 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | In the epilogue to her biography of Mao Tse-tung, Jung Chang and her husband and cowriter Jon Halliday lament that, "Today, Mao's portrait and his corpse still dominate Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital." For Chang, author of Wild Swans, this fact is an affront, not just to history, but to decency. Mao: The Unknown Story does not contain a formal dedication, but it is clear that Chang is writing to honor the millions of Chinese who fell victim to Mao's drive for absolute power in his 50-plus-year struggle to dominate China and the 20th-century political landscape. From the outset, Chang and Halliday are determined to shatter the "myth" of Mao, and they succeed with the force, not just of moral outrage, but of facts. The result is a book, more indictment than portrait, that paints Mao as a brutal totalitarian, a thug, who unleashed Stalin-like purges of millions with relish and without compunction, all for his personal gain. Through the authors' unrelenting lens even his would-be heroism as the leader of the Long March and father of modern China is exposed as reckless opportunism, subjecting his charges to months of unnecessary hardship in order to maintain the upper hand over his rival, Chang Kuo-tao, an experienced military commander. Using exhaustive research in archives all over the world, Chang and Halliday recast Mao's ascent to power and subsequent grip on China in the context of global events. Sino-Soviet relations, the strengths and weakness of Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese invasion of China, World War II, the Korean War, the disastrous Great Leap Forward, the vicious Cultural Revolution, the Vietnam War, Nixon's visit, and the constant, unending purges all, understandably, provide the backdrop for Mao's unscrupulous but invincible political maneuverings and betrayals. No one escaped unharmed. Rivals, families, peasants, city dwellers, soldiers, and lifelong allies such as Chou En-lai were all sacrificed to Mao's ambition and paranoia. Appropriately, the authors' consciences are appalled. Their biggest fear is that Mao will escape the global condemnation and infamy he deserves. Their astonishing book will go a long way to ensure that the pendulum of history will adjust itself accordingly. --Silvana Tropea
10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Jung Chang and Jon Halliday Q: From idea to finished book, how long did Mao: The Unknown Story take to research and write? A: Over a decade. Q: What was your writing process like? How did you two collaborate on this project? A: The research shook itself out by language. Jung did all the Chinese-language research, and Jon did the other languages, of which Russian was the most important, as Mao had a long-term intimate relationship with Stalin. After our research trips around the world, we would work in our separate studies in London. We would then rendezvous at lunch to exchange discoveries. Q: Do you have any thoughts about how the book is, or will be received in China? Did that play a part in your writing of the book? A: The book is banned in China, because the current Communist regime is fiercely perpetuating the myth of Mao. Today Mao's portrait and his corpse still dominate Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, and the regime declares itself to be Mao's heir. The government blocked the distribution of an issue of The Far Eastern Economic Review, and told the magazine's owners, Dow Jones, that this was because that issue contained a review of our book. The regime also tore the review of our book out of The Economist magazine that was going to (very restricted) newsstands. We are not surprised that the book is banned. The regime's attitude had no influence on how we wrote the book. We hope many copies will find their way into China. Q: What is the one thing you hope readers get from your book? A: Mao was responsible for the deaths of well over 70 million Chinese in peacetime, and he was bent on dominating the world. As China is today emerging as an economic and military power, the world can never regard it as a benign force unless Beijing rejects Mao and all his legacies. We hope our book will help push China in this direction by telling the truth about Mao.
Breakdown of a BIG Book: 5 Things You'll Learn from Mao: The Unknown Story 1. Mao became a Communist at the age of 27 for purely pragmatic reasons: a job and income from the Russians.
2. Far from organizing the Long March in 1934, Mao was nearly left behind by his colleagues who could not stand him and had tried to oust him several times. The aim of the March was to link up with Russia to get arms. The Reds survived the March because Chiang Kai-shek let them, in a secret horse-trade for his son and heir, whom Stalin was holding hostage in Russia.
3. Mao grew opium on a large scale.
4. After he conquered China, Mao's over-riding goal was to become a superpower and dominate the world: "Control the Earth," as he put it.
5. Mao caused the greatest famine in history by exporting food to Russia to buy nuclear and arms industries: 38 million people were starved and slave-driven to death in 1958-61. Mao knew exactly what was happening, saying: "half of China may well have to die."
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Average Customer Rating:    Mao, the Unknown Story This book is a "must read" for anyone who cares to learn what kind of people are the communists, how they don't value human lives, unless it's their own. The cruelty and devil-like mentality is extraordinary. Documented proof of Mao's mass murders for the sake of his personal power. Also, by reading this book, you learn tons of small facts about Chinese customs and people, which is fascinating. Strongly recommend for any intelligent thinker! A must read! What an amazing read! I couldn't wait until this ego-maniacal evil character croaked! The 20th century saw some evil leaders, but I would have to give him the blue ribbon. Lenin, Stalin and Hitler had nothing on this tyrant combined! He used the country's blood and treasure as his own little fiefdom! He wanted the Japanese to invade China for his personal gain. Unbelievable stuff. Personally responsible for the lives of 70 million people and not during times of war! Some of them horrendously tortured, raped and beaten to death and they were the lucky ones. Some of his cadres that did manage to get out alive were either poisoned or died while trying to escape his tight fisted grip on everything that took place in this mess of a country during his reign. One has to wonder how much of his fetid evilness still reeks throughout this country.
This mess of an evil man wanted to rule the world and stopped at every nasty/evil trick to get his WMD. Make's me glad to see the U.S. leading the way! Can you imagine had Stalin or Mao had had their way?
While I obviously can't vouch for the claims of the two authors, they do however have a tome of references to go by. Read this book if you want to learn about the absolute evilness of one man. Read it for the historical significance (shame on Kissinger). Read it to get a better understanding of the East.
Mao was an egregious human being and members of the Obama administration revering him should seek psychiatric therapy stat!
Highly recommended! Mao bad Me am good party member. Me not understand why people go on about whether Mao killed 70 million people. Who care? They not members of party. They can die. Mao bad because he break away from Moscow control. He plot with SPECTRE to start war with USSR and decadent west. Me saw it in James Bond movie. Me go to cell meeting now. Need to be told what to think for next week. Workers of the world unite...except for bad Mao and Tito. We do better next time. Liquidate 200 million people!!! Less people but better communists. Thumbs down I was kind of disappointed. It's not really the "untold" story, more like the same old retold politically correct story about "Mao killed millions" based on crudely faked statistics. During Mao's time there was a lot of upheaval but the average life span in China was doubled. I found William Hinton's book "Through a Glass Darkly" much more useful on what went on in China during Mao's time.
The Real Mao Jung Chang's "The Unknown Story: Mao" is one of the best books about Chinese Communism ever written. Not only is it factual and displays excellent research using many primary sources, but it is very readable and interesting.
Being a truthful account of Mao's blame for so many terrible things that happened in China has been well documented without a shadow of doubt. I particulary enjoy how Chang has completely debunked the old Luding bridge crossing "battle" at the Dadu River. As she demonstrates, it simply did not happen and was a Communist propaganda lie that was even perpetuated by Edgar Snow.
If you want the real scoop on Mao, read his book and it will be obvious what a vicious immoral brute he was that murdered millions. |  |
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