Mao the unknown story - Jung Chang Jon holliday.

ಗೆದ್ದವರು ಇತಿಹಾಸವ ತನಗೆ ಬೇಕಾದ ಹಾಗೆ ಬರೆಯುತ್ತಾರೆ ಎಂಬುದು ಸುಳ್ಳಲ್ಲ. ಕ್ರೂರತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವ ಹಿಟ್ಲರನಿಗೂ ಕಡಿಮೆಯಿಲ್ಲದ ಈತ ಈಗಲೂ ಒಂದು ವರ್ಗದ ಜನರಿಗೆ ಆರಾಧ್ಯ ದೈವ!
ಈ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಹತ್ತು ವರ್ಷಗಳ ರಿಸರ್ಚ್‌ನ ಫಲ. ಒಂದೇ ಒಂದು ಪ್ಯಾರಾ ಕೂಡ ಅನಗತ್ಯವಾಗಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂಬುದು ಇದರ ಹೆಗ್ಗಳಿಕೆ.
ಪುಸ್ತಕದ ಕೊನೆಗೆ ಸರಿಸುಮಾರು ಇನ್ನೂರು ಪುಟ ಆಕರಗಳಿಂದಲೇ ತುಂಬಿದೆ ಎಂದರೆ ನಿಮಗೆ ಅರ್ಥವಾಗಬಹುದು.
ಮಾವೋ!
ತನ್ನವರೆಂದರೆ ಮಾನವ ಸಹಜವಾದ ಯಾವುದೇ ಗುಣಗಳಿಲ್ಲದ ರಕ್ತಪಿಪಾಸು. ಅವನಿಗೆ ತನ್ನ ‌ಹೆಂಡತಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳು ಸತ್ತಾಗಲೂ ನೋವು ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸಿದ ಉದಾಹರಣೆ ಕಾಣುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಇದು ಅವನ ಆರಂಭದ ದಿನಗಳಿಂದ ಹಂತ ಹಂತವಾಗಿ ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ತನ್ನೆದುರು ಇದ್ದರೂ ನಾಯಕನಾಗಿ ವಿರೋಧಿಸಿದವರ ಕತೆ ಮುಗಿಸುತ್ತಾ ತನ್ನ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗೆ ಸ್ವಂತದವರ ಬಲಿ ಕೊಡುತ್ತಾ ಕೇವಲ ಸ್ಟಾಲಿನ್‌ನ ಬೆಂಬಲದಿಂದ ನಾಯಕನಾಗಿ ಸರ್ವಾಧಿಕಾರಿಯಾಗಿ ಚೀನಾವನ್ನು ಹಾಳುಗೆಡವಿದ ಕಥೆ ಇದು.
ಅಧಿಕೃತ ದಾಖಲೆಗಳ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ನಾಲ್ಕು ಕೋಟಿ ಜನರ ಸಾವಿಗೆ ಕಾರಣ ಇವನು.ಅನಧಿಕೃತ ದೇವರಿಗೇ ಗೊತ್ತು.
ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಮಾತುಗಾರ ಅಲ್ಲ. ಜನರಿಗೆ ಇಷ್ಟವಾದವ ಅಲ್ಲ. ಕೃಷಿಕರ ‌ಕಂಡರೆ ಇಷ್ಟವೂ ಇಲ್ಲ. ಸೈನಿಕರಿಂದ ತಿರಸ್ಕರಿಸಲ್ಪಟ್ಟವ. ಅಷ್ಟೇಕೆ ಅವರ ಪ್ರೀತಿಸಿದವರ ಕೂಡ ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ಬಾಳಿಸಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಸ್ವಂತ ಮಗ ಯುದ್ಧದಲ್ಲಿ ಸತ್ತಾಗ ಅವನ ಹೆಂಡತಿಯಿಂದ ಎರಡೂವರೆ ವರ್ಷ ಮುಚ್ಚಿಟ್ಟವ. ತನಗೆ ತೋಚಿದ ಹಾಗೆ ನಿಯಮಗಳ ಜಾರಿಗೊಳಿಸಿ ಜನರ ನರಳಿಸಿದವ. ರಾಜಕೀಯದ ಏಣಿ ಏರಲು ಕುತಂತ್ರದಿಂದ ಅಡ್ಡ ಬಂದವರ ಮುಗಿಸಿದವ. ತನ್ನ ಲೈಂಗಿಕ ಹಪಾಹಪಿಗೆ ಹೆಣ್ಣುಗಳ ಬಳಸಿಕೊಂಡವ. ಇವನ ಅಧಿಕಾರದ ಅವಧಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇವಲ ಹಸಿವಿನಿಂದ ಜನ ಸತ್ತುಹೋದರು. ಇವ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕೋಟೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ರಕ್ಷಣೆಗೆ ಕಾವಲು ಪಡೆಯ ನಡುವೆ ಬಾಳಿದ. ಅವನು ತಿನ್ನುವ ಅಕ್ಕಿಯನ್ನೇ ವಿಶೇಷವಾಗಿ ಬೆಳೆಯುವ ಹಾಗೆ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡ. ಕೊನೆಗೆ ತನ್ನ ಮಾರ್ಗದರ್ಶಕ ಸ್ಟಾಲಿನ್ ಎದುರು ‌ಬಾಲ ಬಿಚ್ಚಲು ಹೋದ. ಅವನು ಇವನ ಹೆಬ್ಬೆರಳಿಂದ ಅದುಮಿ ಹಿಡಿದ.
ಗ್ರೇಟ್ ಪರ್ಜ್ ಹೆಸರಲ್ಲಿ ತನ್ನ ಎದುರಾಳಿಗಳ ಹುಡುಕಿ ಹುಡುಕಿ‌ ಕೊಲ್ಲಿಸಿದ. ಒಂದು ಕುಟುಂಬ ತನ್ನವರ ಉಳಿಸಲು ಹಣ ಕೊಡಬೇಕಾಯಿತು. ಹಣ ಕಡಿಮೆಯಾಯಿತು ಎಂದು ಇವರ ಕೆಂಪು ಸೈನಿಕರು ಇಬ್ಬರ ಮಾತ್ರ ಉಳಿಸಿ ಉಳಿದವರ ವಧಿಸಿದರು!

