Sir, your articles about Mao are like a breath of fresh air, compared to the smog and smoke coming from the western media. I hope one day you can do an article on Mao the poet.
And how about Mao the calligrapher? Read somewhere that his calligraphy (his handwriting) was exquisite. Alas, that's something that we Westerners who don't read or speak Chinese will not be able to appreciate.
The conventional view of the Cultural Revolution here in the West is that it was a period of intense, irrational mass hysteria that was hugely destructive. I find it fascinating to come to understand Mao's motives for initiating it and what was achieved during that time..
As for character assassination, both Mao and Stalin have been turned into cartoonishly awful figures in the West, Hollywood stereotypes of the crudest kind.
I read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Juan Chung and largely believed it represented all China rather than just the previously well-off.
I also read The Kite Runner and the follow up novel by Khaled Hosseini, ditto.
Both impressed me a lot 25 & 15 years ago.
Fortunately I read Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan 10 years ago. The last writer I'd expect to undermine the propagandists, a regular award winner. Apart from the clever clever ending, it is a novel about a girl who joins up with MI5 in a campaign to promote novelists and writers who will write the messages they want written. McEwan dedicates the book to his friend Christopher Hichens.
So in retrospect these books were very clearly written to order in line with CIA China and Afghan policy. I'm guessing with some fantastic editors for first books. It seems so blatantly obvious now. The Polish film Katyn too.
Sir, your articles about Mao are like a breath of fresh air, compared to the smog and smoke coming from the western media. I hope one day you can do an article on Mao the poet.
And how about Mao the calligrapher? Read somewhere that his calligraphy (his handwriting) was exquisite. Alas, that's something that we Westerners who don't read or speak Chinese will not be able to appreciate.
The conventional view of the Cultural Revolution here in the West is that it was a period of intense, irrational mass hysteria that was hugely destructive. I find it fascinating to come to understand Mao's motives for initiating it and what was achieved during that time..
As for character assassination, both Mao and Stalin have been turned into cartoonishly awful figures in the West, Hollywood stereotypes of the crudest kind.
I read Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Juan Chung and largely believed it represented all China rather than just the previously well-off.
I also read The Kite Runner and the follow up novel by Khaled Hosseini, ditto.
Both impressed me a lot 25 & 15 years ago.
Fortunately I read Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan 10 years ago. The last writer I'd expect to undermine the propagandists, a regular award winner. Apart from the clever clever ending, it is a novel about a girl who joins up with MI5 in a campaign to promote novelists and writers who will write the messages they want written. McEwan dedicates the book to his friend Christopher Hichens.
So in retrospect these books were very clearly written to order in line with CIA China and Afghan policy. I'm guessing with some fantastic editors for first books. It seems so blatantly obvious now. The Polish film Katyn too.