The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 70th anniversary on 1 Oct 2019. Founded on 1 Oct 1949 after Mao defeated Chiang Kai Shek, China has progressed by leaps and bounds.
Westerners and critics who criticised China for not being a democracy cannot understand why the Chinese citizens and overseas Chinese support China.
These 3 books will show why. The Chinese had suffered misery, starvation, separations from loved ones and millions of deaths from the Taiping Rebellion { 1850- 64} , the Boxers Uprising { 1899- 1901}, the Japanese invasion { 1937- 45} , the civil war { 1945- 49} , Great Leap Forward ( 1958- 61) to the Cultural revolution { 1966 – 76).
The Taiping Rebellion cost 20 to 30 million Chinese their lives. In comparison, the American Civil War which happened at the same time caused about 620,000 soldiers and 50, 000 civilians their lives. {see p1 What Remains}
The emotional costs of family separation were enormous and so painful that they were hard to talk about by the survivors. Most separations last for decades. {see p 13 China’s civil war}.
The World of a tiny insect: A memoir of the Taping Rebellion and its Aftermath is a memoir of trauma and suffering observed by Zhang when he was just 7 years old. He wrote this memoir 30 years later.
Any Chinese — whether the Chinese national or the Chinese diaspora — who has a proper sense of Chinese history, will condemn the dastardly act of those rioters/rebels/traitors in HK. Yes, The Chinese have suffered trauma because of civil wars; but perhaps more so, the enormous humiliation from the Western and Japanese invaders.
Indeed the daily pictures of rioting, wanton beating of innocent old folks and burning of public buildings as well as of an innocent man all served to show the mindless, senseless and heartless campaign of the HK youngsters during the riots three years ago. Sadly and unwittingly, they were being manipulated and exploited by the dark forces of the evil hegemonic empire. Such destructive and negative acts of criminal violence should be condemned by all right minded citizens of the world.