ಇದನ್ನು ಓದುತ್ತಾ ರಕ್ತ ಕುದಿಯುತ್ತದೆ. ರಾತ್ರಿ ಓದುತ್ತಾ ಇವನನ್ನು ಈ ರಾಕ್ಷಸನನ್ನು ಅದರಲ್ಲೂ ತನ್ನ ನಂಬಿಕಸ್ಥರು ಖಾಯಿಲೆ‌ ಬಿದ್ದಾಗ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಸರಿಯಾಗಿ ವೈದ್ಯಕೀಯ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ನಿರಾಕರಿಸಿದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯ ಒಂದು ವರ್ಗದವರು ಆರಾಧಿಸುವುದು ನೋಡಿ ಹೇಸಿಗೆಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.
ಒಂದೇ ಮಾತು.
ಹಿಟ್ಲರ್ ಸೋತ. ಕ್ರೂರಿಯಾದ.
ಇವ ಈಗಲೂ ಪರದೆಯ ಹಿಂದೆ ಹಲವರಿಗೆ ಗುರುವಾಗಿದ್ದಾನೆ. ಯಾಕೆಂದರೆ ಇವ ಗೆದ್ದವ!
ಇವ ಮಾತ್ರ ಅಲ್ಲ ಈ ಪಟ್ಟಿಯಲ್ಲಿರುವುದು.

ನೀವು ಓದಬೇಕಾಗಿರುವ ಜೀವನಚರಿತ್ರೆ ಇದು.

