Mao: The Unknown Story

[boooeee]

So, I just finished Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday.

I picked it up because I was interested in 20th century Chinese history and realized I knew very little about it (Nationalists vs. Communists, The Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, etc.).

The book itself makes no pretense at being a balanced look at Mao. I think the goal the authors had in mind was to state the case that Mao (not Hitler or Stalin) was the greatest monster of the 20th century. In terms of number of deaths caused, Mao certainly appears to have Hitler and Stalin beat (over 70 million, according to the authors).

However, where some may attribute the millions that died of starvation under Mao's rule to his incompetence, Chang and Halliday attribute it to willful malice. They argue that Mao was fully aware of the impact his policies had on the people of China, but pushed forward regardless in his quest to maintain his stranglehold on power and promote his cult of personality to the world.

My difficulty with the book stems from my ignorance of Chinese history. When I was reading it, I had no idea which parts were standard, accepted Chinese history, and which parts were conclusions drawn from Chang and Halliday's own research (which does appear quite extensive). At times, they appear to be willing to draw firm conclusions on little evidence, as long as it paints Mao in a bad light.

Anyone else here read the book? I'd be curious to hear others impressions as well as general opinions about Mao's place in history.

 

[Wolfman]

I not only read the book, but have been living in China for 14 years. And while much of the history in the book is accurate, I'd consider the authors' interpretations of the causes and effects involved in that history to be wildly biased and inaccurate.

I'm not trying to defend Mao here...I do believe that he set China back 50 years, and the damage inflicted by him on China continues to affect us here today.

Now, there were certainly times that Mao encouraged violence towards those who opposed him, the Cultural Revolution being a great example of this; the Cultural Revolution really was a good example of Mao being determined to cling to power, and to eliminate anyone who got in his way.

But a far, far greater death toll can be attributed to the Great Leap Forward, one of the most disastrous policies ever implemented anywhere. Millions upon millions of people died due to starvation and disease that were entirely preventable. And it is here that I take issue with the claims of Chang and Halliday that these deaths were intentional, that it was part of Mao's quest to keep a hold on power.

At the time of the Great Leap Forward, Mao was paranoid about foreign powers attacking China again. Mao therefore encouraged a policy that Chinese should have as many children as possible; coming from a peasant background himself, he felt that "people power" was China's greatest asset, and that therefore the more people China had, the more powerful China would be. The result was that China's population more than doubled in 50 years.

I find it very difficult to reconcile the idea that Mao was simultaneously doing everything he could to increase China's population, while at the same time intentionally instigate policies that would kill off millions of people.

The Great Leap Forward was another result of the peasant mentality that plagued Mao's policies. He had no real understanding of science, and seemed to feel that where science conflicted with Communist ideology, it was science that should give way. Mao wanted to jump-start the Chinese economy and make it a superpower overnight; but the way that he did it crippled the economy, and resulted in widespread famine.

Again, trying to argue that Mao intentionally crippled the economy and set back China's economic development by 20 or 30 years flies entirely in the face of his desires at this period in history.

The single greatest problem created by Mao that continues to plague China today is the population; it wasn't until Mao died that new leaders were able to institute more moderate population programs...and by that time the population was so large that the only real solution left was the one-child policy that is in place today.

Mao was, at heart, a peasant, with a peasant's psychology. He believed that more people meant more power. He believed that anything could be accomplished through application of brute force. He was not at all a subtle man, although he was certainly a man determined to keep power once he accomplished it.

It is legitimate to blame some of the deaths during Mao's reign on his determination to keep power; but in my opinion -- and in the opinion of by far the majority of Chinese who lived under Mao, and who are arguably in the best position to judge -- the majority of deaths were the result of ignorance and incompetence. A man with too much power, but not enough knowledge.

This book is a good read, certainly, and for someone unfamiliar with modern Chinese history, it provides a lot of useful information. But take the conclusions and interpretations of the authors with a grain of salt.

Or an entire salt shaker.

 

[boooeee]

Thanks! That is exactly the kind of perspective I was hoping for.

I will take your recommended grain of salt.

I agree with your assessment of The Great Leap Forward. After reading through the chapters on that, everything afterwards, including The Cultural Revolution seemed pretty tame. The scale of that tragedy boggles the mind. And we're only fifty years removed.

I found the Nationalist-Communist civil war sections very interesting as well. It was almost comical (almost) how the upper ranks of the Nationalist army seemed to be composed almost exclusively of Communist spies (it reminded me of the Tom Lehrer joke about Los Alamos).

 

[Hindmost]

I haven't read this book yet, however, I may pick it up and put it in the que. I did read her book "Wild Swans." (quite some time ago) I had trouble with her interpretations of events in that book. Of particular concern was how all members of her family essentially did not do anything wrong. All her relatives were perfect. By the end of the book, I did not know what to trust as true events.

glenn

 

[Wolfman]

I actually heard Jung Chang speak at a book reading once; she's a passionate and intelligent woman. However, there are two significant biases to consider when reading her work:

1) She herself bought into and participated in many of the 'wrongs' committed by the Communists; she can either take responsibility for that herself, or blame it on someone else. She chooses the latter course.

2) Her family suffered significantly under the Communists (as did the majority of Chinese), and she left China before any of the more positive changes had started to take place. Her primary image of China is based on images from one of China's most turbulent and difficult periods, and that inevitably colors her commentary on it.

I personally have a lot of respect for her, and consider her a brilliant writer. She's been quite effective at writing books that have made people more aware of what happened in China.

As I said...you simply have to take what she writes with a significant helping of salt.

 

[Nightowl]

I read both of Mao, Unkown Story by Chang and Halliday and The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Zhisui Li. I posted my review below.

 

[Nightowl]

"Mao, Unknown Story" is not good as "The Private Life of Chairman Mao"

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.