Synopses & Reviews
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 this is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written.
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.
Combining meticulous research with the story-telling style of Wild Swans, this biography offers a harrowing portrait of Mao's ruthless accumulation of power through the exercise of terror: his first victims were the peasants, then the intellectuals, and, finally, the inner circle of his own advisors. The reader enters the shadowy chambers of Mao's court and eavesdrops on the drama in its hidden recesses. Mao's character and the enormity of his behavior toward his wives, mistresses, and children are unveiled for the first time.
This is an entirely fresh look at Mao in both content and approach. It will astonish historians and the general reader alike.
Review
"A startling document, one that will surely occasion revision of the historical record." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Chang and Halliday make devastating use of insider gossip, published scholarship, and archives to build a detailed story of a mad, lusting Mao with neither ideals nor scruples....A controversial, highly significant, and compellingly readable biography..." Library Journal
Review
"The copiously researched book...would have benefited from another year of editing and rewriting....Still, for anyone in search of a serious examination of Mao, his gruesome legacy and China, this astonishing book is a must-read." USA Today
Review
"When it sticks to the new Chinese and Russian sources, the book shines, providing readers with the most detailed portrayal of the 'Great Helmsman' to date. But when it pretends to tell us what the chairman is thinking and feeling, the book veers toward magical realism." The Washington Post
Review
"[A] remarkable reassessment of Mao....Jung Chang...and her historian husband, Jon Halliday, deserve credit for their single-minded devotion to telling the truth about Mao's tyranny." Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
"[T]his magnificent biography methodically demolishes every pillar of Mao's claim to sympathy or legitimacy....This is an extraordinary portrait of a monster, who the authors say was responsible for more than 70 million deaths." Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[This] hefty if tendentious and one-dimensional book contains a plethora of valuable new information that helps flesh out the record of devastation left by this heinous tyrant....The authors also provide scant historical context for Mao's ascendance." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"In some places, Chung and Halliday go too far, effectively diluting the force of their argument...But the book's main flaw is excess. The authors seem so set on demolishing Mao's reputation that they overreach." The Los Angeles Times
Review
"Chang and Halliday are better than most in showing Mao's wizardly ability as a schemer and tactician....The most important of Chang and Halliday's new discoveries have to do with the sustained role of the Soviet Union in Mao's rise. Halliday reads Russian, and has made excellent use of the opening of Soviet archives after 1992. He and Chang assert that the idea of a Communist Party of China originated in Moscow in 1919 and detail the ways in which, beginning in 1921, the Comintern called the shots for Mao and other early Chinese Communists." Perry Link, the Times Literary Supplement (read the entire Times Literary Supplement review)
Review
"In contrast to [his] popular image, the Mao in Chang and Halliday's well-researched book is a brutal, power-hungry thug with no empathy for other human beings. John Lennon was right all along: 'If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow.'" Doug Brown, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)
Synopsis
An Asia scholar (Halliday) joins the bestselling author of Wild Swans to deliver a gripping and groundbreaking biography of Mao Tse-tung. Photos & maps.
About the Author
Jung Chang was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China, in 1952. She was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen and then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician before becoming an English-language student and, later, an assistant lecturer at Sichuan University. She left China for Britain in 1978 and was subsequently awarded a scholarship by York University, where she obtained a Ph.D. in linguistics in 1982, the first person from the People's Republic of China to receive a doctorate from a British university. Her award-winning book,
Wild Swans, was published in 1991.
Jon Halliday is a former Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King's College, University of London. He has written or edited eight previous books.
