The Private Life of Chairman Mao

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Summary: The REVOLTING life of Chairman Mao
Review: I have to hand it to Li Zhisui: I never would have guessed that a book with the heft of a small automobile and a subject as thoroughly despicable as Mao Zedong would be a page-turner, but I was wrong. I decided to read The Private Life of Chairman Mao on the strength of a review I read in the New York Times, combined with a desire to quell my ignorance of Chinese history. These things did not keep me riveted, however; Li Zhisui's detailed yet highly disciplined account of his experiences with Mao Zedong and the political intrigue in Maoist China made it difficult to put this book down. Not only was Mao an opportunist masquerading as an ideologue, but he was also a disgusting human being in every possible way. I was sickened to learn that an entire country was held captive by the whims of a man who was completely obsessed with his own power--and who had the worst personal hygiene of anyone on the planet! And I was fascinated to discover that the Chinese people did not despise Mao for it; rather, they revered him as something akin to a god. Indeed, Mao's ability to keep his countrymen enthralled in life--and to continue to keep them enthralled in death--says more about who he was than do his atrocities or his aversion to cleanliness: First and foremost, Mao Zedong was a master politician. And Li Zhisui is nothing if not a master storyteller. In The Private Life of Chairman Mao, he presents a sane perspective of a truly insane time

Rating:
Summary: fiction work masquerading as history
Review: GIven all the controversy and critiques of the book's publication and translation, this is not to be read as a true story of Mao's life. The author makes up dialogue from 30 years past the time of writing, and describes events at which he could not possibly have been present. Mao's bodygaurds and others have, in Chinese, denounced the author and directly refuted the book's sensationalist and orientalist pandering to reactionary Sinologists and ideologues. I wish I hadnt bought it, as it has little value as a meoir or history.

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Summary: Manufacturing History
Review: Immediately following the publication of _The Private Life of Chairman Mao_ in 1994 (English and Chinese versions were published similtaneously), Chinese historians and prominent individuals began to speak out about the book's factual mistakes. Several people who had known both Dr. Li Zhisui and Mao Zedong pointed out that Dr. Li was not in fact Mao's "personal physician" but merely an ordinary doctor who treated Mao only a few times in his life. Soon the revelations of serious problems with the book had circulated widely enough in the Chinese language media in both mainland China and abroad that few scholars of modern Chinese history who paid attention to Chinese media considered the work worth even discussing anymore. Unfortunately, this criticism failed to make headlines in the English language media, and with most of the readership ignorant enough of Chinese history and culture to notice the glaring problems with the book, along with its endorsement by the prominent right-wing sinologist Andrew Nathan, _Private Life_ became enshrined as a work of serious scholarship revealing "the ugly truth" about Mao Zedong. To try to balance this situation, a few members of the New York based China Study Group (www.chinastudygroup.org) translated some of the critical reviews into English and published them as _Manufacturing History: Sex, Lies, and Random House's Memoirs of Mao's Physician_ (1996, China Study Group Press). This book was distributed among the academic community connected to the group, but larger-scale publication and marketing fell by the way side as the group moved on to new projects. Almost ten years later, I look at the customer reviews on this page and see that there is a continued need to speak out against _Private Life_. More important than the countless individual fabrications and exaggerations the book contains, such efforts on the part of right-wing academia (both Chinese and international) to demonize Mao Zedong play a role in the larger project to silence dissent to the ongoing global consolidation of neoliberal capitalism. In contemporary China, the memory of Mao Zedong and his "path" has become the site of an intense ideological struggle as the right-wing of the party has created a foundation for unprecedented power as a bureaucratic-capitalist class, and as the peasants and workers have seen their conditions deteriorate, their lives destabilized, and their being disvalued. It has thus become a subversive act for peasants to display images of Mao in their homes, as anyone who has visited the Chinese countryside can attest. But I also think that Mao's representation has important implications for politics outside of China. In the U.S., for instance, "the atrocities of Stalin and Mao" (there are plenty of problems with putting Stalin and Mao in the same category, incidentally) are often referred to offhandedly (as if no elaboration were necessary) to silence any political discussion that even hints at the redistribution of wealth or the protection of communities from corporate exploitation. I'm sorry to extend this "review" so far afield, but I just want to emphasize that 1) this book has little or no academic value, 2) not only is it mendacious; its mendacity has important political implications for both China and the world.

