Mao: The Unknown Story
by Jon Halliday, Jung Chang
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jon Halliday, Jung ChangEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-11-14
ISBN: 0679746323
Number of pages: 864
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of Mao: The Unknown Story
Book Review: A Great Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Chang and Halliday's remarkable biography of Mao has been criticized as biased, unscholarly, flawed in various ways, and even written in English that is stunted, too peppered with crudities, and too casual to be taken seriously. Good. The work is imperfect, infected with bias and written in a prose that is simple and a bit eccentric. But, who writes a biography that is not biased and what biographer's prose is perfect? McCullough's hagiography of Adams, Manchester's MacArthur, and the recently popular tome, Ellis's "His Excellency, George Washington," are all biased works that gloss over problematical character flaws, omit or obscure facts, and present their subjects in a glowing light. McCullough goes even farther, diminishing such marvelous characters as Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson and even Benjamin Franklin in order to present Adams as greater, stronger and wiser than they. Excess and bias have been part of biographical work since Plutarch (and probably before him). It's part of the unavoidable baggage of the genre.
That being said, Chang and Halliday's "Mao," is one good read. I couldn't put it down, and friends and co-workers who borrowed the book were similarly affected. It had a special resonance with me, since I had been eager to learn something of Mao but found that the books on him were either obvious Maoist propaganda or too lean on post-war details. There were also the many mysteries (to me) that surrounded Mao, none of which were made clear by the avaiable literature, which invariably contained repetitions of obvious exaggerations and lies about him and his leadership.
My first bio of Mao was a short study I read in high school, contained in a book called "Portraits of Power." It faithfully repeated the official story of the Great March, embellished with the astonishing claim that during the March, Mao managed to collect specimens of flora and fauna then write a book on the biology of Western China. It described how Mao's forces, completely enveloped by the KuoMinTang, managed to slip through "disguised as peasants," escape, and reform. There was even a brief mention of the fierce fight at the Luding Bridge. Even at the age of 15, I found much of this to be incredible. Either Chiang Kai Shek was the most incompetent military commander in modern history or some other forces were at play. As for the bridge, I wanted more details, so I turned to Snow. Snow's story of Communist forces fighting their way across the burning decking on an ancient chain bridge, the chains red hot, but the diehard Communists throwing hand grenade after hand grenade, was just too much. It still is. Anyone who has had any military experience knows well enough that such an assaut, if not impossible, borders on the miraculous. A narrow bridge (Luding is about 6 feet wide, if that, with no cover for any assaulting troops) can be indefinitely held by a small force. Even Napoleon - in era of single shot weapons - was unsuccessful assaulting a bridge protected by an inferior force of Austrians. I've always thought the official story of the Luding Bridge was utter nonsense. I was delighted to find that at least one set of authors - Chang and Halliday - agreed.
The authors have been accused of representing their opinions as facts. This just isn't so. When they speculate, they freely admit it, then prop up their speculations with facts and, in some cases, eyewitness testimony. Is any of this unimpeachable? No, of course not. One can't prove that Chiang let Mao escape, but there is every indication that he did. Other explanations aren't very satisfactory, and the Chinese Communists, who might be able to shed light on the events, do not open their records and files to review.
Chang and Halliday have also been criticized for presenting a flat, one-sided portrait of Mao, whom others complain was a complex character, not just an evil mannequin. Far from it, Chang and Halliday show Mao as complex and self-contradictory as any character in history. They go to great pains to discuss his voracious reading habits, his love for Chinese opera and for the stage, and they include many details, such as the bed he had with a built-in bookcase, constructed especially for reading. They admit he had a kind of charm that could lure and persuade people, and was well read in the Chinese classics. What is all this, however, when the indisputable facts of his ruthlessness, cruelty, general misanthropy, and enormous capacity for gross self indulgence so overwhelm whatever pretensions to culture and civility he claimed? A rounded vision of Mao does nothing to mitigate his crimes. It is this very reading and sensitivity to music that puts him in relief and makes him even more the monster. Had he been just a lout and a bully, he would have been understandable, but he possessed some learning and culture and this just makes his ruthlessness and taste for murder and terror all the more awful.
