimately, this book asks you to weigh the benefits of Mao's life by exposing his awesome sins. Exaggerated though some numbers might be, and partisan though the arguments are, to dismiss this portrait of Mao on those grounds only encourages history to repeat itself. I don't disagree with the other reviews that this books neglects the "benefits" of Mao's reign, but starting down that road is extremely dangerous. By turning analysis of Mao's reign into a cost-benefit analysis between the lives he killed and the lives he raised from poverty or the advances in issues like women's rights, we only make it easier to repeat these mistakes. I am far more comfortable using Mao's biography as a morality tale that damns him unconditionally than I am with utilitarian calculations, however correct or honest those calculations might be. I appreciate the loss in nuance, historical accuracy, and objectivity, but are we really comfortable with the idea that presiding over the deaths of tens of millions of people is ultimately justified if future generations are lifted from poverty?

This is a book with caveats, no doubt, but also a book that makes one think that if you were given one chance to change the course of history, there might be few better choices than wishing Mao was never born.

Average customer rating: An excellent read that is written with great talent. Great historical memoir A great story Life across different worlds Eric Langager in his review says it best.

Mao's Last Dancer Li Cunxin Manufacturer: Berkley Trade ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Entertainment | Subjects | Books | Humor | Movies | Music | Performing Arts | Pop Culture | Puzzles & Games | Radio | Sheet Music & Scores | Television Dancers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Entertainers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Similar Items: The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices Life and Death in Shanghai Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China Mao's Last Dancer ASIN: 0425201333

Book Description

From a desperately poor village in northeast China, at age eleven, Li Cunxin was chosen by Madame Mao's cultural delegates to be taken from his rural home and brought to Beijing, where he would study ballet. In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent read that is written with great talent........2007-10-09

I just finished this book today and it seemed like moments!

Taking us from the traditional and superstitious marriage of his mother and father, the unimaginable poverty and oppression of China under Mao's communist rule, the one in a billion break to be a participant of Mrs. Mao's dance school, the extreme discipline of that school, defection to America, rejection by his country, and finally to the reuniting with his family; Li tells his life story in a colorful, sometimes humorous way that will make us appreciate the great riches and freedoms we take for granted.

Descriptive, thought provoking, and extremely impacting, "Mao's Last Dancer" most certainly will not be a disappointment.

Great historical memoir.......2007-05-12

I am really enjoying this book, only have a few pages left. The glimpse into third world China from an entirely new perspective, those of the eyes of a young boy during Mao's regime who overcomes incredible odds as a dancer, is
inspiring. A little slow but well written and thoroughly enjoyable.

A great story.......2007-03-05

I found that the first part of the book seemed endlessly depressing, the poverty and constant lack of food and near starvation was so overwhelming. But it was such an eye opener and I learnt much about a subject that I knew little about and it made me want to learn more.

I thought that his personal presistence, drive and ambition was truly inspiring and an insight into the hard work and what it takes to be amoung the best in world, which I am sure is true in any sphere.

His experience of living in the west and his decision to defect seemed in someways quite selfish but so understandable, but as an artist he had an overwhelming desire to be free to express himself which I think was as much to do with his decision as the desire to live a 'western' way of life. He was after all left almost friendless and without his family, I don't think he would have necessarily defected had he not wanted to dance and be the best in the world.

After the early part of the book and the hardship he and his family had suffered it was a lovely feel-good warm ending and he well deserves all his success.

It is not a greatly written book, but it is a really great story and a good read.

Life across different worlds.......2007-02-26

Li Cunxin has had a somewhat different life. He was almost doomed to obscurity like the vast majority of people in this world, living the life of a poor peasant in rural China, but for a stroke of luck when his teacher suggested him as a potential ballet student. This changed his life from one type of hardship to another with markedly different challenges, but one which left him lonely, confused about the dogma he had so wholeheartedly embraced and geographically isolated from his family.

It is interesting to read as the young man goes from blind adoration of Chairman Mao and all the things that come with Communism, to a dawning awakening that the West is not the den of inequity that he has been led to believe. But is is the latter half of the book that has led me to offer 4 stars instead of 5 - I felt it was a little rushed, especially his well publicised defection, and efforts to settle in the west and raise a family. I guess we in the West are more interested in his early struggling years, but the challenges he faced as an adult are nonetheless fascinating.

There is no doubt that this is a sincere and amazing story. It is written with a wry humour that makes the tales of wrenching poverty readable (I have no desire to ever taste dried yams!), and gives us an interesting insight into how difficult life was in China under Communism. Mr Li seems a happy and settled man now with a lovely family - I would say he has had a fair fight to get there.

Eric Langager in his review says it best........2006-12-12

This book is difficult because a very lucky boy suffered much to become a wonderful ballet dancer. He earned all his success with work. But then he defected to the west, harming his mentors in America and China, endangering his family and friends with the possibility of political reprisals. As a defector and highly skilled dancer, he immediately entered the American world of privilege. Barbara and George Bush personally involve themselves with his life, pulling strings to help him get what he wants. He is a pet of the famous and rich everywhere. He lives a life that many Americans can only imagine. Again, he earns this by working very, very hard at his dancing.

So it is hard to feel bad at seeing a rare instance of a person who works hard win the rewards that she/he deserves. It happens all too rarely. But as reviewer Eric Langager states, it brought up mixed feelings, too. As an artist, I can understand that Cunxin wanted to make the choice that allowed him to grow in his art. But he dwells little on the price that others paid.

Average customer rating: This poor poor doctor Not a global view, but a wonderful sharp focus take a look Also a lesson of survival from Dr. Li If I could recommend only one China book...

The Private Life of Chairman Mao: The Memoirs of Mao's Personal Physician Dr. Li Zhisui Zhi-Sui Li Manufacturer: Random House ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Similar Items: Mao: The Unknown Story Mao: A Life Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine Life and Death in Shanghai Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China ASIN: 0679400354 Release Date: 1994-10-11

Book Description

Chairman Mao's personal physician and confidant for twenty two years, takes us for the first time into the Chinese dictator's very private world.

Customer Reviews:

This poor poor doctor.......2007-08-24

All the while while reading this book, the only thing I could think about was to feel for this poor poor doctor. Dr. Li was supposedly headed for a great life as a doctor in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, by following his brother's urging, he returned to China to a pretty much "doomed" career. Not only did he not get to pick his hospital job as wanted after returning, but after being summoned to be Mao's personal doctor, his dreams as a neurosurgeon was pretty much over. He was abolished to pretty much treating common colds and maladies, and acting as "nanny" to the Mao family, living in fear throughout the 20 years that he would be blamed for any illness of Mao.

