Rating: 
Summary: I don't regret buying this book!
Review: This is a book that will make you laugh, angry and cry. You'll laugh because of Mrs. Mao (Jiang Jing), who behaved like the Dragon Lady (Dowager Empress Cixi). You'll be angry because of the hypocrisy of the Chinese Communist Party (they lived like Mandarins while the people starved to death). You'll cry because of the persons who were falsely accused of being "anti-revolutionaries," but were never compensated after the Cultural Revolution.The kind of communism they have in present China is NOT pure communism. I've returned to China to teach college English. I look around me and see the hustle and bustle of capitalism. Hardline Marxists will tell you that communism will always be against capitalism; they're like oil and water.
The Chinese government is so hypocritical to say that China owes its fast economic development to its communistic ideals -- when in fact it owes much of its success to the capitalism that now makes the country run. Both the old and young people are brainwashed to credit Mao Tse Tung for China's present economic growth. But the fact is Mao created more poverty and famine during his lifetime. It was only after his death that China, under Deng Xiao Peng (for me, he's the REAL hero) realized that they needed to be a little "capitalized" to grow economically. Interesting anecdote: In one of my classes, I asked my students if they would want Mao to be cloned and all the philosophies of the original Mao were downloaded into the clone's brain. Many of them, although somewhat conditioned all their life to rant that "Mao is the greatest man in the whole world," admit that they wouldn't want him around because he belongs to a different generation. I wonder: if Mao is responsible for the "new China," how come the younger generation doesn't want him to be part of it? I pity how my students contradict themselves. Then again, I find Mao to be an enigma himself, after reading this book. If you hate Mao too much, this book will make you hate him less. If you love him too much, it will make you love him less. If you are neutral about him, it will make you either love him or hate him. In my case, I never liked him because I had always considered him to be anti-religion, being a Marxist. But this book revealed that Mao didn't 100% subscribe to Karl Marx's atheistic ideology. In fact, Mao believed that religion plays an important role in people's lives: "Having no money to buy drugs, poor farmers can still pray...People cannot live without spiritual support." Mao also admired Jesus, admitting that He is one of those who promoted social change: "What education did Jesus have? But hasn't His religion lasted to this day?"
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