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Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China
An inside analysis of modern cultural and political upheavals in China by a fluent Beijing correspondent describes the power struggles currently taking place between the party elite and supporters of democracy, the outcome of which the author predicts will significantly affect China's rise to a world super-power. 125,000 first printing.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Philip P. Pan
3 books10 followersPhilip P. Pan is the weekend editor for the New York Times, a former foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, and that newspaper's former bureau chief in Beijing and Moscow. He lived in China for more than a decade and his work has been recognized with the Livingston Award for international reporting, an Overseas Press Club award and the Asia Society’s Osborn Elliott Prize for excellence in journalism about Asia. Before going overseas, he covered crime and immigration in the United States. Born and raised in New Jersey, he is a graduate of Harvard College and studied Mandarin at Peking University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
January 8, 2015
I thought China got it's shit together after Mao's death. Apparently I was wrong.
Out of Mao's Shadow by Philip Pan is yet another book notched in my ongoing self-education of that huge honkin' thing known as China. I've got two reasons for my interest.
One, China is a world player now. When I was a kid, China was the overpopulated country that produced cheap plastic goods, and that was essentially it. Now China is stretching out and opening up. They are interacting with the rest of the world. On the one hand that's exciting and on the other hand - the uniformed and superstitious hand - it's a little scary. Why? Back when I was that aforementioned kid, China was staunchly Communist and buddies with our archenemy the USSR. In the '80s, if there was one thing our elders/leaders in America wanted us to know, it was "Communism...BAD!!!" End of story. That's all you needed to know. But since then I've grown up and China has matured as well. I felt like it was time we bury the past, shake hands and get to know one another.
The second reason for my recent interest and studies of all things China is that my brother has been over there working as a teacher for a few years now. The Chinese are rabid to learn English these days it seems, so my bro is over there saying shit and explaining himself, mostly to kids, who are utterly fascinated by the pasty-faced whitie. This has led to a desire to know a little more about what he's experiencing.
So I've read history books on China's past (and wow-e-wow they've got a past AND some to spare!). I learned about Mao's Cultural Revolution. Now it was time to get with the times, so I turned to Out of Mao's Shadow, a collection of journalistic stories about the people crushed by and fighting back against the authoritarian, one party system that has ruled China since the Chairman's death.
This book dashed my misconception that today's China was burgeoning utopia for capitalism, free speech and democracy, the facade their government has cultivated for the last few decades. Some Chinese want these things, the others will hold on to power at all costs. China leadership likes prosperity, but they also covet ultimate and total control. New ideologies blend with old tactics and human rights become the doormat on the way to profit.
Story after heartbreaking story, Pan details the constant clash between the people and the people who rule them. It's a war made more complex by China's tumultuous past and the back and forth clashes of the Cultural Revolution that sometimes pitted friend vs friend, even parent vs child. Aging generations, jerked around and left confused, are pensively mixing with youth, if they're not too afraid to get burnt once more, and so the country is filled with an amoebic populous unsure of itself, its place and its future. I can only hope for the best.
Out of Mao's Shadow by Philip Pan is yet another book notched in my ongoing self-education of that huge honkin' thing known as China. I've got two reasons for my interest.
One, China is a world player now. When I was a kid, China was the overpopulated country that produced cheap plastic goods, and that was essentially it. Now China is stretching out and opening up. They are interacting with the rest of the world. On the one hand that's exciting and on the other hand - the uniformed and superstitious hand - it's a little scary. Why? Back when I was that aforementioned kid, China was staunchly Communist and buddies with our archenemy the USSR. In the '80s, if there was one thing our elders/leaders in America wanted us to know, it was "Communism...BAD!!!" End of story. That's all you needed to know. But since then I've grown up and China has matured as well. I felt like it was time we bury the past, shake hands and get to know one another.
The second reason for my recent interest and studies of all things China is that my brother has been over there working as a teacher for a few years now. The Chinese are rabid to learn English these days it seems, so my bro is over there saying shit and explaining himself, mostly to kids, who are utterly fascinated by the pasty-faced whitie. This has led to a desire to know a little more about what he's experiencing.
So I've read history books on China's past (and wow-e-wow they've got a past AND some to spare!). I learned about Mao's Cultural Revolution. Now it was time to get with the times, so I turned to Out of Mao's Shadow, a collection of journalistic stories about the people crushed by and fighting back against the authoritarian, one party system that has ruled China since the Chairman's death.
This book dashed my misconception that today's China was burgeoning utopia for capitalism, free speech and democracy, the facade their government has cultivated for the last few decades. Some Chinese want these things, the others will hold on to power at all costs. China leadership likes prosperity, but they also covet ultimate and total control. New ideologies blend with old tactics and human rights become the doormat on the way to profit.
Story after heartbreaking story, Pan details the constant clash between the people and the people who rule them. It's a war made more complex by China's tumultuous past and the back and forth clashes of the Cultural Revolution that sometimes pitted friend vs friend, even parent vs child. Aging generations, jerked around and left confused, are pensively mixing with youth, if they're not too afraid to get burnt once more, and so the country is filled with an amoebic populous unsure of itself, its place and its future. I can only hope for the best.
March 27, 2016
[This review was posted on my Asia Sentinel blog on August 30, 2008.]
There are perhaps two resounding messages that the author tries to convey in this book: firstly that “those counting on the capitalists to lead the charge for democratization in China are likely to be disappointed”, and secondly, that the society’s struggle for social justice and civic liberties is often futile, although passionate individuals with a conscience and a sense of justice are ceaselessly trying against all odds to attain those.
In an early chapter of the book, the author lets us have a glimpse into China’s recent past, through the camera lenses of photographer Hu Jie who was obsessed with digging up the life story of young poet Lin Zhao. In making and distributing underground the documentary about Lin, Hu had to sacrifice a steady well-paying job at Xinhua News Agency and to risk being arrested any day. But he was determined to get to the bottom of it because he believed that “it wasn’t normal or healthy for a society to go through a cataclysm like the Anti-Rightist Campaign and never discuss it and he wondered if the absence of historical knowledge hindered social progress”.
In the 1950s, Lin Zhao had once been a Communist Party member while studying at the Peking University but she later paid with her life for opposing the party out of utter disillusionment with it. As the author takes us through the young lives and actions of Lin and her classmates via Hu’s investigative interviews, scene after scene of the perfidious Hundred Flowers Movement and the cruel Anti-Rightist Campaign unfolds before us. When Lin’s prison writings about the wickedness and absurdities of the Campaign and her sufferings are revealed to us, we can almost smell the blood that Lin used to write her memoir with.
Then we are brought to some tragic happenings during the nefarious Cultural Revolution through the recollection of a former red guard, Xi Qinsheng of Chongqing, whose mother was killed nonsensically during an in-party strife. In an interview with the author, Xi is quoted as saying: “The Cultural Revolution brought out the worst in people, and the worst in the political system.” “Xi said he believed one-party rule was ultimately to blame for the crimes of the Cultural Revolution, but that individuals – like the man who killed his mother, and like himself – must also accept responsibility. ‘How could a ruthless dictatorship thrive in this country? Why did the nation support it?’ he asked.”
