Word: mao
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...numerous are the damning disclosures in Mao that Chang and Halliday have little room for the emotive prose and lyrical description that animated Wild Swans. Neither, to their disadvantage, do they balance their relentless criticisms with any of Mao's accomplishments, like fending off Stalin's attempt to run China as a Soviet fiefdom, reimposing central authority in a fractious country, giving Chinese a new sense of pride and nationhood, or marketing his own image at home and abroad with dazzling aplomb...
...Also missing is an attempt to explain Mao's enduring popularity in China. In a conversation with TIME, Chang ascribes that phenomenon to "brainwashing." But nearly three decades after his death, as New China races toward the industrial and military glory of which Mao could only dream, the man remains as well liked as ever. His visage beams benignly across Beijing's Tiananmen Square, long lines of visitors creep past his preserved corpse nearby, and restaurants are decorated with Mao memorabilia. Perhaps in a time of galloping economic modernization and social upheaval, Chinese crave the reassuring continuity provided...
Amid the cozy clutter of books and Chinese antiques in her London town house, Jung Chang talked with TIME's Donald Morrison about Wild Swans, Mao Zedong and the future of China. Excerpts...
...success of Wild Swans change your life? It enabled Jon and I to spend more than 10 years writing Mao without having to do another job. It also opened doors for us in China. I'd give interviewees a copy of Wild Swans so they knew what sort of book I'd be writing. In 1994 the regime warned a small group of Mao's inner circle about talking to me. But they were dying to spill the beans...
...What surprised you most about Mao? I had thought the great famine was largely caused by economic mismanagement. But we discovered it was intended. Mao knew he was exporting food to Russia to buy arms. He knew his people depended on this food for survival. But he didn't care...