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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Power is an end, not a means, 26 Oct 2005
Jung Chang's unforgettable masterpiece says more about modern China than all ideological or political disputations together. It is history with a moving human touch, a gripping physical tale.
As an example, her analysis of the Cultural Revolution is outstanding: A bunch of arrogant children of high CP officials creates a pro-Mao movement. The master manipulator Mao uses them for the creation of a youth army and for the smashing of his political opponents. Millions of innocent Chinese are slaughtered, crippled or humiliated in an eight year wave of senseless (not for Mao) turmoil and social upheaval ( no doctors, no teachers, no scientists, no musicians...).
The CR shows that for Mao individual lives (except his own) were totally unimportant. Paramount was that he retained his power.Jung Chang's book is a history of old and new feudalism. In the old one, there were warlords (and before, an emperor), in the new one, a party leader.
In both feudalisms, power was a synonym for survival in the struggle for life. It meant food, shelter, women, an army, loyal followers, perfect bureaucrats. The most 'cunning' survived in the brutal power struggles.
The author's portrait of Mao's character is profoundly characteristic: 'He was a restless fight promoter. He understood ugly human instincts such as envy and resentment and knew how to mobilize them for his ends. He ruled by getting people to hate each other. Mao had managed to turn people into the ultimate weapon of dictatorship.' The missionaries of the communist gospel, like her father, a loyal and honest party bureaucrat, were killed (literally or psychologically) by the opportunists, careerists and cynics, who instinctively understood that power is an end, not a means, for instance, to better the living standard of the population. During Mao's reign the overall atmosphere in China was FEAR ('people did not dare even to think'). In Mao'a paradise (not that of his subjects) disinformation and total censorship were the law in order to keep the Chinese population under his yoke. The similarities with Stalin's Soviet Union are all too evident. Jung Chang's mighty portrait of three generations of female victims of dictatorship (today still the most common form of government in the world) is an indirect cry for democracy. This book is a must read.
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