I also felt so much for Dr. Li's wife Lillian whose career was reduced to rudimentary tasks.

Not a global view, but a wonderful sharp focus.......2007-01-18

This is a fascinating examination of one of the most powerful and (arguably) destructive world leaders of the 20th century. For somebody like me with a very basic familiarity of the history of Communist China, this book is a little lacking as a biography. It offers little detail on Mao's background and nothing about his rise to power. It does provide, however, a unique perspective on the Chairman's life between the years of 1954, when Dr. Li became Mao's personal physician, and Mao's death in 1976. It is the first biography I've ever read to so closely examine the head/body connection in terms of how one's politics affect one's health and one's health, one's politics.

The book has a natural bias, since Dr. Li lived with Mao throughout most of this time and was directly involved in many of the events described. He seems to strive for frankness, but a reader might sense that his memories are colored by his own attempts to save face. In some respects, it's more memoir of Li than biography of Mao--though that seems a small point to quibble about, since Mao was such a profound presence and influence in Li's life. Those seeking a detached perspective are advised to look elsewhere; this is a purely personal view.

I found it very rewarding. It humanized Mao to a much greater extent than biographies of political leaders generally do. Li seems to want to do justice to his subject, casting blame where appropriate and giving credit where he believes credit is due. The overall picture it presents of the Chairman is of a man with a sharply manipulative mind, but far more power than he could manage; with a much greater love for himself and his image than for the people he professed to serve. But at the same time, though Li may not intentionally have presented the image, Mao also emerges as a prisoner of the system he helped to emplace and so liberally exploited, particularly as he ages and his heath deteriorates. Hounded by his own superstitions and paranoias, he was ill-served by the sycophants he chose to surround him, but so blinded by his own cult of personality that he could never accept a true friend. This towering and terrifying figure is reduced to a querulous, feeble old man with no recourse to privacy or claim to humanity even in death, where his objectification extended to the point that his doctors were ordered to preserve his bloated corpse for eternal display. Sadly, I can't help but think that the Chairman would have approved.

take a look.......2007-01-06

Fascinating reading but not substaniated with facts. A personal experience point of view which may well be close to the truth.

Also a lesson of survival from Dr. Li.......2006-11-29

This book is not only an entertaining way to learn Chinese modern history as many of the reviewers here pointed out but also an important personal lessons of survival when we have to deal with a difficult boss for example. Borrowing the language from "7 habits of effective people," it is to focus your energy on your circle of influence and not on the circle of concern. In this book there are countless examples of people who did the latter (voiced their concern about the welfare of China as a nation and the common people) and invited misfortune upon themselves almost without exception. Dr. Li taught us that we must be aware of what we can do and never worry about what we cannot do.

If I could recommend only one China book... .......2006-08-27

Dr. Li was the man responsible for Mao's health from 1954 until Mao's death in 1976. He saw a lot. He's honest, eminently readable, and eye-opening. The translation is excellent. A cover blurb by Professor Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia University, calls it, "The most revealing book ever published on Mao, perhaps on any dictator in history." I agree with that. Even though it's almost 700 pages, I enjoyed every word. Long-time subscribers know I prefer to read a book in one sitting instead of two. Dr. Li had me for three, despite my notoriously short attention span. If I could recommend only one China book...

As I've mentioned elsewhere, this book makes me feel like I've been "behind the scenes" during Mao's regime. I almost want to go back and reread all my "China books" and enjoy my new perspective.

Average customer rating: The men who Would be King: The Chairman and the Generalissimo A nuanced portrait of a complex man. Excellent Book...But Missing Some Info Beats the Competition A fine and comprehensive view of Mao's life and career - quite sympathetic to Mao

Mao: A Life Philip Short Manufacturer: Holt Paperbacks ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Similar Items: Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare HO CHI MINH: A LIFE Mao: The Unknown Story The Private Life of Chairman Mao Stalin: A Biography ASIN: 0805066381

Amazon.com

Of the three great tyrants of the 20th century--Hitler, Stalin, and Mao--the West generally knows the least about the latter. What we do know is that he was every bit as genocidal in his policies as either of the other two great villains of the age. In fact, in purely statistical terms, Mao might have been responsible for the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin combined. However, Philip Short's immense but immensely readable and impressively researched biography of the man goes far deeper than this. Yes, he acknowledges, Mao was a tyrant, but then China always has been run by tyrants; it never has had a tradition of democracy. And Mao was also an idealist: the deaths of millions was, as he saw it, the price that his country had to pay for being dragged from a state of medieval servitude--perpetually on the brink of famine--to that of a modern, industrialized, self-sufficient nation, in the space of a single lifetime. Short also humanizes Mao, and shows a man who had a profound and sincere interest in Chinese philosophy and poetry, and a surprisingly sharp sense of humor. None of this can exonerate Mao from the charge of inhumanity on an epic scale. But it does make for a much more rounded and complex portrait of the figure who, as the 21st century unfolds, might be shown to have had more influence on world history than either Hitler or Stalin. --Christopher Hart, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

The men who Would be King: The Chairman and the Generalissimo.......2007-01-31

Short, Philip (1999) Mao: A Life (Holt: New York)

Fenby, Jonathan (2003) Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost (Carroll & Graf: New York).

On October 1, 1949 Chairman Mao Zedong stood at the Gate of Heavenly Peace and declared the founding of the People's Republic of China. He told the assembled crowd, "We, the 475 million Chinese people have stood up and our future is infinitely bright." He further continued "The Chinese people have stood up." Two months the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) achieved later final victory. The leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, fled with his party to the Chinese provincial island of Taiwan. That day was the endgame of a battle that began twenty-two years earlier during the 1927 Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan.
Both Mao and Chiang are synonymous with the history of modern China. Both men came from similar backgrounds, had similar strategies and similar visions for China. Each man came from humble origins - Chiang the son of a salt merchant and Mao the son of a well off peasant. Mao and Chiang also sought to remake China as a modern nation within the world of nation-states. On more than one occasion each man was willing to use the other for their own struggle within their respective parties. To a degree, they were peas in a pod in modern China.
The capturing of these complicated men in their pod has been a complicated process for most writers. Many writers are trapped in their internal politics to capture the true person behind the images. Mao and Chiang both have had devoted followers and devote detractors who were more than willing to take a blind eye to things both good and bad done by these men.
Short and Fenby, however, do not. These two biographies are both extremely objective and sound. Mao is seen as the terrible dictator that he was. "His rule brought about the deaths of more of his own people than any other leader in history." Short admires Mao as being the man "who wrenched China from it medieval torpor and forced it into the contours of a modern nation."
Fenby, meanwhile, is equally objective in his assessment of the Generalissimo. Chiang's regime, both on the Mainland and on Taiwan, was not the thriving democracy it is even though of in the west. But in fact, it was a authoritarian one "organized on Leninist lines with a repressive internal security apparatus." Yet in the wake of three decades of horrid revolution, "Chiang and his era become less of the nightmare painted after the Communist victory."
Without Mao or Chiang China would probably still be the semi-colonial backwater it was when they were born in the late nineteenth century. Both men helped to unmake the old feudalist China ran for the betterment of Qing Dynasty and laid the groundwork for the extreme economic growth both on the Mainland and on Taiwan. Each Short and Fenby attempt to capture these two complicated men who will dominate the pages of history for centuries to come. Each is a fantastic read about the two men who would be king.