I was given a copy of 'Mao: The Unknown Story' for Christmas in 2016. I read 200 pages during January 2017, found the Long March so depressing that I put the book aside for more than three and half years, then read the remaining 600 pages in two days. This isn't atypical behaviour for me and also reflects the nature of the book. It is written in highly readable and involving style, yet the content is horribly depressing. I have been very fond of Jung Chang's writing since I came across Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China as a teenager and was astounded. I reread it repeatedly and became fascinated by China's 20th century history. I even tried to read a hagiography of Deng Xiao Ping by his daughter when I was 16 or 17 (Deng Xiaoping: My Father). This is nonetheless the most comprehensive biography of Mao that I've ever read and an unsurprisingly chilling indictment of the privations and horrors that he put China through. I was already aware of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, but knew very little about Mao's foreign policy, relationship with Stalin, and nuclear armament programme. Chapters dealing with these issues were thus the most intellectually interesting.

The most memorable and horrifying parts, though, concerned Mao's systems of repression and control of China's population, which has the major consequence of mass starvation. I had not realised that while China went through the largest known famine in human history from 1958 to 1961, Mao's regime was selling and gifting food products abroad in an effort to build international status. Previous reading ascribed the famines more to disruption and loss of agricultural productivity due to reorganisation of communal farms and senseless pursuit of steel production during the Great Leap Forward. However, it seems that these were minor problems compared with the mass requisitions of food for export. It was not that food production didn't happen, but that the food was then taken away for political uses rather than basic subsistence. This book estimates that around 38 million people died in the 1958-61 famine, a simply unimaginable number. Once the famine abated due to policy changes, food security in rural areas remained very fragile. Food was still used as a political tool, rather than for subsistence.

When explaining Mao's systems of repression, it is impossible to avoid comparisons with other totalitarian regimes. I found some striking passages doing just that:

Mao intended most of the population - children and adults alike - to witness the killing [during the 1950 'campaign to suppress counter-revolutionaries']. His aim was to scare and brutalise the entire population, in a way that went much further than Hitler or Stalin, who largely kept their foulest crimes out of sight.

The orchestration of fear under Mao's regime is extraordinary in its distinctiveness. During the Cultural Revolution, he unleashed an army of indoctrinated teenagers and students (the Red Guards and Rebels) against the educational and cultural sectors of the country and then against his own party. Once these persecutions had served his purpose, he replaced the purged cadres with army personnel and exiled the Red Guards and Rebels to the labour in the countryside. Secret police had a much less significant role under his regime than in Soviet states; oppression was visible and crowd-sourced, to use a 21st century term.

Throughout the biography, the overwhelming impression the reader gets of Mao is a combination of narcissism and callousness. Obviously these are traits shared by just about every authoritarian ruler, yet they seem to reach particular extremes in Mao. I could not help thinking of Donald Trump when reading about Mao's utter disregard for human lives, paranoia, cruelty towards rivals, and nepotism spurred not by love but by fixation on personal loyalty. Mao also lied constantly and refused to ever accept responsibility for anything. Such similarities should not be overstated, of course. While their political programmes are both characterised by narcissistic equating of self- and national interest, Mao wanted China to be recognised as a world power by other nations. Trump appears wholly disinterested in America's international reputation. This paragraph about legacy nonetheless made me wonder what Trump's death will leave behind:

Mao was not interested in posterity. Back in 1918, he had written, 'Some say one has a responsibility for history. I don't believe it... People like me are not building achievements to leave for future generations...' These remained his views throughout his life. In 1950, after visiting Lenin's mausoleum, Mao said to his entourage that the superb preservation of the corpse was only for the sake of others; it was irrelevant to Lenin. Once Lenin died, he felt nothing, and it did not matter to him how his corpse was kept.
When Mao died, he left neither a will nor an heir - and, in face, unlike most Chinese parents, especially Chinese emperors, he was indifferent about having an heir, which was extremely unusual.

This also marks a contrast to the totalitarian dynasty in North Korea.

After a very detailed start that spends 400 pages recounting how Mao came to power in China, the book ends extremely abruptly with his death. There is a two sentence epilogue stating that China's communist party still promulgates the myth of Mao as a great leader. I'd expected a chapter on the immediate aftermath of his death, but to be fair this is already a thorough and extensive biography. I found it an informative and devastating insight into China's history from the 1920s to 70s, 25 years of it shaped to a great extent by one man. 'Mao: The Unknown Story' is not interested in Mao's ideology and gives the impression he had little interest in it himself, except as a tool to promote his interests. What it seeks to document are his actions and choices in pursuit of power and prestige, which were consistently cruel, violent, and ruthless.