Apart from the historical snapshots, the book tells the stories of other present-day dissidents as well as the story of a wealthy real estate developer who exemplifies the venal union of capitalism and authoritarianism.
Jiang Yanyong, a semi-retired surgeon, blew the whistle on the spread of SARS in Beijing and later tried, to no avail, to persuade the Communist Party to admit its Tiananmen Square wrongdoings. Threatened by house arrest and a prospect of never being able to visit his daughter in the United States, Jiang was finally forced to abandon his cause.
The blind legal expert, Chen Guangshen, who tried to help women forced to have abortions under the one-child policy to fight the bureaucracy and who escaped house arrest to take the case all the way to Beijing from the remote village in Shandong province where he lived, was finally kidnapped by public security officers and was subsequently imprisoned.
There are a bunch of “weiquan” (維權) (pro-liberties) lawyers who try their best to defend Chen’s case and another notorious libel case incriminating Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao, for writing and publishing the book “An Investigation of China’s Peasantry” in 2003 (the English edition is called “Will the Boat Sink the Water?”), brought on by a corrupt party official. The book is banned in China as it exposes corrupt deeds of local party and government officials, supported by documents and witnesses, in particular the imposition of punitive taxes on peasants. The case was tried in court but the judge could not (or would not) come up with a verdict.
Then there is the story of Cheng Yizhong, the idealistic journalist who took Guangzhou’s outspoken newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily to unprecedented levels of popularity and fame. He first caught the nation’s and the leaders’ attention by an expose of the corrupt “shourong” (retention and repatriation) system run by local police, whereby the latter had the right to detain at will roaming migrants and force them into involuntary labor and captivity until they could pay their way out. Although Cheng managed to force leaders to order a ban on the vile system, he also upset many party officials in the process, unwittingly setting the stage for his subsequent downfall. His unreserved reporting on SARS did not help either. In 2004 he was imprisoned for five months for an alleged corruption charge, which was an obvious set-up to frame him.
“But prison had changed him, and now he considered the party’s rule irredeemably corrupt. That judgment, however, left him with few options as a citizen and a journalist, and he was restless. ‘The worst thing that happened to me,’ he said, ‘was that I lost all hope in the system.’”
If the stories of the dissidents seem outright depressing, that of Chen Lihua is remarkably buoyant - from her standpoint, that is. Chen was named China’s sixth richest person in Forbes’ 2001 list, with assets of US$550 million.
This passage may best sum up Chen’s story: “China’s emerging business elite is a diverse and disparate bunch, and for every entrepreneur who would embrace political reform, there are others who support and depend on the authoritarian system, who believe in one-party rule and owe their success to it. Chen Lihua fits in this latter category, and her story is a reminder that those with the most wealth – and thus the most resources to devote either to maintaining the status quo or promoting change – are also the most likely to be in bed with the party.”
February 23, 2012
Perhaps the most unforgettable scene in the movie Alien, perhaps the greatest science fiction movie ever made, is the attempt by the fast-disappearing crew to resurrect the decapitated robot, Ash, whom they beg for an answer to their simple question:
Ripley: How do we kill it, Ash? There's gotta be a way of killing it. How, how do we do it?
Ash: You can't... You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? A perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.
Lambert: You admire it?
Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
This unforgettable episode kept replaying in the back on my mind as I read through Philp Pan's unforgettable new masterpiece, Out of Mao's Shadow. This is a book about heroes, about the brave souls in China who dare to stand up to one of the world's most formidable political machines, the Chinese Communist Party. We know one thing in advance: none of them will win. Some do indeed make a huge difference, and nudge the monster toward reform, usually by raising public awareness. But they cannot beat the party. The party will always win. It is too perfect, too self-protective and self-sustaining to tolerate defeat, and it knows no sense of morality or conscience.
A fluent Chinese speaker and former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, Pan has won the confidence of these people and, often at considerable personal risk, takes us into their homes, into their lives to give us an intimate portrayal of what they do and why they do it.
There are some whose stories we've discussed on this blog before, such as Jiang Yanyong, the doctor who leaked to the Western media the fact that SARS was spreading in Beijing, and who later spoke out on the carnage he witnessed in the emergency room on the night of June 4, 1989. And Cheng Yizhong, the editor of Southern Metropolis Daily who first challenged the government's insistence that SARS was under control and later helped bring the murder of Sun Zhigang onto the radar screen of the Chinese people and ultimately the world.
Each of the subjects in Pan's book takes it upon himself to stand up to the government, fully aware of the inherent risks. As Pan tells us their stories, he manages to paint an historical picture around them. For example, as he details the work of blind activist Chen Guangcheng against the evils of the one-child policy, Pan takes the reader through a brief and hopelessly depressing history of one of "the most ambitious experiments in social engineering ever attempted," and highlights just how tragic it was, mainly for Chinese women, half a billion of whom were either sterilized, made to endure forced abortions or sloppily fitted with IUDs that led to more misery for them.
Pan weaves history into each story he tells, and nearly all of it is grim. I have to admit, it's a painful and frustrating read. And there are no happy endings. To go through each of the chapters and tell you which ones moved me the most is too daunting a task - i have earmarked nearly every page.
It is not an uplifting book, but not a hopeless one, either. Remember, in the end Ripley does outsmart the creature despite its perfection. And each of these activists makes small dents in the party's armor, and it tells us something that each is still alive and able to talk about it (though quite of few of the characters alluded to along the way are not so lucky, serving lengthy prison sentences). So Pan allows us a glimmer of hope at the end. Reform is real, even if its pace is snail-slow. People are getting bolder, and some of the lawsuits against the government are being won. There is more freedom of speech, though that can be unpredictable. China is no longer totalitarian. But it's in no way democratic.
Pan writes in his epilogue, "What progress has been made in recent years - what freedom the Chinese people now enjoy - has come only because individuals have demanded and fought for it, and because the party has retreated in the face of such pressure."
I hope we never forget that. That's the answer to the question we hear a lot, "if you like China so much why do you criticize it so harshly?" Harsh, consistent criticism based on fact and made with conviction has proven to be the only winning formula in pushing reform ahead.
In my conversations with other expats in China, one thing we all seem to agree on is that Philip Pan is the best reporter who has ever covered China. Longtime readers know how highly I regard Pan's predecessor John Pomfret, who I still see as one of China's most perceptive critics. Pan is in a different category, however. While both Pomfret And Pan are master reporters, Pan is also a beautiful writer. (You don't read Pomfret for style or prose.) Each story in Out of Mao's China is told with an understated eloquence and poignancy - clear-headed and straightforward, but also genuinely poetic. And that's a balance few journalists can strike. It's a suspenseful book, a page-turner, if you will, that keeps you thoroughly wrapped up. Just as he does in the article I refer to more than just about any other in this bog, so too does Pan in his book keep you spellbound, incredulous that this could really be happening in a nation trying so hard to convince the world of its love of peace, of its good intentions, of its glorious reforms.