A nuanced portrait of a complex man........2006-12-19

Of all the great 20th century dictators, Mao seems the hardest to fathom. This is probably because of the way his mind worked and the peculiarities of his weltenschaung. It would be useless to pin down his psyche with a choice quotation or two. The man who famously said that "power flows out of the barrel of a gun" has also been reported as saying that it is "a mistake to believe that weapons decide everything". Above all -- in Phillip Short's excellent boigraphy -- Mao come across as a man of contradictions. He saw the world in dialectical, yin-yang terms. One feels, almost, that the great turmoils he unleashed were his way of ensuring that the great proletarian revolution remained permanant and forever dialectical and always violent. Stasis would be bad for China.

To those brought up under a western-inspired education system and world-view, Mao seems like a capricious crank, a heartless monster. In Philip Short's treatment, however, Mao displays a preternatural sense of nuance and subtlety of thought, and a finely-honed sense of brinkmanship (as in the Cultural Revolution where he let loose the forces of revolution upon the Party itself).

And what of his legacy ? Short argues that an important distinction needs to be made between Mao and the other dictators: The overwhelming majority of deaths under his rule were the unintended consequence of policies, not the deliberate genocide of a class of people (like the Jews or the Kulaks). Mao's cavalier attitude towards deaths on a massive scale is acknowledged. To Mao, a millions deaths is merely a part of the dialectics of revolution. In this sense he was indeed a monster.

Today China is a capitalist country in all but name. I think Mao would have seen this as a natural state of affairs, given the contradictions inherent in world history.If he were to come back from the grave, he would judge that the time is now ripe for him to unleash another great upheaval. Capitalist stasis is also not good !

Excellent Book...But Missing Some Info.......2006-12-11

This is a superbly written biography of Mao Zedong who I feel should be in any Sinophile's library. The great detail of Mao Zedong's early life and how he got into Communism is excellent. The description of his Anarchist/Marxist philosophy gives a reader a very clear understanding on why Communism came about in China; that it was mostly accepted by the majority of the Chinese population (especially peasants) and not initially enforced upon them, a view held by most Americans. The sad developments of Hundred Flowers Campaign, Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution are also revealed in great detail.

However, no matter how good this book is, I'm still a little bothered by some of it's lack of details on certain very important aspects of modern Chinese history.

1) Not enough was mention about his relationship with Japanese when China was engaged in the war with Japan. Nothing was mentioned on any possible collaboration with Japan that would have upset certain Chinese who claimed that the Communists did more against Japanese than Nationalist.

2) And talking about the Sino Japanese War, why wasn't the big battle of Operation Ichigo mentioned? China would have faced annihilation from Japan during this gigantic operation in 1944, something that worried China greatly and affect the future of the Communists and Nationalists.

3) Not enough about Zhou Enlai was mentioned. Zhou Enlai's proposal of the Four Modernization program was used by Deng Xiaoping to transformed China. I felt this is ultra-important information that should have been mentioned about the 70s. The contrast of Mao Zedong's ultra left views with Zhou's moderate views would have given the reader a great understanding how Deng's program succeeded in the great transformation of modern China from Mao's disastrous programs.

4) Mao Zedong developed some sort of mental illness later in life which caused the strange series of events during the cultural revolution, especially his purge of Liu Shaoqi; this mental illness was possibly caused by drugs (this was mentioned in Harrison Salisbury's "New Emperors" this would have explained his erratic behavior during his old age.

But otherwise this is a truly good book. I am most impressed by Short's ultra unbiased viewpoints.

Anybody who read this book should compare it with the Chiang Kai Shek's biography, " Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost", by Jonathan Fenby.

Beats the Competition.......2006-12-10

Miles ahead of Chang and Halliday. Don't waste your time on their simple-minded view of history as a contest between black cowboy hats and white ones. Philip Short is a real historian, and this is history at its best.

A fine and comprehensive view of Mao's life and career - quite sympathetic to Mao.......2006-04-28

This is now the standard life of Mao, but for me it was like reading a history of the Cuban Missile Crisis that still talked about how Kennedy stared down Khrushchev without mentioning the secret deal for the U.S. to remove missiles from Turkey. That is, it is sympathetic to the point of touting an official line at the expense of giving us the full story. Still, it is useful to know what the official line is and this is a good life of Mao from his youth through his entire career.

Personally, I consider Mao one of the great killers of the 20th century, but I also know that most Chinese do not see him that way. There are some who see him as a monster for what he did to hundreds of millions of people while he ruled China and for the tens of millions who died because of his policies. Short always has a ready excuse to absolve Mao of direct evil, even while admitting that Mao is indeed responsible. The Chinese I have spoken to who admire Mao do so because of his strength in freeing China from the West and making China into a world power.

China has a history of strong emperors who ruled with an iron fist and under whose rule many people died. Mao was a great student of Chinese history and new how to appeal to its themes and traditions. In the Chinese view, they have plenty of people, and if some die and China becomes strong, so be it. Mao played on this sensibility to the hilt. However, I am not Chinese and am free to judge him according to my lights and for me he was one of the greatest monsters of all time. Anyone who condemns ANY American leader in our history as a killer or a monster and yet praises Mao is a hypocrite beyond the power of the word to convey a strong enough level of hypocrisy. But my view isn't the view of this book or the view of the Chinese and they should have the leaders they want. It is their nation and culture after all. And this book will give you a view of Mao more in line with how he is viewed by the country he helped re-create than the critical books such as "The Unknown Mao" or "The Private Life of Chairman Mao" (which are often attacked by people who support Mao - however, the details of most of the horrible events described do show up in even this biography if you read closely and look past the airbrushing).

