Learned so much from this book. Interesting as friends inside China don't believe it is true, simply western propaganda, but a friend (editor) in Hong Kong explained that it is absolutely true. Also discovered that the copies in China passed about "underground" in Chinese are actually different than the English version I found in Hong Kong.

Very brave of Mr. Li to publish this book.

Initially, I thought that as a personal physician, he must have some secrets that are not known to the public. However, after reading half of it, I realized that it was simply nonsense, just for the sake of blackening him. It was really unnecessary.

This is the best book on Mao. Written by his personal doctor.

个人感觉真实性颇高，尤其关于毛之性格、为人与行事作风部分，至于高层政治部分，相信李医生所知不多

A crazy epic of a book that took me over a year to read due to the sheer amount of Chinese names and culture that saturated it. Li Zhisui spent 22 years as Mao’s doctor and lived to write the story about it. An incredible book for anyone even remotely interested in the oppression of the Chinese people from the 1940s through the 1970s.

Depressing. If half of what the author writes is true, then this book is extremely depressing.

Finally done with this- after two years of multiple sittings!!! The amount of political maneuvering is mind boggling. All at the expense of millions of lives. God knows what leaders of massive legions of people are thinking sometimes :/

كتاب نسبتأ خوبي براي آشنايي با حزب كمونيست و سياست هايشان كه آثار آن در دنياي امروز هم مشاهده ميشود. كتاب از قول پزشك مائو كه ٢٢ سال در كنار او بوده نقل شده است. لازم به ذكر است كه مترجم كتابي ٧٠٠ صفحه اي رو به چكيده اي ٢٤٠ صفحه اي تبديل كرده كه خب طبيعتأ ساختار همگن كتاب رو از بين برده است. نكته مهم در مورد آن اين است كه اين كتاب خارج از چين و بعد از مرگ مائو به چاپ ميرسد و به همين دليل از تيغ سانسور در امان مانده است. اگر راست گرا باشي طبيعتأ از خوانش اين كتاب لذت بيشتري خواهي برد تا چپ گرا. بخش اصلي روايت كتاب به زندگي شخصي مائو ميپردازد تا اينكه نوع مناسبات هيئت حاكمه را بررسي كند و خصوصأ از نيمه هاي كتاب نگاه سطحي نگرانه تري به خود ميگيرد. شخصأ من از كتاب توقع بيشتري داشتم و انتظار داشتم كه تمام فجايعي كه كمونيسم در دهه ١٩٥٠ تا ٧٠ بر سر مردم كشورش آورده است را موشكافانه تر بررسي كند ولي در مجموع ميتوان گفت كه كتاب نمره قبولي ميگيرد و ارزش يكبار خواندن را دارد.

George Orwell in China

If someone had told me that George Orwell had written The Private Life of Chairman Mao, I would have believed them. It's such a cautionary tale about totalitarianism.

Li Zhisui, Mao Zedong's personal physician from 1954 to 1976, provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party and the life of its most powerful leader. Li paints a portrait of Mao as a complex and contradictory figure. He was a brilliant strategist and a charismatic leader, but he was also a ruthless dictator who was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. Mao's personal life is described as often chaotic and scandalous.

The book is sometimes surreal. The death of Mao, for example, and the attempt to preserve his body so that it can be exhibited like other Communist leaders. They use too much preservative fluids, then have to proceed to massage it out of his face.

One of the most striking comparisons between "The Private Life of Chairman Mao" and "1984" by George Orwell is the way they both depict the manipulation of language. In "The Private Life of Chairman Mao," Li Zhisui describes how Mao used propaganda and censorship to control the minds of the Chinese people. He also describes how Mao's language was often ambiguous and misleading, which made it difficult for people to know what he really meant.

Overall, "The Private Life of Chairman Mao" is a fascinating and disturbing book that provides a unique perspective on one of the most important figures in Chinese history.

It's a must-read for anyone interested in China or in the dangers of totalitarianism.

Maybe from a literary and political point of view this book does not offer much. But for me it was exactly what I was looking for, a bare-it-all, real life peek into Mao's private life. Just as the name suggests. But mygod! Did it really have to be 700 pages long? Took almost an year to finish it. Phew!

This is the autobiography of Mao's personal physician. When it came out it was scandalous. For example, it says that Mao loved ballroom dancing and kept with him a cadre of young women for this purpose. However, others risked persecution for bourgeouis deviationism if they indulged this harmless preference. The dancers also had to pleasure Mao sexually. Once, says Dr. Li, Mao acquired a VD. When the doctor offered to treat it Mao asked whether the disease would harm him in any way. the doctor said no, but he would pass it on to his sexual partners. Mao then said treatment was unnecessary. He was an egotistic monster.

Things I have in common with my birthday twin, Chairman Mao:
-Stubbornness and predisposition to ignore instructions when told what to do.
-Flirtatious by nature.
-Always with a book on the go.

Things I do not have in common with Mao:
-Inability to acknowledge mistakes.
-Craving for oily foods.
-The desire to increase the steel production of a country using highly unproductive techniques.


This book is a truthful and important witness of the life of Mao Zedong. The last page is a heartbreaking conclusion for the previous 635 pages of narration.