So many books on China and its transformation since passing "out of Mao's shadow." Get a copy of China Shakes the World, Oracle Bones and Out of Mao's Shadow - it's all there. Of the three. the latter is the most haunting and painful to read, but you'll emerge from it a lot more sober about China's progress, and a lot less patient when it comes to the naive insistence of the anti-CNN crowd that any negative perception of China's government is the product of biased reports in the Western media. There's a lot to be negative about and a lot to be scared of, despite the very real reforms of recent years. Get the book today, and prepare to have some illusions shattered.
Ripley: How do we kill it, Ash? There's gotta be a way of killing it. How, how do we do it?
Ash: You can't... You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? A perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.
Lambert: You admire it?
Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
This unforgettable episode kept replaying in the back on my mind as I read through Philp Pan's unforgettable new masterpiece, Out of Mao's Shadow. This is a book about heroes, about the brave souls in China who dare to stand up to one of the world's most formidable political machines, the Chinese Communist Party. We know one thing in advance: none of them will win. Some do indeed make a huge difference, and nudge the monster toward reform, usually by raising public awareness. But they cannot beat the party. The party will always win. It is too perfect, too self-protective and self-sustaining to tolerate defeat, and it knows no sense of morality or conscience.
A fluent Chinese speaker and former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, Pan has won the confidence of these people and, often at considerable personal risk, takes us into their homes, into their lives to give us an intimate portrayal of what they do and why they do it.
There are some whose stories we've discussed on this blog before, such as Jiang Yanyong, the doctor who leaked to the Western media the fact that SARS was spreading in Beijing, and who later spoke out on the carnage he witnessed in the emergency room on the night of June 4, 1989. And Cheng Yizhong, the editor of Southern Metropolis Daily who first challenged the government's insistence that SARS was under control and later helped bring the murder of Sun Zhigang onto the radar screen of the Chinese people and ultimately the world.
Each of the subjects in Pan's book takes it upon himself to stand up to the government, fully aware of the inherent risks. As Pan tells us their stories, he manages to paint an historical picture around them. For example, as he details the work of blind activist Chen Guangcheng against the evils of the one-child policy, Pan takes the reader through a brief and hopelessly depressing history of one of "the most ambitious experiments in social engineering ever attempted," and highlights just how tragic it was, mainly for Chinese women, half a billion of whom were either sterilized, made to endure forced abortions or sloppily fitted with IUDs that led to more misery for them.
Pan weaves history into each story he tells, and nearly all of it is grim. I have to admit, it's a painful and frustrating read. And there are no happy endings. To go through each of the chapters and tell you which ones moved me the most is too daunting a task - i have earmarked nearly every page.
It is not an uplifting book, but not a hopeless one, either. Remember, in the end Ripley does outsmart the creature despite its perfection. And each of these activists makes small dents in the party's armor, and it tells us something that each is still alive and able to talk about it (though quite of few of the characters alluded to along the way are not so lucky, serving lengthy prison sentences). So Pan allows us a glimmer of hope at the end. Reform is real, even if its pace is snail-slow. People are getting bolder, and some of the lawsuits against the government are being won. There is more freedom of speech, though that can be unpredictable. China is no longer totalitarian. But it's in no way democratic.
Pan writes in his epilogue, "What progress has been made in recent years - what freedom the Chinese people now enjoy - has come only because individuals have demanded and fought for it, and because the party has retreated in the face of such pressure."
I hope we never forget that. That's the answer to the question we hear a lot, "if you like China so much why do you criticize it so harshly?" Harsh, consistent criticism based on fact and made with conviction has proven to be the only winning formula in pushing reform ahead.
In my conversations with other expats in China, one thing we all seem to agree on is that Philip Pan is the best reporter who has ever covered China. Longtime readers know how highly I regard Pan's predecessor John Pomfret, who I still see as one of China's most perceptive critics. Pan is in a different category, however. While both Pomfret And Pan are master reporters, Pan is also a beautiful writer. (You don't read Pomfret for style or prose.) Each story in Out of Mao's China is told with an understated eloquence and poignancy - clear-headed and straightforward, but also genuinely poetic. And that's a balance few journalists can strike. It's a suspenseful book, a page-turner, if you will, that keeps you thoroughly wrapped up. Just as he does in the article I refer to more than just about any other in this bog, so too does Pan in his book keep you spellbound, incredulous that this could really be happening in a nation trying so hard to convince the world of its love of peace, of its good intentions, of its glorious reforms.
So many books on China and its transformation since passing "out of Mao's shadow." Get a copy of China Shakes the World, Oracle Bones and Out of Mao's Shadow - it's all there. Of the three. the latter is the most haunting and painful to read, but you'll emerge from it a lot more sober about China's progress, and a lot less patient when it comes to the naive insistence of the anti-CNN crowd that any negative perception of China's government is the product of biased reports in the Western media. There's a lot to be negative about and a lot to be scared of, despite the very real reforms of recent years. Get the book today, and prepare to have some illusions shattered.
June 25, 2008
This book is a compilation of stories of the individuals in China who are working for political and social change. It made me realize that even though I may not be encountering many voices of dissent during my time here in China, they do exist and certainly have throughout the country's tumultuous history. The book follows the stories of a young, and ultimately disillusioned, communist revolutionary woman during the cultural revolution, a pair of lawyers who fight the corrupt bureaucracy in a rural village, and the doctor who blew the lid of SARS and questioned the government's silence on the Tiannamen massacre to name a few. I recommend it highly for anyone interested in learning more about how individuals are striving and working toward change in China.
February 24, 2018
Very informative and absolutely fascinating.
December 7, 2019
This was an excellent account of China in the post-Mao era while back-tracking to fill in some gaps (at least for me). China continues to intrigue me while also freaking me the fuck out at the same time. I feel that I know the country and its motivations much better after reading his book.
I think this guy wrote for the Washington Post and most of this book felt like article, and I don’t mean that to criticize. His notes on the horrors of the cultural revolution were fascinating. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to learn more about China, from the completely uninitiated, to those bordering on expertise.
I think this guy wrote for the Washington Post and most of this book felt like article, and I don’t mean that to criticize. His notes on the horrors of the cultural revolution were fascinating. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to learn more about China, from the completely uninitiated, to those bordering on expertise.
Want to read
April 20, 2022
the giddy people packed the street and the Square flashing victory signs, from atop of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where Mao proclaimed his red reign in 1949 and where his protrait still hangs, the men at the helm of the Communist Party looked out on the masses and basked in the outpouring of the national pride.
the collective outburst of joy in the political heart of the nation, not since the pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 had so many people converged on Tiananmen Square, and the contrast was inescapable and jarring. back then, the multitude of young people who filled the Square were protesting the corruption of the Communist government and calling for democratic reform. the PLA and its trucks and tanks and guns crushed those protests and protestors, and in the early 1990s the memory of the massacre still darkened university campuses. but now people seemed to have forgotten the Party's violent suppresion of the democracy movement, and now the crowds in Tiananmen Square were cheering the government!
what had happened to the demands for political change? how had the party regained its footing? and how long could it hold on to power?
the answer is the Chinese government is making the largest and most successful experiment in authoritarianism in the world. the West has assumed that capitalism must lead to democracy, that free markets inevitably result in free societies. but by embracing market reforms while continuing to restrict political freedom, China's Communist leaders have presided over an economic revolution without surrendering power. prosperity allows the government to reinvent itself, to win friends and buy allies, and to forestall demands for democracy change. it was a remarkable feat, all the more so because the regime had inflicted so much misery on the nation over the past half century.