The book does read well and will likely lead the unwary into feeling admiration for this man. He certainly was an amazing man and one of great genius. Whether you see him as a hero worthy of veneration or one of the great monsters in history, Mao is certainly an historic figure that one should know. Reading across the spectrum of views is probably the best way to get a more true picture of the man and his career than you will get from either his supporters or his detractors. So, this would be a good candidate for one of the kinder views of Mao that is still authoritative and fairly comprehensive.

Average customer rating:

The Writings of Mao Zedong, 1949-1976: September 1949-December 1955 (Writings of Mao Zedong) Mao Tse Tung , and Michael Y. M. Kau Manufacturer: M.E. Sharpe ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books 20th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books ASIN: 0873323912

Average customer rating: The personalities, the influence... what's shaped modern China a great reporter with a long history of China interest Awesome on Mao, Ok on Deng A book that needs to be read by more Americans

New Emperors: China... Harrison E. Salisbury Manufacturer: Harper Perennial ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books 20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books General | World | History | Subjects | Books Marxism | Political Doctrines | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Similar Items: Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China The Long March: The Untold Story The Private Life of Chairman Mao ASIN: 0380720256

Customer Reviews:

The personalities, the influence..........2002-10-19

This book set me off on a binge of Chinese history reading. I had to know more about Kang Sheng, for example, and "Claws of the Dragon" helped shed light on this "immortal". Then there were: Zhou Enlai's hagiography 'Eldest Son' at the hands of Han Suyin; The White Boned Demon, about Jiang Qing; Mao's doctor's self-glorifying account; Deng's biography. Nothing compares to this book for readability and sense of magnitude. You meet the twenty or so people who decided the fates of a billion Chinese. Modern democracy has nothing to compare. The personalities in recent Chinese history, the importance of them, are staggering. The Great Leap, the Cultural Revolution--these hellish mass movements affected hundreds of millions of people. You get to see the tiny coterie which ordered the lives of a significant portion of the Earth's inhabitants for fifty years. An amazing book.
I wish Harrison Salisbury were still around to write an update. TNE stops in 1991 as the economy is slowing and the hardliners are asserting themselves. Deng visited the "new cities" on the South China Sea in 1993-4, invigorating them and the "capitalism with Chinese characteristics" which they represented. What followed, of course, is our recent history of China thinking itself as a great power.

what's shaped modern China.......2002-09-21

What Mao and Deng did as China's "new emperors" are well known. For Mao, the Korean war, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the establishment of China as a nuclear power; for Deng, the Reform and Opening, and the Tiananmen Massacre.

Why did they do it? This is a question that is seldomly asked and when asked, never satisfactorily answered. Salisbury has attempted to answer such a qusetion with more depth than the simple-minded answer "because they want to stay in power". Salisbury carefully laid out for the readers how Mao and Deng's acts were shaped by their personal histories, by attitudes of other countries toward China, and by the burden of Chinese history and culture (unlike America, the Chinese leaders did not start from a clean slate, instead, they carried 5,000 years of history with them). In short, this book is about how history, culture, international hostility and personality has shaped modern China; how these factors brought out the "emperor instincts" in Mao and, to a lesser extent, Deng.

Indeed, what Mao did was almost right out of history books. The emperors' attempts to annhilate their enemies when they sensed danger, the emperors' attempts to better people's lives using means that were totally naive and against human nature, has happened numerous times in Chinese history. China has been too burdened with its history, and Mao was simply an emperor fulfilling his roles while the whole world was watching.

The book also touched upon an interesting (and sad) question: what blames should be placed on ordinary people? It was Mao who unleashed the darkest aspects of human nature during Cultural Revolution, but the darkest sides of some Chinese people were so dark that one has to wonder: why were these people worse than beasts? The Red Guards and the on-lookers who readily cheered as thousands and thousands of people were tortured and beaten (or drowned, pushed from high-rise buildings) to death has to make one wonder: why did they do it? why did they have no judgment of their own and could become the worst creatures on earth simply because of a few words from their leaders? I believe that, if China wants to prevents something like the Cultural Revolution from happening again, it will not be enough to openly admit Mao's role in these atrocities. Ordinary people will also have to do some soul-searching.

After reading this book, I felt extremely sad. I sensed that the disasters that happened to the Chinese people in the past decades could have been avoided. If only Mao had studied Western politics instead of focusing entirely on the deeds of Chinese emperors; if only Kim Ii-Sung wasn't such a fool as to start the Korean War; if only the Chinese people were exposed to Western culture earlier and possessed more qualities than blind patriotism and loyalty; if only more of Mao's subordinates were willing to be outspoken; if only Stalin was a bit less sinister toward China; if only America was a bit more open-minded and not refusing Mao's request for negotiations outright... The list is endless. History is full of missed chances, and ordinary people suffer. Although no reversal is possible, we may be able to learn from the past and avoid some disasters in the future. Because of this, I highly recommend this book.

I am a fan of Salisbury's works for a long time, and this book has not disappointed me. The writing is compelling, the materials well organized, and his unbiased reporting is as good as ever. This is one of the best books on the modern history of China.

a great reporter with a long history of China interest.......2001-04-24

Salisbury's book is so good, his reporting so valuable, that it will provide ample basic information to future historians as they attempt to sift through this period with some scholarly distance. Just prior to Tiananmen "incident" as it is called in China, he went and talked to the last surviving people who remember Mao and Deng, the two most powerful leaders of Communist China. It was a unique time, as China was open for just a moment during a reform period before shutting down again after Tiananmen and those people were about to disappear forever. Salisbury found them and recorded their memories.

The result is a masterpiece of reporting, bringing Mao and Deng to life and in detail like no other account that I have read - and I have read a lot of them! The book concentrates on government and power politics, leaving the details of policies to others, which strikes just the right balance.

Highly recommended.

Awesome on Mao, Ok on Deng.......2001-01-03

I recently read the new Philip Short biography on Mao. A long and good book. However, I did not learn half as much about Mao from Short's book as I did from the New Emperors.

Salisbury writes a highly readable, brilliant book on Mao, the founding of the people's republic of China, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.

The book does a great job showing the personal side of Mao, how he treated other people, and how he changed over time between 1949 and 1976.