Table of Contents
List of MapsAbbreviations and a Note About Spelling in the Text
PART ONE — Lukewarm Believer
1. On the Cusp from Ancient to Modern (1893-1911; age 1-17)
2. Becoming a Communist (1911-20; age 17-26)
3. Lukewarm Believer (1920-25; age 26-31)
4. Rise and Demise in the Nationalist Party (1925-27; age 31-33)
PART TWO — Long March to Supremacy in the Party
5. Hijacking a Red Force and Taking Over Bandit Land (1927-28; age 33-34)
6. Subjugating the Red Army Supremo (1928-30; age 34-36)
7. Takeover Leads to Death of Second Wife (1927-30; age 33-36)
8. Bloody Purge Paves the Way for “Chairman Mao” (1929-31; age 35-37)
9. Mao and the First Red State (1931-34; age 37-40)
10. Troublemaker to Figurehead (1931-34; age 37-40)
11. How Mao Got onto the Long March (1933-34; age 39-40)
12. Long March I: Chiang Lets the Reds Go (1934; age 40)
13. Long March II: The Power Behind the Throne (1934-35; age 40-41)
14. Long March III: Monopolising the Moscow Connection (1935; age 41)
PART THREE — Building His Power Base
15. The Timely Death of Maos Host (1935-36; age 41-42)
16. Chiang Kai-shek Kidnapped (1935-36; age 41-42)
17. A National Player (1936; age 42-43)
18. New Image, New Life and New Wife (1937-38; age 43-44)
19. Red Mole Triggers China-Japan War (1937-38; age 43-44)
20. Fight Rivals and Chiang—Not Japan (1937-40; age 43-46)
21. Most Desired Scenario: Stalin Carves Up China with Japan (1939-40; age 45-46)
22. Death Trap for His Own Men (1940-41; age 46-47)
23. Building a Power Base Through Terror (1941-45; age 47-51)
24. Uncowed Opponent Poisoned (1941-45; age 47-51)
25. Supreme Party Leader at Last (1942-45; age 48-51)
PART FOUR — To Conquer China
26. “Revolutionary Opium War” (1937-45; age 43-51)
27. The Russians Are Coming! (1945-46; age 51-52)
28. Saved by Washington (1944-47; age 50-53)
29. Moles, Betrayals and Poor Leadership Doom Chiang (1945-49; age 51-55)
30. China Conquered (1946-49; age 52-55)
31. Totalitarian State, Extravagant Lifestyle (1949-53; age 55-59)
PART FIVE — Chasing a Superpower Dream
32. Rivalry with Stalin (1947-49; age 53-55)
33. Two Tyrants Wrestle (1949-50; age 55-56)
34. Why Mao and Stalin Started the Korean War (1949-50; age 55-56)
35. Mao Milks the Korean War (1950-53; age 56-59)
36. Launching the Secret Superpower Programme (1953-54; age 59-60)
37. War on Peasants (1953-56; age 59-62)
38. Undermining Khrushchev (1956-59; age 62-65)
39. Killing the “Hundred Flowers” (1957-58; age 63-64)
40. The Great Leap: “Half of China May Well Have to Die” (1958-61; age 64-67)
41. Defence Minister Pengs Lonely Battle (1958-59; age 64-65)
42. The Tibetans Rebel (1950-61; age 56-67)
43. Maoism Goes Global (1959-64; age 65-70)
44. Ambushed by the President (1961-62; age 67-68)
45. The Bomb (1962-64; age 68-70)
46. A Time of Uncertainty and Setbacks (1962-65; age 68-71)
PART SIX — Unsweet Revenge
47. A Horse-Trade Secures the Cultural Revolution (1965-66; age 71-72)
48. The Great Purge (1966-67; age 72-73)
49. Unsweet Revenge (1966-74; age 72-80)
50. The Chairmans New Outfit (1967-70; age 73-76)
51. A War Scare (1969-71; age 75-77)
52. Falling Out with Lin Biao (1970-71; age 76-77)
53. Maoism Falls Flat on the World Stage (1966-70; age 72-76)
54. Nixon: the Red-Baiter Baited (1970-73; age 76-79)
55. The Boss Denies Chou Cancer Treatment (1972-74; age 78-80)
56. Mme Mao in the Cultural Revolution (1966-75; age 72-81)
57. Enfeebled Mao Hedges His Bets (1973-76; age 79-82)
58. Last Days (1974-76; age 80-82)
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
List of Interviewees
Archives Consulted
Notes
Bibliography of Chinese-Language Sources
Bibliography of Non-Chinese-Language Sources
Index