The Truth Hurts For Some Readers
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Don't be put off by the negative reviews of some of the people here. This is a superb book and a great read. Of course, if some folk still wish to idolise Chairman Mao that is their business, but Jung Chang has done her best to reveal the ghastly nature of the man and the regime that he led.
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Not your typical biography
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When you read biographies, the subject of the book is typically presented in a cool, analytical fashion. The biases and feelings of the author don't typically come through in the writing of the book and the reader is expected to make his own judgement about the character of the person they're rading about.
The approach I just described is especially true when you read biographies about people of historical import, whose actions, it can be argued, can speak for themselves.
The cool, analytical approach was not used here. Mao is presented here as a ruthless man who wanted to be a leader within the Chinese Communist Party, and as someone who would sacrefice anything, or anyone, to get where he wanted to go. No one who reads about Mao's actions, are described here, can be left with anything but a clear understanding of the view they are supposed to form about Mao.
I'm no deep analyst, but there is no doubt that the authors have a very blinkered view of Mao, and that view colours every page of this book. That has lead to some criticism of the book, especially amongst those who take a certain view of historical biography, and how it should be written. That view might be right, or it might be wrong. It is up to the reader to decide what they want. If you want cool and analytical, don't read this book.
To those that argue they want analytical biographies, however, I would simply ask; if Mao did half the things that he is supposed to have done in this book what other view of Mao could you from? This question is doubly hard, given that there is seemingly little argument he did all the things that are ascribed to him in this book.
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Excellent telling of an extraordinary life
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Mao certainly dominated the world stage in the last century. From the Long March through the Cultural Revolution to the meetings with Nixon, Mao was a giant historic figure. This book attempts to get behind the icon. In a fairly straightforward convention of following Mao's life, the detail of the Chinese leader's story is explored in detail. The detail is immense and yet the writing style allows you read rather than 'absorb' an academic tome. It's big book befitting a big figure. If you are interested in China's development then it's a good guide to a lot of the working of the Communist Party in an important period of China's modern history. There are a lot of revelations about Mao the man and his motivations. If you like solid, meaty, well researched biographies then this will be an excellent read for you.
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It is not good as The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Zhisui Li
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Chang and Halliday's Mao, Unknown Story is good, but it is not good as The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Zhisui Li
Chang and Halliday's Mao, Unknown Story provided a brand new version and perspective of Chairman Mao. It is the first time to portray Chairman Mao as a bloody mass-murderer. In their book, Chairman Mao was a large-scale murderer during a Chinese peace era. Nearly 80 million people were dead by his Utopian idealism: that was an unbelievable number. It is four times the number of deaths of the Soviets in the war between the Soviet Union and Germany. He used drastic violence to suppress people who he believed stood in his way for industrializing China. He ignored the death of 30 million people during the starvation period of the Great Famine, which was caused by his foolish "Great Leap Forward" for overtaking the British and catching up to the Americans. After the Great Famine, his lunatic behavior reached new heights. He launched the culture revolution, which was completely insane. He became a maniac. Under his direction, the violence was propelled to its bloodiest high tide. The horror broke historic records. Elementary school students unbelievably beat their teachers to death. The death toll was continuing to pile up until the day he died. From Mao, Unknown Story, the figure of Chairman Mao was drawn as a vicious monster and mass-murderer.
No wonder, horrible bloody killings described in Mao, Unknown Story truly happened in China from 1949, when Chairman Mao took over China, to 1976 when Chairman Mao died. Chairman Mao did everything so lunatic, and insane. From the catastrophe which he brought to China, he deserves to be considered a bloodthirsty monster and a bloody mass murderer. Overall, the book is good and correct.
Even though the book is good and correct, it cannot compare with Dr. Zhisui Li's The Private Life of Chairman Mao in deeply and lively describing of Chairman Mao. No less than Dr. Andrew Nathan pointed out, all of biographic writers have a limitation in deeply and lively describing their objects. Because they have never served their objects, they have no chance to observe them closely. Also they have done a lot of research, but the inherent defect is that they don't really know their objects' personality and psychology. They don't know their objects' courtyard operations; their objects' retainers, and the relationship between their objects, their objects' retainers and the government officials.
