- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group) (7 April 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0868246921
- ISBN-13: 978-0868246925
- ASIN: 0553505459
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
34,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Canada
- #7 in Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > China
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This memoir of Jan Wong's ill-fated romance with Maoism provides an insider's view of the upheaval and reform in recent China. It tells of how she renounced rock and roll, hauled manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States.
From the Back Cover
Jan Wong, a Canadian of Chinese descent, went to China as a starry-eyed Maoist in 1972 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. A true believer - and one of only two Westerners permitted to enrol at Beijing University - her education included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock and roll, hauled pig manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States. She also met and marred the only American draft dodger from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China.
Red China Blues is Wong's startling - and ironic - memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism that began to sour as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese communism and led to her eventual repatriation to the West. Returning to China in the late eighties as a journalist, she covered both the brutal Tiananmen Square crackdown and the tumultuous era of capitalist reforms under Deng Xiaoping. In a frank, captivating and deeply personal narrative, she relates the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the 'worker's paradise'. And through the stories of the people - an unhappy young woman who was sold into marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises - Wong creates an extraordinary portrait of the world's most populous nation.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book gives an insight into the mentality of an idealistic and enthusiasic Red Guard who later can see the mistakes made by communism. A fantasic read and really brought alive my journey through China's not-so-distant past. It helped me gain an understanding of their culture better than any book on China, I had read before. Jan is an author who writes vividly and passionately about her time as a Red guard and her life afterwards living in the 'new' China.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a truely fascinating book. It charts one womens disillusionment with the Chinese socialist regime. The account of Tian'an'men is superb and the author writes with such clarity and from a such a real standpoint. Excellent in all aspects - a must read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jan Wong starts her tale as a gauche, naive young woman, cleverly writing through the eyes of the young. Through her many experiences of life as an outsider living under a repressive Chinese regime she slowly grows up and the scales seem to fall from her eyes. Her writing matures as she details such historic events as the 1989 uprising in Tianamen Square. I found her slow growth to maturity and awareness of some of the faults with the Chinese system completely compelling.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An account of life in one of the world's greatest tyrranies
Jan Wong,a Canadian journalist of Chinese ancestry, in this illuminating volume writes of her experiences as an ardent young Maoist in the early 1970's who actually went to China... Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2008 by Gary Selikow
An intriguing insight into the real China under Mao and Deng
As a student in Beijing University and then as a journalist, Jan Wong relates her experiences as she transforms herself from a hardline Maoist to a more cynical hard bitten... Read more
Published on 5 May 2001
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