war

I knew absolutely nothing about Chairman Mao before reading Wild Swans, other than that Nandos thought he was enough of a bastard to include him alongside the likes of Mugabe, Gaddafi and P.W Botha in their Last Dictator Standing Ad (very funny, and also very banned). From what I could glean from his Wikipedia page he was proper gross, as in didn’t brush his teeth for thirty years gross, and his mouth was covered in a green film when he died. Delightful. The rest of his Wiki-bio was pretty dry and political sounding, so I returned to the book to learn some more about Algae Germ Chops himself.

The book is split into three sections, two bios and one autobiography, about three women who lived through China’s civil wars, and Mao’s rise to power. Jung Chang writes first about her grandmother, whose feet were bound and crushed beneath a rock so she could appear feminine enough to become the concubine of a Chinese warlord. Next she writes about her mother, an official in the Communist Party who struggles through the political hypocrisy and political blindness of the people. For Jung Chang’s mother it is very much a battle between political and moral beliefs. Finally Jung Chang tells her own story, as the daughter of two Communist officials in an unstable economy ridden by famine and double standards.

From Jung Chang’s account, people under Mao were subjected to a reign of psychological torment. Neighbours would spy on neighbours; children would inform on their own parents – people were constantly covering themselves even if it was at the expense of someone they knew was innocent. Although Mao isn’t described by Chang as a bloodthirsty gun-wielding dictator, it’s clear that his regime drove people to the point of insanity, and in a lot of cases, suicide.

If you know loads about old Mao I probably wouldn’t bother reading, as it isn’t a hugely gripping personal account and I’m sure Chang doesn’t disclose anything a Mao expert wouldn’t already have heard a million times before. However, if like me you are completely new to mid-1900’s China, it’s a really good read. All the cool history stuff, but told in an engaging way. Now to find a book that’s a bit more cheerful…