HAIL LIE AND VIOLENCE
PS: prosperity can cover up everything, or is it?
February 13, 2021
Pan carefully documents the efforts of Chinese dissidents, lawyers, journalists, labor organizers, or local peasants as they fight systematic corruption and abuse of power. He highlights brave people, taking huge risks, gambling what strategy will work. The stories start off seriously depressing. At first I thought this would be a book of lamentations. But the small victories over time grow impressive, and the real characters Pan introduces deserve a place in world history.
August 5, 2008
With the upcoming Olympics, I figured it was time to get a bit more educated on modern day China. This was a fascinating historical analysis by Washington post reporter Phillip Pan about China’s recent economic reforms and the lack of political reforms (one party rule, lack of religious freedom, government censor of papers/internet/doctors, child population control), and whether the situation can co-exist/continue.
Zhao Ziyang’s resignation as party leader when refusing to order the military against student protesters in Tiananmen Square
Uncovering the life of silenced/executed zin lhao
Documenting a small cemetery of remembrance for victims of the cultural revolution
Worker’s campaign in factory for rights
Systematic mass eviction of people/hutong lanes in Beijing
Government’s cover-up of SARS and one doctor sending email to tell the world about the disease
Newspaperman who exposes and brings about the end of the shourong detention system and then is jailed for it
Authors on trial for libel against local party official who levied exorbitant taxes in rural area
A blind lawyer’s jailing for attempts to illuminate the ills of the one child policy
Post civil war historical perspective with great leap forward (famines), hundred flower’s movement, anti-rightist campaign, cultural revolution, at the hands of chairman mao’s communist party
After reading this I’m of the opinion that China has no business hosting the Olympics and George Bush has no business attending the opening ceremonies.
Zhao Ziyang’s resignation as party leader when refusing to order the military against student protesters in Tiananmen Square
Uncovering the life of silenced/executed zin lhao
Documenting a small cemetery of remembrance for victims of the cultural revolution
Worker’s campaign in factory for rights
Systematic mass eviction of people/hutong lanes in Beijing
Government’s cover-up of SARS and one doctor sending email to tell the world about the disease
Newspaperman who exposes and brings about the end of the shourong detention system and then is jailed for it
Authors on trial for libel against local party official who levied exorbitant taxes in rural area
A blind lawyer’s jailing for attempts to illuminate the ills of the one child policy
Post civil war historical perspective with great leap forward (famines), hundred flower’s movement, anti-rightist campaign, cultural revolution, at the hands of chairman mao’s communist party
After reading this I’m of the opinion that China has no business hosting the Olympics and George Bush has no business attending the opening ceremonies.
Want to read
December 18, 2016
(Zhao Ziyang)
(Zhao Ziyang)
(Lin Zhao Wrote poetry in blood)
"On a warm Friday night in the summer of 2001, I stood amid hundreds of thousands of young Chinese pouring into Tiananmen Square in a joyous and largely spontaneous celebration of Beijing’s successful bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2008."
"The army crushed those protests, and in the early 1990s, when I was studying Mandarin in Beijing, the memory of the massacre still darkened university campuses. But now people seemed to have forgotten the party’s violent suppression of the democracy movement, and the crowds in Tiananmen were cheering the government."
"Having tasted freedom, having learned something about the rule of law, having seen on television and in the movies and on the Internet how other societies elect their own leaders, the Chinese people are pushing every day for a more responsive and just political system."
Philip Pan
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/boo...
July 23, 2008
Quite good - Pan does an excellent job of weaving a narrative thread that connects the profiled individuals. Some further discussion of the more meta- issues might have been nice, but it succeeds quite well at putting a face on dissent in China.
Read
April 22, 2018I am afraid this is not as good as its rating says it to be.
Well, hang on. It is more complicated than that.
The author's stance is pre-set. In the introduction page, he writes, "many people who care about China tell themselves that democratization is inevitable, that the people will eventually prevail and the one-party will fail. I certainly hope so."
I was stunned reading this, when I had barely started. Journalists and reporters are supposed to give objective accounts and leave their readers to decide what to believe and what not. Once you let your personal opinions get too involved with the contents you intend to present, it has pretty much already failed since whatever you write comes with a pre-determined bias. There is little fairness to speak of in one's articles, or books from there.
It bothered me a bit, but I rolled it on. I did not want to give up on it yet, so I continued my reading.
Communication studies suggest that people tend to look for things they want to hear/already know when dealing with massive amount of information. Readers who are of similar opinion of China to Pan will like it even better after reading this book. Readers who have a hard time accepting Pan's point of view from the very beginning (oh well, I mean, me), will find it uncomfortable to read the book.
See? To put it in a slightly philosophical way, we do decide what we like and what not before doing or seeing what it is.
I also went ahead and watched the documentary Hu Jie made for Lin Zhao. That was, to my surprise, a more interesting experience than reading the book. Hu seems to believe that Lin Zhao's friends and family were indignant about the treatment she had during the horrible Anti-Rightist times. Is he too calloused or was he, again, only focusing on things that he wanted to hear? Because I certainly detected more from the things they did not say than what they did say.
These are a bunch of successful people in today's China. They have great lives going on. Do you really think they would show effusive sympathy towards Lin Zhao on camera? Nah. They are in fact way more politically shrewd exactly because of their past experiences.
One of Lin's friend said, "she did come from a capitalist family. She sent her clothes to a laundry shop! There is no way she could understand Chinese revolution. She was too ideal, too passionate ("too blind", I believe that was what she really wanted to say). I came from a rural family. I was the proletariat. I accepted proletarian revolution from the very beginning." This friend, Li, subtly hinted that Lin Zhao was an idealist who failed to grasp what Chinese revolution really meant.
Another college friend, Wang, commented, "Of course we sensed things weren't quite right back then. But we did not exactly agree with what Lin and her friends did, either. They got their emotions run high. You have got to be calm and rational. Emotions achieve nothing." Wang, not-so-obviously implied that Lin and her friends were hot-headed youngsters who had a great deal of passion but lacked brain.
I am not rating the book, not because I have written it off completely. No, absolutely not. It did provide me with many new insights and showed me things I did not know prior to reading it.
I am only saying that we need to see beyond is all. An author, a documentary producer, even my review, they all have the power of rearranging the facts in certain ways to influence what people think. (Except that my review probably will do awfully poorly in that respect, nonetheless!) I am saying, read all you want, gather information as much as possible, but do, think for yourself.
Well, hang on. It is more complicated than that.
The author's stance is pre-set. In the introduction page, he writes, "many people who care about China tell themselves that democratization is inevitable, that the people will eventually prevail and the one-party will fail. I certainly hope so."