Dr. Zhisui Li's The Private Life of Chairman Mao did not portray Chairman Mao as a bloodthirsty monster and a bloody mass murderer; instead of that, it focused on details of Chairman Mao's personality, psychology and his courtyard operation. Owing to Dr. Zhisui Li's position, it made him as so called: inside man. He could know a lot of Chairman Mao's important information that an outsider could not know. Even Chairman Mao's former public health minister told Dr. Li to come see him anytime if Dr. Li wanted to tell him about any of Chairman Mao's activities. In the same way, Chairman Mao's former chief commanding officer of guards also was available to Dr. Li with no appointment.
The deepest impression for me about Dr. Li's book is the Chairman Mao's courtyard and his retainers. Chairman Mao's medical doctor, chief commanding officer of guards and secretaries comprised his retainers. They were called "Group One". Chairman Mao's retainers formed a powerful and vicious retainer circle. Their power was even above party officials. The party officials were not servants of people. Instead they were servants of Chairman Mao. They cared for Chairman Mao's retainers a lot of more than they cared for people. The gossip of those retainers could cause party officials a serious trouble. People were powerless and ignored. The party officials entertained Chairman Mao's retainers with the best Chinese whiskey and the best Chinese cuisine while the Chinese commoners had a little of meat to eat. During the starvation period of the Great Famine, Chairman Mao even stopped eating meat. But his retainers flaunted the banner of celebrating Chairman Mao's birthday, and required the local party officials to hold a grand dinner party for them. The dinner fulfilled the best Chinese cuisine, seafood, and the best Chinese whiskey, wine, beer. The party was in the name of celebrating Chairman Mao's birthday, but Chairman Mao didn't even attend. Dr. Li found it very hard to swallow that tasty food. However his colleague exhorted Dr. Li, saying that unless he wanted to leave "Group One", he had better wallow in the mire with them. Some party officials even colluded with some of Mao's retainers making a fraud deal in secret. The fraud deal deceived party treasurers by saying that Chairman Mao ate more than one thousand chickens in three, four days. Actually, the party officials took chickens for their own meals. Chairman Mao even had never known it until he was dead.
The factions in Chairman Mao's retainers circle were stricken by each other fiercely. Opponents attempted to topple their counter part desperately. A vicious atmosphere permeated daily life. Nobody felt safe. Chairman Mao's wife was frequently involved in the factions' conflicts. In this vicious atmosphere, even Chairman Mao himself suspected somebody of crawling on his bedroom roof at midnight. He did not trust any of his retainers. He even suspected that the swimming pool in his palace was poisoned.
Dr. Li's dream to be a great neural surgeon became a surviving nightmare. Although Dr. Li wanted to avoid touching this vicious politics, he could not stay out from it. For survival he was forced to stay with one faction. Later, the factions' grappling escalated to a cross line battle between the retainer circle and party officials, and eventually led to a palace coup after Chairman Mao was dead. Chairman Mao's wife and her three colleagues were arrested. However, Dr. Li survived successfully.
I feel that Dr. Li portrayed the figure of Chairman Mao and his courtyard operation more close to the true Chinese history, what was really happened in China from 1949 to 1976. Compared to Dr. Li's book, Chang and Halliday's Mao, Unknown Story seems pale.
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The great murderer of the 20th century revealed
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Chang and Halliday have written an amazing biography of Mao,one of the most influential,and murderous,politicians of the 20th century.Well researched(check out the list of interviewees)it tells a remarkably readable story of how Mao took over first the Chineese Communist Party,then China,and eventually(through "Mao Tse-tung Thought")attempted to extend his reign over the rest of humanity.
Many of the stories are familiar to readers of other Mao biographies(notably Philip Short's)but the extra research and Chang's seemingly bilingual command of Chinese and English means sources unavailable to Western researchers are deployed here.
Why only four stars?Let's face it,despite Mao's loathsome nature and the brutality of the People's Republic since 1949 to it's own citizens,this is very much an attempt to explain modern China up to 1976 as in effect being the doings of one man.No matter how evil Mao was(and there's no doubt he was indeed evil),or for that matter how talented,that thesis simply dosen't hold up.
It is also a hatchet job,not remotely an objective account.You may argue that Mao does indeed deserve one,and it's hard to disagree with that,but if you want a more controlled approach,try the Philip Short biography.
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