Derek Caelin started reading China's Leaders: From Mao to Now by David L Shambaugh
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China over 70 years ago, five paramount …
A few chapters in and I'm already learning things.
Not having read any 20th-century Chinese history, I had thought that the "Cultural Revolution" was the founding of Communist China. Not so; it was launched by Mao well into his own reign, for the purposes of "reigniting" the spirit of revolution. It got a lot of people killed.
Interesting that a sitting leader would choose to mobilize the masses explicitly because he doesn't trust the bureaucracy he ostensibly governs.
A few years ago I had read "The Three-Body Problem", one of the most well-known instances of Chinese Sci Fi that has permeated the west. That book starts with a fairly brutal depiction of the Cultural Revolution. I was curious, because I had heard that books critical of the government were sensored in China. Now I understand that criticism of the Cultural Revolution is mainstream - in fact, the event disavowed and …
A few chapters in and I'm already learning things.
Not having read any 20th-century Chinese history, I had thought that the "Cultural Revolution" was the founding of Communist China. Not so; it was launched by Mao well into his own reign, for the purposes of "reigniting" the spirit of revolution. It got a lot of people killed.
Interesting that a sitting leader would choose to mobilize the masses explicitly because he doesn't trust the bureaucracy he ostensibly governs.
A few years ago I had read "The Three-Body Problem", one of the most well-known instances of Chinese Sci Fi that has permeated the west. That book starts with a fairly brutal depiction of the Cultural Revolution. I was curious, because I had heard that books critical of the government were sensored in China. Now I understand that criticism of the Cultural Revolution is mainstream - in fact, the event disavowed and criticized by Mao's first successor, Deng Xiaoping.
All in all, I'm liking the book so far. I know practically nothing about Chinese history and covering a broad swath of time through the lens of individual leaders and characters seems a good jumping off point.