I was stunned reading this, when I had barely started. Journalists and reporters are supposed to give objective accounts and leave their readers to decide what to believe and what not. Once you let your personal opinions get too involved with the contents you intend to present, it has pretty much already failed since whatever you write comes with a pre-determined bias. There is little fairness to speak of in one's articles, or books from there.
It bothered me a bit, but I rolled it on. I did not want to give up on it yet, so I continued my reading.
Communication studies suggest that people tend to look for things they want to hear/already know when dealing with massive amount of information. Readers who are of similar opinion of China to Pan will like it even better after reading this book. Readers who have a hard time accepting Pan's point of view from the very beginning (oh well, I mean, me), will find it uncomfortable to read the book.
See? To put it in a slightly philosophical way, we do decide what we like and what not before doing or seeing what it is.
I also went ahead and watched the documentary Hu Jie made for Lin Zhao. That was, to my surprise, a more interesting experience than reading the book. Hu seems to believe that Lin Zhao's friends and family were indignant about the treatment she had during the horrible Anti-Rightist times. Is he too calloused or was he, again, only focusing on things that he wanted to hear? Because I certainly detected more from the things they did not say than what they did say.
These are a bunch of successful people in today's China. They have great lives going on. Do you really think they would show effusive sympathy towards Lin Zhao on camera? Nah. They are in fact way more politically shrewd exactly because of their past experiences.
One of Lin's friend said, "she did come from a capitalist family. She sent her clothes to a laundry shop! There is no way she could understand Chinese revolution. She was too ideal, too passionate ("too blind", I believe that was what she really wanted to say). I came from a rural family. I was the proletariat. I accepted proletarian revolution from the very beginning." This friend, Li, subtly hinted that Lin Zhao was an idealist who failed to grasp what Chinese revolution really meant.
Another college friend, Wang, commented, "Of course we sensed things weren't quite right back then. But we did not exactly agree with what Lin and her friends did, either. They got their emotions run high. You have got to be calm and rational. Emotions achieve nothing." Wang, not-so-obviously implied that Lin and her friends were hot-headed youngsters who had a great deal of passion but lacked brain.
I am not rating the book, not because I have written it off completely. No, absolutely not. It did provide me with many new insights and showed me things I did not know prior to reading it.
I am only saying that we need to see beyond is all. An author, a documentary producer, even my review, they all have the power of rearranging the facts in certain ways to influence what people think. (Except that my review probably will do awfully poorly in that respect, nonetheless!) I am saying, read all you want, gather information as much as possible, but do, think for yourself.
May 19, 2020
This was a decent read. "Out Of Mao's Shadow" follows the stories of a handful of Chinese citizens, who, through their unique ways, have challenged the authoritarian status quo of the Chinese Communist Party.
The book tells the stories of these remarkable individuals, and also provides the relevant historical context along the way.
The book reads a bit like a novel divided into sections. Each chapter covers the story of a different Chinese dissident.
The book also talks a bit about Mao; his 5-year plans, his horrible famine of 1958-62, the cover-up of both an AIDS outbreak and SARS by the CCP, the Tiananmen Square protests and killings, among many others.
I enjoyed this book, but I have to admit that I was looking for a bit more depth and broad-based overview. This book focuses on the specific people the author talks about.
There is a great quote I'd like to share, from the book's Epilogue:
I would recommend it to anyone curious about the workings of the reprehensible Chinese Communist Party.
They are human rights violators on a wholesale level.
3.5 stars.
The book tells the stories of these remarkable individuals, and also provides the relevant historical context along the way.
The book reads a bit like a novel divided into sections. Each chapter covers the story of a different Chinese dissident.
The book also talks a bit about Mao; his 5-year plans, his horrible famine of 1958-62, the cover-up of both an AIDS outbreak and SARS by the CCP, the Tiananmen Square protests and killings, among many others.
I enjoyed this book, but I have to admit that I was looking for a bit more depth and broad-based overview. This book focuses on the specific people the author talks about.
There is a great quote I'd like to share, from the book's Epilogue:
"I often hear people say that political change is inevitable in China. When incomes rise above a certain level, they argue, the nation will follow Taiwan, South Korea, and other authoritarian countries that evolved into democracies as their capitalist economies developed. But rarely have people anywhere in the world gained political freedom without pain and sacrifice, and the Chinese Communist Party has shown it will not surrender power without a fight.
It held on after the disasters of Mao’s rule, and it outlasted its brethren in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe after the Tiananmen massacre. In the years since, it has demonstrated its resilience again and again, nimbly adapting to new challenges and reasserting itself as a rising world power. What progress has been made in recent years—what freedom the Chinese people now enjoy—has come only because individuals have demanded and fought for it, and because the party has retreated in the face of such pressure."
I would recommend it to anyone curious about the workings of the reprehensible Chinese Communist Party.
They are human rights violators on a wholesale level.
3.5 stars.
August 11, 2014
Out of Mao's Shadow tells the stories of individuals caught up in the chaotic transition China is undergoing from a Maoist state to a modern player in the global economy, a capitalist authoritarian state that will cast a long shadow across the globe and impact current affairs in many ways. This transition is difficult and tumultuous - Philip Pan introduces the reader to a cast of engaging people, whose difficult struggles to change China have cost them so much.
Each of the chapters introduces a new story, ranging from the doctor who uncovered the state's cover-up of the SARS epidemic to a blind lawyer fighting against injustices in the countryside, from a nascent labour movement brutally suppressed to the perils of journalistic integrity in a system that rewards cronyism and self-censorship. Pan is able not only to engage the reader in the narrative as a story-teller but also excels as a journalist in delivering the facts of each case - facts that cause dismay and distress as the weight of statistics and first-hand accounts force the reader to confront the true pain and dirt beneath China's glittering surface.
His narrative style is to-the-point and yet evocative - there were many times when I was moved greatly by the hardships and troubles people who Pan interviewed faced in trying to attain and maintain a basic level of decency and dignity. Some of the stories are familiar to western readers (such as Jiang Yanyong's exposé of the SARS cover-up) while others are less familiar (such as documentarian Hu Jie's struggle to uncover the true circumstances of the death of supposed "counter-revolutionary" Lin Zhao). Regardless of one's familiarity with narrative beforehand, Pan immerses the reader in the facts of the case and leaves the reader with clearer and often grimmer picture of modern life in the most successful authoritarian state, and yet there is also the hope of change. And that is the message Pan's book ultimately leaves one with.
Each of the chapters introduces a new story, ranging from the doctor who uncovered the state's cover-up of the SARS epidemic to a blind lawyer fighting against injustices in the countryside, from a nascent labour movement brutally suppressed to the perils of journalistic integrity in a system that rewards cronyism and self-censorship. Pan is able not only to engage the reader in the narrative as a story-teller but also excels as a journalist in delivering the facts of each case - facts that cause dismay and distress as the weight of statistics and first-hand accounts force the reader to confront the true pain and dirt beneath China's glittering surface.