Chang and Halliday have also been criticized for not going further into the depredations and atrocities of the KMT. The book was about Mao, however, not about the KMT. Solzhenitsyn wrote damningly of Stalin, but paid scant attention to Hitler. Was he supposed to invoke other tyrants and despots to compare their crimes to Stalin's? Are Chang and Halliday similarly responsible for cataloging Chiang's murders and corruption? Do those crimes somehow excuse Mao's? Mao was a big enough topic. Chiang's warts have been well exposed by others.
Chang, especially, has been criticized for hating Mao. Anyone who has read her "Wild Swans" and learned of the horrid experiences her family endured during the Cultural Revolution can understand why. Her hatred for Mao, however, does not exonerate him or his apologists, nor does it call into dispute the factual material she reports. One may disagree with her interpretation of events, but there is nothing of substance that is indisputably incorrect. Mao was utterly loathsome. Every aspect of his personal life was bizarre and perverse from his personal hygiene to his collection of nurse-concubines, to his "longevity program" in which he demanded a teenage virgin be brought to his bed every night. He called for murders and executions, engaged the entire country in a mad, destructive effort to produce steel from pots, pans and scraps, ruined agricultural production and caused a famine (this is without dispute, only the numbers dead are disputed - one million or 30 million - low figure or high, it was still horrible), exported food as people starved, built up then ruined the public education system, burnt books, encouraged gangs who harassed and punished teachers, tried to destroy the country's cultural inheritance, tore down historic buildings and monuments, suppressed science, persecuted the veteran Communists who had brought about his victory, and tried to supplant Western medicine with the "great storehouse of Chinese medicine."
But what of the good he did? We're told by his apologists that he united China. Despots are uniters, aren't they? Hitler could be said to have united Western Europe, at least for a time. Stalin united the countries of the Soviet Union, and later those of Eastern Europe. Tito united Yugoslavia, and Saddam united Iraq. Is being a "uniter" enough to justify the rest? We're also told he thwarted foreign occupation or control of any part of China, but did he? Colonization was well on the wane by 1949. Japan was in ruins. Britain had given up India. The Dutch had released Indonesia. The United States had provided the Philippines with its independence, and the zeitgeist of the post war world, led by the United States, was to free colonies. No one wanted a piece of China any more. We're told that lifespan and literacy increased under Mao. Perhaps so; perhaps not. Communists were not scrupulous in maintaining accurate records. If literacy and lifespan did increase, Mao had little to do with it. Peace has its dividends, including longer life and better education. After 20 years of better schooling, Mao disrupted everything with the Cultural Revolution and set China back, especially Chinese science and industry. It was only with his death and the arrest of the Gang of Four that China came right once more and began to progress rapidly.
Finally, Chang and Halliday have been criticized because the book, which is titled "The Unknown Story," doesn't seem to contain that much new information. This is utterly silly. Yes, there is some puffery in the title (they are trying to sell the book, not deliver it as one more unread collection of pages to academic libraries), but certainly their access to Soviet records, their many interviews, and their extensive research did turn up things and cause speculation that would not have occurred otherwise. This is seen in the theory that Chiang, fearing for his son, who was in the Soviet Union, let Mao escape under Stalin's orders, or in the shocking revelation that Mao, in one of his more despicable manifestations, had himself carried on a litter during the Great March, while he callously let other, lesser comrades suffer and die. The book contains much more.
Chang and Halliday's book is a great read, and a great start in purging the world of Maoism. If it contains some flaws, then so be it. Its flaws are minor. They disappear when compared to the offal produced by the Chinese propaganda machine. Chang and Halliday's speculative and controversial assertions at least make more rudimentary sense than other work on the same topic. Buy the book and keep it. I doubt it will be surpassed soon.
Summary of Mao: The Unknown Story
The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao?s close circle in China who have never talked before ? and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned, and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao?s rule ? in peacetime.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.
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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