The book also does a great job on the early career of Deng Xiaoping. However, feel the book falters on covering the demise of the Gang of Four and the early rule of Deng. As great as the book was up to this point, I feel he does not thoroughly cover how the gang of four was defeated and the early rule of Deng.

The book recovers in its coverage of Tianaman Square and in its conclusions about China.

This book is 3/4 brilliant and 1/4 ok.

A book that needs to be read by more Americans.......2000-07-18

Let's face it, China is rapidly replacing Russia as the chief rival of the U.S. in world affairs. And anyone who wants to begin to understand modern China must start with this book. Harrison Salisbury is an excellent journalist and writer who chronicles the tragic history of China from the beginning of the communist regime through the early 1990s. He focusses on the two leaders, Mao and Deng, who guided China into the modern era, causing at least as much if not far more destruction to their country the good that came from modernity. The irony is that while Mao was an egomaniacal madman, Deng was at heart a decent man who rebounded from being jailed and humiliated by the Cultural Revolution only to ruin his more benevolent legacy at Tianamen Square in 1989. Salisbury's account is readable and insightful and is essential for anyone with an interest in the country.

Average customer rating: Beautiful book. An account of life in one of the world's greatest tyrranies. Fascinating memoir, full of interesting anecdotes and views on China Excellent Memoir A must-read if you're planning to visit China

Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now Jan Wong Manufacturer: Anchor ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Canadian | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Journalists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Similar Items: Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.) Life and Death in Shanghai China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power Wild Grass: Three Portraits of Change in Modern China ASIN: 0385482329 Release Date: 1997-05-19

Book Description

Jan Wong, a Canadian of Chinese descent, went to China as a starry-eyed Maoist in 1972 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. A true believer--and one of only two Westerners permitted to enroll at Beijing University--her education included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock & roll, hauled pig manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States. She also met and married the only American draft dodger from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China.

Red China Blues is Wong's startling--and ironic--memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism (which crumbled as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese communism); her dramatic firsthand account of the devastating Tiananmen Square uprising; and her engaging portrait of the individuals and events she covered as a correspondent in China during the tumultuous era of capitalist reform under Deng Xiaoping. In a frank, captivating, deeply personal narrative she relates the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the "worker's paradise." And through the stories of the people--an unhappy young woman who was sold into marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises--Wong reveals long-hidden dimensions of the world's most populous nation.

In setting out to show readers in the Western world what life is like in China, and why we should care, she reacquaints herself with the old friends--and enemies of her radical past, and comes to terms with the legacy of her ancestral homeland.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful book........2007-10-20

Red China Blues is the story of a woman who, in her youth, idealizes communism. This idealization is partly a lack of understanding about how communism in China really worked, and partly rebellion against her own Canadian culture.

As she goes to China and slowly comes to understand the horror of China under Mao, we too see and understand both the regime itself and the ways in which the people dealt with their lot. She wants so much to believe in the dream-China she's created in her head that it's painful and difficult for her to see reality. This is a sin most humans commit at some point in their lives, and many readers will wince as they're reminded of their own delusional moments.

Ms. Wong does not attempt to censor any of her own sins. From simple arrogance to participation in active thought control, she tells us everything she did and leaves it to us to decide what to think of her. The same is true of the people around her: she honestly talks about the good and bad in all the people she describes to us. This lends a wonderful humanizing touch to the book and turns it from the story of a regime into a story about people *in* the regime, living as best they can. You will not be able to forgive some of them, while others will move you. Mostly, Ms. Wong leaves you to decide for yourself which people fall into which category.

In other words, this is a book that lays out facts and lets you decide your opinion for yourself. She gives you the facts, tells you her opinion, and leaves the rest to you. For a clear, honest look at China's people under Mao and after his death, read this one.

An account of life in one of the world's greatest tyrranies........2007-02-21

Jan Wong,a Canadian journalist of Chinese ancestry, in this illuminating volume writes of her experiences as an ardent young Maoist in the early 1970's who actually went to China to work and study.
She hauled pig manure in a Chinese re-education farm, and at Beijing University she turned in a fellow student who had begged her help to escape to the West.
Slowly she realized the evil of the Communist system in China and was repatriated to the West in 1978.
Wong returned years later as an undercover journalist to China where she covered the Tianmen Square Massacre, in which three thousand pro-democracy students were mowed down in cold blood by Red China's army, on the orders of dictator, Jian Zemin.
She also covered China's contradictory development into a capitalist state under a Communist dictatorship, or a Communist dictatorship with a capitalist economy...akin to Fascism!
She covers the Tianmen Square Massacre of 1989, letting the the reader know of some of the lesser known details, and how the Communist army opened fire on the students after they began leaving the square:
"A [...]girl was killed and they just brought her body back...After the third barrage I counted more than twenty bodies. One cyclist was shot in the back right below our balcony. There were two big puddles of blood on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. People carried the body of a little girl towards the back of the hotel. After twenty three more minutes, a few people gathred up enough courage to aproach the wounded. The soldiers let loose another blast, sending the would be rescuers scurrying for cover. The crowd was enraged. I grimly kept track of the time. An hour later, the wounded were still on the ground, bleeding to death.
She speaks of the great poverty of the new Red China, with inequalities far greater than anything in the liberal democracies of the world, and crushing poverty in the rural provinces. Despite economic changes, China remains a brutal dictatorship, with no political liberalization or democratization having been allowed by the iron grip of the Communist Party.
Peeople are still opresed in day-to-day life. People are not allowed to own dogs, and to deal with a fad of people acquiring dogs as pets in the early 1990s, special police squads swept through the neigbourhoods, strangling dogs with steel wire looped at the end of metal poles.
The author recounts some regret at buying into the Communist lie, with the realization that "The Western world, especially Canada, is far more socialistic than China has ever been, with it's free public education, universal medicare, unemployment insurance, and government funding for television ads against domestic violence. China has made me appreciate my own country, with it's tiny ethnically diverse population of unassuming donut-eaters. I had gone all the way to China to find an idealistic revolutionary society, when I already had it right to home."
She ends of on a positive note, predicting, in 1997, a great change in China , and the death of the Communist Party, and real democracy.
Ten years later, this is not close to being realized, with a tightening of political control by the Communist dictatorship having taken place.
Despite being one of the most brutal dictatorships on this planet, China has gained international acceptibility, without improving democracy or human rights!
Nobody bats an eyelid at the Olympic Games for 2008 being set in Beijing.
The worst abuses of the Communist regime has it's apologists in the WEst.
The Stalinist Workers World Party in North America, (which has praised Stalinism in the Soviet Union, and applauded suicide bombings against Jewish women and chidren in Israel) congratulated the Chinese regime after the Tianmen Square Massacre, for having 'won a battle against imperialist and counter-revolutionary forces."
The fact that such sentiments can be uttered makes one wonder how far the world has actually come.