Very much a history not only of China, but also of the West.
The Vintage edition (2007) seems somewhat shortened in comparison to that of A. Knopf (2005). Mostly — a number of footnotes have not been reprinted/been omitted (e.g. p. 225 with p.185, 247 with 203 ... respectively).

444 people were interviewed for this book, 444 people from 38 different countries. The most detailed account of a history I've ever read, truly mesmerising.

Mao doesn't deserve the paper it is written on. A devestating history of a despicable man inflicting inconceivable pain.

Beyond Your Wildest Nightmares.

Review to follow.

This was a painful but important book to read. Everywhere Mao went, he inflicted suffering on those around him, while he lived in relative ease. The books sums the end of his narcissistic life up this way: "His mind remained lucid to the end, and in it stirred just one thought: himself and his power."

آخ جون بالاخره تموم‌شد!
نظر خاصی ندارم چون اولین کتابی بود که در مورد چین میخوندم، هیچ ایده ای ندارم چقدرش راسته چقدرش دروغ. فکر کنم کتاب خوبی برای شروع تاریخ چین نبود. خلاصه اگه بخوام بگم این یه کتاب خیلی خیلی طولانیه که توی همه صفحاتشم مائو رو کوبیده بود.

The first sentence of the book tells us that Mao was responsible for 70 million peacetime deaths during his reign--more than any other 20th century leader. The second sentence starts where biographies usually start: from Mao's birth. This need to get the horror story up front pretty much sums up the book.

Now, no one is denying the enormous human cost of Mao's reign, but this book's approach is so one-sided that it is bordering on the humorous, despite the often grim events portrayed. As far as I understand biography, it is an attempt to understand the person in his/her social context. Points to Chang for not jumping on the psychoanalytic bandwagon where an individual's life is explained by failed potty training. But that's about the only good thing there is.

The problem is well illustrated by the fact that nowhere in the book does Mao make a mistake. Considering that he is portrayed as an idiot and borderline psychotic, that is interesting to say the least. But no, all the human losses, political blunders and so on are part of a demonic plot concocted by the Prince of Darkness himself. It is actually a kind of anti-hagiography: like the saints, Mao never errs--he just uses his schemes for wanton destruction instead of good deeds. The explanations for Mao's enduring rule range from the plausible (terror) to the fantastic (brainwashing), but all of them, ultimately, fail to even try to *understand* the person, his times, or his social context.

This is, however, an important book in the sense that it provides a glimpse into a type of Cold War rhetoric that many thought obsolete.

An astounding feat of journalism and writing. Compulsively readable and meticulously researched, it lays bare all of the myths about Mao's rise to power and his benevolent reign, revealing him for the pitiless, power-hungry, evil, and sadistic man he was, whose ruthless ambition and policy were geared exclusively to fund a huge military industrial complex with no less a goal than conquering the world. His paranoid machinations to cement his own power at any cost left some 70 million of his own people dead (he claimed he was willing to sacrifice half of China's population to accomplish his goals) and many more brutalized, terrorized, and broken. Riveting, devastating, and unforgettable.

Mao: The Made-Up Story.

Woohoo! I loved it!

All right, it's biased in the extreme. Mao has no redeeming feature. He's a mean, cruel, inept, heartless and unhygienic excuse for a human being. I don't feel any pity for him being described as such. I read some reviews of this book and it seems that it does have many factual errors. (The part about sleeper agents and Communist moles in the Kuomintang, and the seemingly unequivocal acceptance of Mao's intrigues, treachery and ineptitude by his nobler comrades, sounds simply unbelievable even to me.) I'm definitely going to read more on this period of Chinese history, and check for myself. But I had immense fun (if I may say so, given that it deals with such bleak a subject) reading this book, and felt sorry that it was over. I don't care if Mao was slighted by this book; he deserved it, and more. People like him are the proof that God does NOT exist.

(Would like to know more about Peng Dehuai, this guy is my hero.)

This is "the book" if you want to know the real Mao Tse Tung.