His narrative style is to-the-point and yet evocative - there were many times when I was moved greatly by the hardships and troubles people who Pan interviewed faced in trying to attain and maintain a basic level of decency and dignity. Some of the stories are familiar to western readers (such as Jiang Yanyong's exposé of the SARS cover-up) while others are less familiar (such as documentarian Hu Jie's struggle to uncover the true circumstances of the death of supposed "counter-revolutionary" Lin Zhao). Regardless of one's familiarity with narrative beforehand, Pan immerses the reader in the facts of the case and leaves the reader with clearer and often grimmer picture of modern life in the most successful authoritarian state, and yet there is also the hope of change. And that is the message Pan's book ultimately leaves one with.
November 22, 2014
This book sort of exploded my brain. I know embarrassingly little about world history in general, but the last century of China's history seemed to me especially, as an American who never "needed to know" anything, fuzzy at best. I think many of us, if we haven't had a particularly zealous teacher or reached out to find the information ourselves, see modern China as a vaguely Communist blob full of people who probably have a better work ethic than we do; we harbor weird xenophobic anxieties about being "taken over" because we are no longer the most economically productive nation... And of course, people who watch Fox News like to compare Obama to Mao, which -- if you know anything about the latter -- is ridiculous. I think that it's important for people to read books like this, because they create empathetic links in our public consciousness. We need to begin to form a clear distinction between a nation and its government -- and hope that people from other countries do the same for us...
It doesn't exactly paint a perfect linear chronology of events, but rather pieces together narratives from the perspectives of different people's struggles with economic change, corruption, and censorship. Its aim seems to be, rather than to just inform, to humanize the victims of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. I think it might be supplemental, in the sense that it isn't a substitute for a history text, but it certainly provides a lot of insight and is a good launching point for anyone interested in the subject.
It doesn't exactly paint a perfect linear chronology of events, but rather pieces together narratives from the perspectives of different people's struggles with economic change, corruption, and censorship. Its aim seems to be, rather than to just inform, to humanize the victims of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. I think it might be supplemental, in the sense that it isn't a substitute for a history text, but it certainly provides a lot of insight and is a good launching point for anyone interested in the subject.
September 4, 2011
The stories of several very different Chinese dissidents and the people they're up against, this book is pretty much an unabashed critique of the Chinese government and the Communist Party. But even people who generally support the government will find it interesting, if only because it focuses on the personal stories of specific people involved in a number of notable dustups over human rights and other issues, and as such reads like a collection of biographical short stories.
There's no overarching narrative thread here, though a few people do pop up in several of the stories. Each story is supported by an overview of the background of the subject at hand, e.g., in the chapter about a blind man taking the government to task over illegal enforcement of the one-child policy, there's a several-page diversion into the history of the policy. These overviews are kept high-level and accessible; an extensive bibliography is provided for those who want more details. Backgrounders notwithstanding, the narrative focus on the individual people, rather than on dry recitation of facts and figures and dates, makes this a compelling read.
There's no overarching narrative thread here, though a few people do pop up in several of the stories. Each story is supported by an overview of the background of the subject at hand, e.g., in the chapter about a blind man taking the government to task over illegal enforcement of the one-child policy, there's a several-page diversion into the history of the policy. These overviews are kept high-level and accessible; an extensive bibliography is provided for those who want more details. Backgrounders notwithstanding, the narrative focus on the individual people, rather than on dry recitation of facts and figures and dates, makes this a compelling read.
December 19, 2015
A devastating account of China in the first decade of the 21st Century. The timing of this book, just prior to the Beijing Olympics of 2008, was crucial as, since then, the popular view is that China has 'cleaned up its act' somewhat.
This book outlines just how insidious the presence of the CPC was in everyday life. Read against Evan Osnos' "Age of Ambition" it can give readers an excellent introduction to 21st Century China.
It also gives insight into the pre-Olympics China which, despite the propaganda and Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, is still very much evident.
This book outlines just how insidious the presence of the CPC was in everyday life. Read against Evan Osnos' "Age of Ambition" it can give readers an excellent introduction to 21st Century China.
It also gives insight into the pre-Olympics China which, despite the propaganda and Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, is still very much evident.
December 30, 2022
Probably my last read book in 2022.
Before reading this book, I was unsure if it will be another book to criticize China superficially. My misgivings quickly disappeared after a few chapters. I especially enjoyed the stories in Part 2 and 3. They are circuitous, multi-faceted, well-researched, and thoughtful. As for the form, I like Pan’s style: plain, restrained, and deliberate. I am especially impressed with Pan’s grasp in Mandarin Chinese. His English translation of the interviewees’ speech/conversation captured their personalities, and I can imagine how those words were said in Chinese.
Before reading this book, I was unsure if it will be another book to criticize China superficially. My misgivings quickly disappeared after a few chapters. I especially enjoyed the stories in Part 2 and 3. They are circuitous, multi-faceted, well-researched, and thoughtful. As for the form, I like Pan’s style: plain, restrained, and deliberate. I am especially impressed with Pan’s grasp in Mandarin Chinese. His English translation of the interviewees’ speech/conversation captured their personalities, and I can imagine how those words were said in Chinese.
September 5, 2008
I'm not quite through with this, but I am deeply impressed. I've had mixed luck with journalists attempting to do in-depth political and social anthropology, but this one is quite good -- easily as good as anything by Philip Caputo. Because China is so closed off, we so rarely get to hear any of the fascinating stories of individual lives that Pan tells here. The basic thesis of the book is that free markets don't necessarily lead to free societies and it's not clear at all that China will ever become more democratic despite its vast economic reforms. I'm nowhere near an expert in this region of the world, so I found many of details of life in china surprising. Someone with more background may find many of the stories unfortunately familiar -- I have in fact recommended it a friend who has just come back from a year in Xianjiang province in Western China. I look forward to his assessment, particularly with regard to generalizability. I'm not sure if the author intended to make this argument, but this book has definitely persuaded me that there are limits to the virtue of the free market, and that unfettered capitalism does not guarantee a wealthy and healthy society.
Just as a note: the author is a reporter for the Washington Post and has just left his post in Beijing for one in Moscow. I'm looking forward to hearing what insight he can give on Putin and Mini Me Medvedev.
Just as a note: the author is a reporter for the Washington Post and has just left his post in Beijing for one in Moscow. I'm looking forward to hearing what insight he can give on Putin and Mini Me Medvedev.
September 7, 2010
The first few pages bored me. I was reading it and thinking, another book criticizing the Chinese government? But then when I reached the chapter about Lin Zhao, things started to change. Reading about Lin’s passion and faith in Mao frustrated me. How could a young women who could have chosen the nationalist instead of Mao, be betrayed by Father Mao?
The stories and vivid descriptions of the emotional and physical tortures that many faced, once again challenged my usual justifications of the Chinese government’s actions. I used to think that history is history, why bring up the past to criticize and turmoil the current? Now I think of it, the past is needed when trying to soften what damages truth and information about the past can actually bring.
This is a long book with medium sized prints; it took me 7 hours with breaks to finish this book. Highly recommended and best if read consecutively.
The stories and vivid descriptions of the emotional and physical tortures that many faced, once again challenged my usual justifications of the Chinese government’s actions. I used to think that history is history, why bring up the past to criticize and turmoil the current? Now I think of it, the past is needed when trying to soften what damages truth and information about the past can actually bring.