Fascinating memoir, full of interesting anecdotes and views on China.......2006-06-04

Jan Wong's account starts with her move to China from Canada to attend university just as the Cultural Revolution dawned. Naive, idealistic and fascinated by Mao, she cheerfully went to the farms to work and describes her own complicity in the tragedies of the time. It is only when the Cultural Revolution is ended and the country suddenly turns around, denouncing most of what the CR had stood for, does she start to think for herself. It may also have had something to do with realizing that her college education was wasted, and that people in China know students from those years did not learn anything.
And so it goes. Wong makes no effort to apologize or hide her original idealism, and in fact she never completely gives it up. She married an American who defected to China, and returned to China repeatedly as a reporter. Only the massacres of 1989 seem to finally make her lose her enchantment with the systems.

But whereas some people have written that this is a weakness of the book, I think it is a strength. You get to see a little of how an intelligent person could be fascinated with Mao and communism, even if it does require a huge amount of self deception and naivete. Further, Wong writes about the subject with great passion and a unique perspective for a westerner: she was one of only a handful of westerners who actually witnessed the Cultural Revolution firsthand (Wong is often able to get into areas not open to western reporters today by bluffing, using her knowledge of China in the 60s to convince guards that she must be a native). I would love to see what she thinks of the rise of capitalism in China today.
Finally, I am a sucker for good writing. This book is clear and compelling and the stories will pull you through.

Excellent Memoir.......2005-03-12

This superb memoir by Canadian Jan Wong describes her student and worker days in China during the latter part of the Cultural Revolution. Rebelling against the middle class values of her Chinese immigrant parents, Wong left for China in the early 1970's as an eager young Maoist. The author describes her student days at Beijing University, her life on a rural farm commune, and her eventual transformation from naïve idealist to disillusioned realist. Wong left for home six years later, but returned to Beijing in 1988 as foreign correspondent for the Toronto Globe Mail. There she witnessed the stunning prosperity China suddenly enjoyed along with the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. I read this eloquent 1996 memoir shortly after visiting China and found the author's analysis completely on target.

This superb memoir is written in a nicely readable style. Readers should enjoy this book, and might also consider two additional memoirs of China, WILD SWANNS and IN SEARCH OF HISTORY.

A must-read if you're planning to visit China.......2004-12-17

I read the book before traveling to China. It was invaluable in helping me understand recent Chinese history. Wong's story helped me understand what someone experienced during the Cultural Revolution. We had a speaker who told many of the same kinds of stories. This book helped make my visit to China richer, more meaningful and interesting. Her images prepared me for what I would be viewing myself. Very well-written and interesting to read.

Average customer rating:

Mao's Last Dancer: Young Reader's Edition Li Cunxin Manufacturer: Bolinda Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Audio CD Teens | Subjects | Books | Audiobooks | Authors, A-Z | Biographies & Memoirs | Health, Mind & Body | History & Historical Fiction | Horror | Literature & Fiction | Manga | Mysteries | Reference | Religion & Spirituality | School & Sports | Science & Technology | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Series | Social Issues General | Biographies | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books Performing Arts | Biographies | People & Places | Children's Books | Subjects | Books Nonfiction | Dance | Performing Arts | Arts & Music | Children's Books | Subjects | Books General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books Biographies & Memoirs | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books ASIN: 1740938208

Average customer rating: Inside a Complex Mind Interesting, indepth, complicated a very timely read - recommended to everyone An Important Look Madame Mao The Greatest Revolutionary

Madame Mao: The White-Boned Demon: Revised Edition Ross Terrill Manufacturer: Stanford University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books General | China | Asia | History | Subjects | Books Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Similar Items: The Private Life of Chairman Mao Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China Mao: The Unknown Story ASIN: 0804729220 Release Date: 1999-12-27

Customer Reviews:

Inside a Complex Mind.......2007-02-09

This certainly seems to be the definitive biography of Jiang Qing, third and final wife of Chairman Mao. It provides a fascinating look not only at this particular woman, but at the culture that spawned, nurtured and ultimately rejected her. Terrill contextualizes her struggle to acquire power, looking at Jiang primarily as an individualist, but also as a feminist in a country that couldn't receive her. The very title of the book ably demonstrates the point that Terrill repeatedly makes: Jiang Qing was not allowed to assert an identity outside of that provided by her husband--at least, not until China repudiated her. In her own country, earlier editions of this book were marketed under her name, as Chinese authorities sought to distance the woman from her husband, preserving the myth of Mao while completing the demonization of his wife of 38 years.

When I first started the book, I was a little suspicious of its author, who seemed far too sympathetic of Jiang Qing given her role in the Cultural Revolution. However, on balance Terrill doesn't excuse her, although he does admire her peculiar integrity, particularly in her refusal to compromise her values during her trial. One of her enemies commented after her candid performance there, "I have always hated Jiang Qing; now I hate her a little less." In the end, his biography may make others feel the same. She was flamboyant, petty and vengeful, but above all a woman of towering ego, who refused to be the one thing that her society most demanded: self-effacing.

Interesting, indepth, complicated.......2006-05-19

Ross Terrill writes a detailed life story of Mao's 4th wife, Jiang Qing. Without some knowledge of events in China, it would be confusing as Terrill sticks to Jiang's life and psychology more than to the historical backdrop. The book gets complicated because Chinese names are so foreign to westerners with many similar names and some names the same for women as for men. Jiang Qing is the woman's third name, taken when she becomes Mao's wife. Mr. Terrill does a valiant job of reminding the reader who someone is when he appears again in the narrative after many pages. I recommend reading Life and Death in Shanghai first for an overview of the Cultural Revolution.

a very timely read - recommended to everyone.......2004-07-06

This book is a laborous attempt to highlight a huge danger of a society reliant on both totalitarian tenets and on a Tzar-like charisma of a single human leader. With no democracy nor a modern social system based on rule of law and free flow of information, PRC China as of today faces the same - or even grander - catastrophic risk of implosion as depicted in the book. Especially so given China's growing presence and power militarily, politically and economically.