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Summary: Another book you should read along with this one -
Review: This is a fascinating book. For anyone who wants to understand "modern" China, I recommend two books: this one, and Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker. The two combined provide many insights into both traditional Chinese culture (Mao acted as a tradtional emporer) and the operations of the Chinese Communist Party today. Becker's book describes the worst famine in the history of mankind and how it was brought on by Mao's brilliance as a politician, his hunger for power and control, and his incomprehension of science and economics. Another book sometimes recommended as being a more "balanced" account of the Great Leap Forward is Calamity and Reform in China by Dali Yang. Yang's book is well documented and worth reading, but it is much less interesting than Becker's book and doesn't give as much explanation of why things happened. The "balance" (between those for and against mass starvation?) comes from his claim that the Great Leap experience was instrumental in China's later reforms, after Mao was out of the way. The idea is that at least something good came out of the experience. It's not surprising that the dismal economic performance of communes and collectivization in 1959-61 played a major role in the later decision to abandon communes and collectivization. But did the Chinese Communist Party really need to see 30 million unnatural deaths in just a few years in order to figure out, 20 years later, that they should go back to the methods they used in the early 1950s? Becker points out that China was copying methods that had already led to massive famine and food shortages in the Soviet Union, and that many Chinese Communists had studied and worked in the Soviet Union since that famine and must surely have heard something about it. Yang is right that the beginning of the reform process in China wasn't entirely due to the brilliant and original ideas of Deng Xiaoping, and it wasn't simply a backlash from the Cultural Revolution (Becker and Li make it clear that the Cultural Revolution was mainly a result of Mao's drive to stay in power after the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward). Throughout his time in power, Mao forced disastrous and illogical farming methods onto Chinese peasants. Once he and his cronies were finally out of the way, the farmers sensibly went back to their earlier methods, and Deng was smart enough to realize that he couldn't and shouldn't stop them. The mistakes of the "Great Leap Forward" weren't necessary or useful, as readers of Yang's book sometimes imply. All that was necessary was for Mao (and the CCP) to stop holding China back. The reasons why Mao didn't let the "reforms" begin while he was in power become much clearer after reading Li's inside account of Mao.

Rating:
Summary: Another book you should read along with this one -
Review: This is a fascinating book. For anyone who wants to understand "modern" China, I recommend two books: this one, and Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker. The two combined provide many insights into both traditional Chinese culture (Mao acted as a tradtional emporer) and the operations of the Chinese Communist Party today. Becker's book describes the worst famine in the history of mankind and how it was brought on by Mao's brilliance as a politician, his hunger for power and control, and his incomprehension of science and economics. Another book sometimes recommended as being a more "balanced" account of the Great Leap Forward is Calamity and Reform in China by Dali Yang. Yang's book is well documented and worth reading, but it is much less interesting than Becker's book and doesn't give as much explanation of why things happened. The "balance" (between those for and against mass starvation?) comes from his claim that the Great Leap experience was instrumental in China's later reforms, after Mao was out of the way. The idea is that at least something good came out of the experience. It's not surprising that the dismal economic performance of communes and collectivization in 1959-61 played a major role in the later decision to abandon communes and collectivization. But did the Chinese Communist Party really need to see 30 million unnatural deaths in just a few years in order to figure out, 20 years later, that they should go back to the methods they used in the early 1950s? Becker points out that China was copying methods that had already led to massive famine and food shortages in the Soviet Union, and that many Chinese Communists had studied and worked in the Soviet Union since that famine and must surely have heard something about it. Yang is right that the beginning of the reform process in China wasn't entirely due to the brilliant and original ideas of Deng Xiaoping, and it wasn't simply a backlash from the Cultural Revolution (Becker and Li make it clear that the Cultural Revolution was mainly a result of Mao's drive to stay in power after the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward). Throughout his time in power, Mao forced disastrous and illogical farming methods onto Chinese peasants. Once he and his cronies were finally out of the way, the farmers sensibly went back to their earlier methods, and Deng was smart enough to realize that he couldn't and shouldn't stop them. The mistakes of the "Great Leap Forward" weren't necessary or useful, as readers of Yang's book sometimes imply. All that was necessary was for Mao (and the CCP) to stop holding China back. The reasons why Mao didn't let the "reforms" begin while he was in power become much clearer after reading Li's inside account of Mao.

Rating:
Summary: Ouy Vey (As Carl Marx would Say)
Review: This book misses out on the real Mao Se Tung. The man with the big smile, the man who loved little doggies, the man with a song in his heart, and the fact that he was a great dancer.

I'll still give the book two stars because it is about my dear friend but otherwise I am very disappointed.

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Summary: Engrossing, fascinating study on the life of a dictator.
Review: This book is a tremendously fascinating look at the life of one of the 20th century's most powerful dictators. There is no more comprehensive look into the mind of Mao than in this book by his own personal physician. I'm not sure if I approve of having a doctor spill the personal, often medical secrets of his patient, but the book is very engaging, never-the-less.

Even at so many hundred-odd pages, the book just flies by. Engrossing. I got a feel of what might have been going through Mao's head as he launched one disasterous campaign after another. Of what little regard he had for human life, and how many of his own comrades he was willing to sacrifice to retain power, for the sake of having power. Thoroughly revolting.

Dr. Li provides the reader with a portrait of the leader that only someone as close to him could have. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: quality reading
Review: As an American-born Chinese who read the book while studying in China for a year, it explained a lot of the cultural things I saw. My parents are from Hong Kong, their parents having left China before Mao came to power, and for that, I am thankful.

This book does explain a lot of present-day mainland China culture, which is different from Hong Kong Chinese culture or overseas Chinese culture. The stories and ideas presented in this novel make a lot of sense as backdrop for the nature of the political leadership in China today, as well as their interaction with other nations, especially the West.

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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Summary: Tear Down Mao's portrait off Tienanmen Square already!
Review: Mao is a disgusting, perverted and ignorant mass murderer.

Ironically, millions of Chinese school children are being taught how wonderful this absolute horror of a human being was. Hopefully when all the old school hard-liner Chinese politicians die, this book will one day be published in China.