This is a long book with medium sized prints; it took me 7 hours with breaks to finish this book. Highly recommended and best if read consecutively.
March 11, 2016
Good book. It helped solidify my knowledge of post-Mao China -- and it definitely solidified my opinion of Mao Zedong.
When I first read "Mao: The Unknown Story" by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday several years ago, I really liked it. I thought, "FINALLY, someone has written an account of Mao that stops making him out to be a hero, that shows him for the fraud and horrific leader he really was." Imagine my disappointment, then, when every single China watcher I follow thoroughly bashed the book as overly simplistic and one-sided.
After reading many more books about 20th century China -- as well as books about other horrific leaders of other countries in the 20th century -- I'd like to read "Mao: The Unknown Story" again and see what I think this time.
二零一六年： 第十一本书
When I first read "Mao: The Unknown Story" by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday several years ago, I really liked it. I thought, "FINALLY, someone has written an account of Mao that stops making him out to be a hero, that shows him for the fraud and horrific leader he really was." Imagine my disappointment, then, when every single China watcher I follow thoroughly bashed the book as overly simplistic and one-sided.
After reading many more books about 20th century China -- as well as books about other horrific leaders of other countries in the 20th century -- I'd like to read "Mao: The Unknown Story" again and see what I think this time.
二零一六年： 第十一本书
May 24, 2018
4.5 stars. Lost half a star as it was not as objective as it could have been but was still thoroughly enjoyable and imformative.
Read
July 7, 2023After a couple of nonfiction books that were on interesting subjects but written in a way that made them a slog to get through, I was tempted to steer clear of more nonfiction for a while. Instead, for some reason, I picked up Out of Mao's Shadow. And I'm so glad I did. The interest of the subject matter -- modern China -- is matched by the pleasure of reading. The writing is evocative yet precise. It's nonfiction that reads like a novel -- a gripping but not overly flowery or sentimental novel. Each chapter focuses on one individual, usually a person fighting the system in some way, but each offers a way into a larger topic, such as The Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the events of 6/4/89, or the challenges of economic reform.
This book has been out for about a decade and a half, and a lot has happened in China since. In particular, an increasing swerve toward authoritarianism under Xi Jinping, and an expansion in surveillance technology that has made control possible in ways that were hard to imagine even a decade ago. In that way, this book made me sad, though it was not sad in itself -- the bravery of the people it described was often inspiring. It was sad because it was written at a moment when change was in the air in China, when the future seemed up for grabs and things could have gone in the direction of greater freedom and openness. But they didn't.
This book has been out for about a decade and a half, and a lot has happened in China since. In particular, an increasing swerve toward authoritarianism under Xi Jinping, and an expansion in surveillance technology that has made control possible in ways that were hard to imagine even a decade ago. In that way, this book made me sad, though it was not sad in itself -- the bravery of the people it described was often inspiring. It was sad because it was written at a moment when change was in the air in China, when the future seemed up for grabs and things could have gone in the direction of greater freedom and openness. But they didn't.
June 5, 2015
Review title: China: Souled out to Communism?
I recently spent two weeks in Beijing after working with a team of half-dozen or so co-workers there for five years via phone, email, and instant message. The trip was an eye-opener. One of my most important moments was having a lively discussion about "The Social Network", the Oscar-winning movie about the founding of Facebook. My co-worker had seen the movie, and had apparently read some about the history as well, and had some interesting opinions about it. Then at the end of this discussion, with no emotion, no sense of outrage or loss or regrets, he said very matter-of-factly "You know Facebook is blocked here in China." I did know that, and I was experiencing the social-network withdrawal from not being able to talk to my family and share pictures with them the way I normally do when I travel. I was struck by the disconnect between knowing about Facebook and its history, and (outwardly at least) not expressing anger at being prevented from using it.
After reading Philip Pan's book about how China is struggling toward freedom from Mao, I think I understand a bit more of that reaction. Pan is a Washington Post journalist and former Beijing bureau chief for that paper who spend several years in China at the beginning of the century. This was a period of great upheaval in the present, with exploding economic growth, encroaching environmental destruction, and fumbling steps toward accommodation of individual freedoms in a one-party totalitarian state.
But Pan also found the past (Mao's shadow) playing a very real role in the present, as the impacts of the Great Leap Forward of the 1950's and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s still effected families and individual lives today. Make no mistake, it is still Mao's country (his face is on every piece of currency, paper or coin), and the suppression of dissent and discussion during his lifetime is in part fueling the fires of freer speech and more open disagreement today.
Pan interviews many involved in these halting movements toward freedom--survivors of the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989, a military doctor who spoke out successfully about the government's attempted cover-up of the outburst of SARS, a documentary filmmaker who pursued the suppressed history of a female writer imprisoned (who literally wrote her masterpiece in her own blood from there) and executed during the Cultural Revolution.
The past and the present--but what of the future? Well, when Pan wrote in 2007, the Beijing Olympic games were still in the future, and there too was the shadow of a government powerful enough to condemn homes (without recognition of property rights or payment for property usurped) and silence media reporting on certain topics. But there two was the opportunity for the world to see China, and for China to see the world. Now in 2011, when I was there, I was surprised to hear my colleagues talk (to me at least) about the waste of money of the vast Olympic Park area, and (during the annual People's Congress gathering in Beijing) about corruption in the government (the expensive and very black Audi A8 luxury sedans, I was told with a cynical nod, were all driven by government officials), and even about the efficacy of the Communist Party. After one lunchtime discussion among my colleagues in hushed Chinese, one leaned over to me and said, "We were just talking about dropping out of the Communist Party. It isn't any good." When I expressed my surprise that he had a choice, he said "Oh, yes. I joined like many do while I was young, in college. But now I realize it hasn't done any good."
I was left by the end of my short time there, and after reading Pan's very interesting book, with this thought: In the US, we get the government we deserve, for good or bad. In China, I don't think that's the case, for good or bad. The recent attempt to suppress news of the democratic uprisings in Egypt and Libya suggests Mao still casts a long shadow.
I recently spent two weeks in Beijing after working with a team of half-dozen or so co-workers there for five years via phone, email, and instant message. The trip was an eye-opener. One of my most important moments was having a lively discussion about "The Social Network", the Oscar-winning movie about the founding of Facebook. My co-worker had seen the movie, and had apparently read some about the history as well, and had some interesting opinions about it. Then at the end of this discussion, with no emotion, no sense of outrage or loss or regrets, he said very matter-of-factly "You know Facebook is blocked here in China." I did know that, and I was experiencing the social-network withdrawal from not being able to talk to my family and share pictures with them the way I normally do when I travel. I was struck by the disconnect between knowing about Facebook and its history, and (outwardly at least) not expressing anger at being prevented from using it.
After reading Philip Pan's book about how China is struggling toward freedom from Mao, I think I understand a bit more of that reaction. Pan is a Washington Post journalist and former Beijing bureau chief for that paper who spend several years in China at the beginning of the century. This was a period of great upheaval in the present, with exploding economic growth, encroaching environmental destruction, and fumbling steps toward accommodation of individual freedoms in a one-party totalitarian state.