An Important Look Madame Mao.......2004-06-14

This book was totally engrossing. Having read many previous historical accounts of the last 5 decades of Chinese History, I never fully understood the role of Jiang Qing. Always, in other books, her one and only epithet would be something like, "an ambitious actress from Shanghai..." That would be fine to describe a lesser figure in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, but I always felt it completely inadequate when discussing THE instigator of said turmoil. This book helps to elucidate the woman who caused so much of the havoc that took China to the brink of destruction for so long a time.

This book shows the young Qing as, indeed, the ambitious Shanghai actress, and the drama that would resurface 30 years later, with her in power over her numerous enemies. Also, the book is not singularly concentrated on Qing; rather, it shows the complex, at times Kafakaesque intrigues of the Communist system under Mao. Of how good friends and mentors, Zhou Enlai for example, who tried to keep a hospital-bound Qing in high spirits when even Mao himself did not (or did not care), later became bitter enemies, and the back-stabbing necessary to retain power (or stay alive) in Mao-era China.

Very interesting work, completely readable. The only gripes I have with this book is that I have read several of the books Terrill uses as his sources, and I noticed on several occasions that he includes, verbatim, what others already wrote. He does give credit sometimes, though. Also, I found his extensive use of footnotes-cum-elaboration to be quite cumbersome, and wish he had just put the extra detail into the body itself, and not at the bottom of the page--it just throws off your reading and got aggrivating at points. However, these are minor points; the book itself is quite excellent, and I would highly recommend it for those wishing to get another angle on the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

The Greatest Revolutionary.......2000-06-11

Terrill made a very impressive life-account of Jiang Qing a.k.a. Madame Mao. I am very impressed by this truthful and honest account of Jiang Qing. Madame Jiang Qing is totally unlike any modern communist Chinese personality; she was a political wife, the woman behind the charismatic Chairman Mao Zedong. Who is this lady? How was she able to survived the turmoil of prewar Shanghai period, the Communist Revolution and lastly the Cultural Revolution. Modern China is famous for a few women, e.g. Madame Soong Qingling, Madame Wang Guangmei, Madame Deng Yingchao, and lastly Madame Jiang Qing. For all these women except for Madame Soong Qingling were women of power due to their husband who had privileged positions within the Communist Party. On the other hand, Madame Soong was the symbolism of the previous Republican Era, perhaps the torch-bearer of Dr Sun Yat Sen's idealism. Jiang Qing is a paradox in Chinese Communism, she was not the typical peasant woman nor is she the idealistic communist comrade. She was neither, instead she was an ambitious and budding film star, gaining popularity in the Shanghai prewar era. In all accounts, she is a true bourgeois and capitalistic person. But, nevertheless this lady rose to become the greatest revolutionary leader of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Li Shumeng, the infant name of Jiang Qing, was born in Shandong province in Northern China in 1914 where the Chinese Revolution was still in action. Athough the Chinese Revolution brought to an end to the 2000 years of Imperial China but nothing much change, it was very much like the old order. The Confucianist China was in fact retrogressing towards the Warlord Era where the might of the sword becomes the law in Peking. Jing Qing upbringing was not something to remember, she was a daughter or a minor wife (probably a concubine too), thus resulting in no special privileges. Her father Li Dewen was not the ideal parent, he drank heavily and enjoyed a rather poor reputation in Zhucheng. However, her mother was ambitious, perhaps an earlier version of the future Jiang Qing. Shumeng (pure and simple) was rather an ill-chosen name, it does not reflects upon the aggressive and outward looking Jiang Qing. Later, Jiang Qing's name was change by her grandfather to Li Yunhe (crane in the clouds), too rustic but yet one of the most suitable name for Jiang Qing. Jiang Qing was never the Confucianist demure woman but she challenged all avenues and made great inroads for the emancipation of women in China. I admire such strong character than made up the true nature of Jiang Qing. Li Yunhe, later to be christened again as Lan Ping (blue apple); life as an actress was seedy, perhaps too seedy for the communist comrade. Terill describe clearly her love affairs with her first three husbands from Mr Fei, Yu Qiwei and Tang Na. Her first marriage was a shamble, there was little love between this couple, it was with Yu Qiwei and Tang Na where she found true love. With Yu Qiwei, it was his idealistic and underground communist movement that made her fell for him, while Tang Na was their shared passion for the theatre as well as grasping the communist movement. True romantic love was never the context that brought together these two greatest revolutionaries figures in history. Mao Zedong, 45 was thrice married in 1937 and so was Lan Ping, 24 but it was the jest for political power, the jest for idealism that set in the nature of this long lasting relationship. In 1937, at the conclusion of the Long March and the end of the White Terror of Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong set up base in Yanan that soon to be the bastion of Chinese Communism. Yanan was the ideal romanticism of communist ideology, I would say the founding of the People's Republic of China has its greatest pillars of strength in Yanan. Although, communist leaders like Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhou Enlai was not of favour of Jiang Qing as the consort of the "great'' leader, for these communist zealots, He Zizhen (Mao's 3rd Wife) was in their mind was the ideal communist consort, the revolutionary love mate of Mao Zedong. He Zizhen shouldered the brunt of the revolution and the sufferings of the Long March. But in the end, He Zizhen lost to Lan Ping the young and beautiful actress whereas He Zizhen was frail and perhaps on the brink of schizophrenia. Lan Ping's final name change to Jiang Qing (Blue River) was the start of a new Jiang Qing, the consort or the "ai ren" of Chairman Mao Zedong. Although known as Mrs. Chairman, she is still far behind in the list of the Communist hierarchy, she was to be known as the lady lover behind Mao not the women equal as He Zizhen. Nevertheless, her rise in the Communist Party was slow and never meteoric as continuos purges of of her was done in a symbolic way:- seeking medication and rest in Moscow. On each trip back from Moscow, her status diminished. However, the litmus test of Jiang Qing was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, she headed the steering committee of the Cultural Revolution that become the de-facto politburo in China. The Cultural Revolution group plotted revenge, denouncing the rightist, the capitalist roaders like Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping etc. Together with their husbands, their wives eg Wang Guangmei was sent to the gallows as crimes in bed. Imagine that the Red Guards, agents of Jiang Qing became the dominant forces of the Cultural Revolution. Although many authors and sinologist might view Jiang Qing's action as outright evil, perhaps counter-revolutionary but in my humble opinion it is none of that sort:- it was plain political power struggle. Jiang Qing plotted and bided (although failed) for the prime post of Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty. When Emperor Tai Zong died, his consort Wu Zetian usurped the throne in her favour, at first with the blessings of the heir apparent but later she became the "emperor" in her own right. Jiang Qing is perhaps the modern version of Empress Wu, in this case as the living "emperor" became weaker, Jiang became the mouth-piece of the 'emperor' "I was Mao's Dog, he asked me to bite and I bite", the most famous quotation that justified Jiang Qing as acting according to the wishes of Chairman Mao. How justifiable is this statement? Was Jiang acting as Mrs Mao or was she on her true account. After the purge of the Gang of Four, many historians view Jiang Qing as the ringleader behind the folly of the Cultural Revolution but Terrill made a very comprehensive account considering facts from both sides. I would say that this account is rather accurate relegating the facts from fiction...

