Word: mao
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...When Mao Zedong's Communist revolution completed its sweep of the mainland in 1949, the oft-asked question in Washington was who had "lost" China. Former American spy, diplomat and straight shooter James Lilley argues in his sweeping memoir China Hands that this historical puzzler is a red herring: America never had China, and the very idea is counterproductive. To influence China, America first has to respect that the vast land has its own interests and ways. Lilley knows. He was born in Qingdao, the son of an American oil executive, and China has been the center of his life...
...Lilley was recruited into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) right out of Yale, and his dozen postings included Laos, Hong Kong and Beijing, where with Mao's consent he was the first U.S. intelligence attach? to Communist China. Lilley has little positive to say about the CIA's activities in Asia, and many of his tales end in tragedy or farce, such as the incident in which a group of visiting U.S. congressmen debriefed a senior agent one afternoon in Vientiane only to stumble upon the same officer later that night laying naked on the floor of a bar, braying...
...escape starvation, but ballet school during the Cultural Revolution was not all tutus and toe shoes. Beloved teachers cleaned toilets; students spent their summers toiling alongside farmers or factory workers; and more class time was devoted to the study of political movements than to dance movements. At Madame Mao's insistence, kung fu kicks and death stares were introduced to mincing ballet routines. "The dancing looked all right," she once observed during a visit to the school, "but where are the guns? Where are the grenades...
...Unlike the elegant prose of novelist Anchee Min's 1994 memoir Red Azalea (Min was similarly plucked from serfdom to join Madam Mao's cultural crusade), Li's straightforward narrative rarely delves into agonizing emotional battles, nor does Li use his experiences to comment on social and political issues. Mao's Last Dancer is nonetheless a moving story, and considering the books dedicated to Cultural Revolution horrors, it's heartening to read that someone was able to dance his way through...
...must compromise, as News Corp. officials know. In 1993, the company removed the BBC from its Chinese-language Star satellite network-which at the time had government permission to be shown in hotels and foreign compounds-after the British news service irritated Beijing with a series critical of Chairman Mao Zedong. But with 340 million TV households, China is a plummy market awaiting those who gain the government's favor. Last year, advertising reached $2.7 billion, up 11% over the year before. And Beijing is showing signs of loosening up. Earlier this year it began allowing foreign companies...