But Pan also found the past (Mao's shadow) playing a very real role in the present, as the impacts of the Great Leap Forward of the 1950's and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s still effected families and individual lives today. Make no mistake, it is still Mao's country (his face is on every piece of currency, paper or coin), and the suppression of dissent and discussion during his lifetime is in part fueling the fires of freer speech and more open disagreement today.
Pan interviews many involved in these halting movements toward freedom--survivors of the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989, a military doctor who spoke out successfully about the government's attempted cover-up of the outburst of SARS, a documentary filmmaker who pursued the suppressed history of a female writer imprisoned (who literally wrote her masterpiece in her own blood from there) and executed during the Cultural Revolution.
The past and the present--but what of the future? Well, when Pan wrote in 2007, the Beijing Olympic games were still in the future, and there too was the shadow of a government powerful enough to condemn homes (without recognition of property rights or payment for property usurped) and silence media reporting on certain topics. But there two was the opportunity for the world to see China, and for China to see the world. Now in 2011, when I was there, I was surprised to hear my colleagues talk (to me at least) about the waste of money of the vast Olympic Park area, and (during the annual People's Congress gathering in Beijing) about corruption in the government (the expensive and very black Audi A8 luxury sedans, I was told with a cynical nod, were all driven by government officials), and even about the efficacy of the Communist Party. After one lunchtime discussion among my colleagues in hushed Chinese, one leaned over to me and said, "We were just talking about dropping out of the Communist Party. It isn't any good." When I expressed my surprise that he had a choice, he said "Oh, yes. I joined like many do while I was young, in college. But now I realize it hasn't done any good."
I was left by the end of my short time there, and after reading Pan's very interesting book, with this thought: In the US, we get the government we deserve, for good or bad. In China, I don't think that's the case, for good or bad. The recent attempt to suppress news of the democratic uprisings in Egypt and Libya suggests Mao still casts a long shadow.
November 18, 2016
I read a lot of China books and if you want a deep dive into some of the difficult issues currently facing China, this is an excellent take. One thing with a book like this is timeliness and despite being 8 years od, it doesn't feel dated or that you've missed anything for the most part (a new addition would surely want to update hen Guangcheng's tale of oppression and then escape to Beijing, but where the author leaves off at least gives a solid base for the story).
When we read, we're always hoping to learn something new, but having lived in China for over 10 years and reading so much about it, what gets printed in the West about Modern China often only adds a few new details to long known stories. However, what I really liked about this book is the detail it goes into regarding the Cultural Revolution in Chongqing. While I knew about the insane times of the Cultural Revolution and the infighting between Red Guard factions, I didn't realize the extent it took in Chongqing. This book talks about the serious armaments that different factions had from all the munitions factories in the city and it was scary to think about. Teens and 20 year olds with lots of guns, even tanks, fighting a civil war against each other. The book definitely has me wanting to look into this deeper and for that I'm appreciative.
When we read, we're always hoping to learn something new, but having lived in China for over 10 years and reading so much about it, what gets printed in the West about Modern China often only adds a few new details to long known stories. However, what I really liked about this book is the detail it goes into regarding the Cultural Revolution in Chongqing. While I knew about the insane times of the Cultural Revolution and the infighting between Red Guard factions, I didn't realize the extent it took in Chongqing. This book talks about the serious armaments that different factions had from all the munitions factories in the city and it was scary to think about. Teens and 20 year olds with lots of guns, even tanks, fighting a civil war against each other. The book definitely has me wanting to look into this deeper and for that I'm appreciative.
May 14, 2009
This was a fascinating book for me, and I learned all kinds of things about Chinese history that were completely new - filled in lots of gaps in my understanding. If the book has shortcomings, it could be that there is too much to keep straight - the stories and characters keep flowing around and through each other and I had trouble keeping them all straight!
Mao Tse-tung (or Mao Zedong) was the chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1943 to his death in 1976. He remains controversial in China, and this book discusses aspects and implications of some of his social/political programs such as the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution." This book chronicles the struggles that occurred during Mao's later years, and then the aftermath leading to what China is today. A must-read for anyone interested in this most fascinating country.
Mao Tse-tung (or Mao Zedong) was the chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1943 to his death in 1976. He remains controversial in China, and this book discusses aspects and implications of some of his social/political programs such as the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution." This book chronicles the struggles that occurred during Mao's later years, and then the aftermath leading to what China is today. A must-read for anyone interested in this most fascinating country.
August 13, 2013
A really interesting listen. I liked its format of many profiles, and the last few tied together particularly well. It was also rather disheartening. This is why I still prefer Hessler, because his books contain a well-balanced mix of optimism and criticism. Mao's Shadow has an obvious Western slant, and I often found myself thinking about the lens through which Pan wrote, but the fact that the Communist government is corrupt is not news to anyone, least of all the Chinese.
But Pan is correct -- the Communists will be here for a long while yet UNLESS their economy collapses. I think for many upper middle-class Chinese, the rise in income has bought their complacency. The Chinese are pragmatic for the lage part. But the widening gap between the rich and the poor grows more and more tremendous every day. It's not something that can last. Something will break. :|
But Pan is correct -- the Communists will be here for a long while yet UNLESS their economy collapses. I think for many upper middle-class Chinese, the rise in income has bought their complacency. The Chinese are pragmatic for the lage part. But the widening gap between the rich and the poor grows more and more tremendous every day. It's not something that can last. Something will break. :|
June 29, 2015
Great book! I also have hometown love for Philip Pan since he writes for the Washington Post (and he studied in Beijing back in the day).
Conventional wisdom dictates that economic growth leads to political liberalization: you got your increasingly affluent middle class, which gives rise to civil society and whatnot, which then spawns oppositional politics. Alas, not so in China! This book is a vivid description of the brutal autocratic regime that persists in the PRC and the people who dare to resist it -- lawyers, activists, ordinary folks trying to piece together recent history or save their own homes from the bulldozer.
Conventional wisdom dictates that economic growth leads to political liberalization: you got your increasingly affluent middle class, which gives rise to civil society and whatnot, which then spawns oppositional politics. Alas, not so in China! This book is a vivid description of the brutal autocratic regime that persists in the PRC and the people who dare to resist it -- lawyers, activists, ordinary folks trying to piece together recent history or save their own homes from the bulldozer.
October 2, 2008
A very enjoyable look at the current state of Communist China. The books is most interesting when covering the history and coverups of Mao Zedong and communism since.
But as for Phillip Pan's premise, that China defies the western idea of free trade always bringing personal freedom, the anecdotes in the book seem to argue against his interpretation.
But as for Phillip Pan's premise, that China defies the western idea of free trade always bringing personal freedom, the anecdotes in the book seem to argue against his interpretation.
February 26, 2011
Very interesting book about the "1989" generation of now middle-aged Chinese activists trying to expose the hidden histories of modern China through seeking out the victims--and sometimes perpetrators--of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath. Mao's mad, tyrannical rule is rehashed here in ways I had never seen before. I highly recommend it.
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