Average customer rating: Heartwarming and breathtaking! Very emotional book. Absolutely amazing memoir with wonderful writing An amazing story! An inside look through a young man's eyes in China under Mao

Mao's Last Dancer Li Cunxin Manufacturer: Putnam Adult ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Entertainment | Subjects | Books | Humor | Movies | Music | Performing Arts | Pop Culture | Puzzles & Games | Radio | Sheet Music & Scores | Television Dancers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books Similar Items: Mao's Last Dancer 1421: The Year China Discovered America Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China Everyman The Known World ASIN: 039915096X Release Date: 2004-03-25

Book Description

An extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation.

In 1961, three years of Mao's Great Leap Forward-along with three years of poor harvests-had left a rural China suffering terribly from disease and deprivation. Li Cunxin, his parents' sixth son, lived in a small house with twenty of his relatives and, along with the rest of his family, subsisted for years on the verge of starvation. But when he was eleven years old, Madame Mao decided to revive the Peking Dance Academy, and sent her men into the countryside searching for children to attend.

Chosen on the basis of his physique alone, Li Cunxin was taken from his family and sent to the city for rigorous training. What follows is the story of how a small, terrified, lonely boy became one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. One part Falling Leaves, one part Billy Eliot, Mao's Last Dancer is an unforgettable memoir of hope and courage.

Customer Reviews:

Heartwarming and breathtaking!.......2006-07-20

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin is the memoir of a famous Chinese international ballet dancer (now retired) who struggled from poverty to reach soaring heights. I was enraptured from page one, when Li describes a traditional Chinese wedding that seems like it is irrelevant to his story but is in fact the wedding of his dear niang and dia (mother and father), whose love for him leaps in bounds.

Li grows up in the Li Commune in the Qingdao (or Tsingtao, named after the Chinese beer) province in China. He has many brothers, and his niang and dia struggle everyday to make ends meet. Chairman Mao is at the height of his power, and so all his teachers indoctrinate Li and other children about Mao's Red Book and the Communist ideals. At age 11, Li is chosen to attend Madame Mao's Dance Academy in Beijing, where it is a totally different world from the fields that he lived in. There, he suffers intense homesickness and torn hamstrings as he and his classmates go through rigorous dance training.

Li meets many friends and teachers that influence and support him, especially Teacher Xiao and his words of inspiration about a mango. Li eventually gets to go to America to dance with the Houston Ballet under Ben Stevenson, and that trip of freedom changes his life forever as he realizes that for years, Chairman Mao manipulated all of China with his communist ideals and twisted portraits of capitalist America. In America, he meets even more people that shape his tumultous life as he finds international success in the dnace world and his true love.

From his parents' wedding to his own, I was never bored for a single moment. His journey from a poor peasant to international success is amazing because the reader never knows what is coming up next! Li inserts a lot of anecdotes and Chinese stories/fables that his dia or someone else told him. His emotional outbursts will evoke the reader's own emotions as he struggles through excruciating pain, humiliation, homesickness, his feelings of love, and his confusion about capitalism and communism. I cheered him on when he has his first taste of freedom in America. Also, the reader reads about the importance of a cohesive family. When there is nothing, one will always have family to love and support, and his large loving family is the biggest supporter Li has.

Li's poignant memoir is one of the best in its field. It is easy to read and enjoyable. It is not short (445 pages) but the pages will go by in the blink of an eye because this story of a remarkable Chinese dancer is so fascinating and awe-inspiring. Highly recommended!

Very emotional book........2006-07-15

I have a deep interest in Chinese history & am always on the look out for good books written on the subject.

This particular book is a very heart-warming book indeed. After having read so many positive reviews about it, I decided I had to buy it. It was one of those books where you just have to read it from start to end. The story itself is quite incredible & told from the heart. The endurance, strength & courage of Li Cunxin in the backlight of the decline of Mao's power & the ascent of Deng Xiaoping really makes this a must read for anyone interested in Chinese history!

Richard

Absolutely amazing memoir with wonderful writing.......2006-06-19

I've read many, many memoirs about life in modern China, however, I've never read one with such a dramatic tale to tell, and I've read very few books in general as well written as this one. This is a true rags to riches story---starting out in a commune as poor as it could be and ending up world famous.

It was very interesting to read a book set during the Cultural Revolution from the perspective of someone from the class that was suppposed to be the one being glorified at that time---the peasants. It's amazing to see Cunxin's progression from true devotion to Mao to realization of how much he was lied to and manipulated.

This is also a love story, the story of the love between Cunxin's parents---an arranged marriage which became a true love match, and the pride and happiness despite their very tough lives they had in their seven sons. It is obvious the author cares so very much for his whole extended family. The speech his usually quiet father gave at a family wedding is one of the most touching passages I've ever read.

I hope Li Cunxin writes more. I would love to hear more about his life in Australia with his wife and children, and to hear about their journey with their deaf daughter. He is obviously a gifted writer as well as a gifted dancer. Highly recommended to all.

An amazing story!.......2005-08-25

I must join in on the praise for this wonderful memoir. Li Cunxin's account of his early life in China was so vivid that I literally shed tears for him. Later,I found myself cheering his brilliant successes in the ballet world. I could not put this book down, as I felt compelled to find out what was happening to Li Cunxin. The pages of pictures contained in the book added much to the telling of this story. You must read it.

An inside look through a young man's eyes in China under Mao.......2005-03-10

Since we adopted our daughter from China I am trying to read anything about her birth country. I really enjoyed this book and I'm not even a huge ballet follower. After reading this I hope one day I might have the chance to see him dance and appreciate all of his hard work and his humble beginings.

This book takes you back to when China was under Mao's rule and how the people of China spent their day to day lives trying to survive, and the wonderful oppertunity Cuxin Li had for a better life all because of a teacher pointing him out. I really enjoyed this book!

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