The Chinese Communist Party: A century in ten lives

Timothy Cheek, Klaus Mühlhahn, Hans van de Ven

This 2021 book is a fine anthology of 10 life stories marred by unnecessary polemical statements in the Introduction and in the Timeline of the CCP.

11 writers, all eminent Sinologists, wrote a chapter each. One chapter each for every decade of the ten decades of the existence of the CCP.

For each decade, the writer narrates the life of a person who either was part of the ruling elite or had engaged with the CCP. The last chapter is an Afterword on the CCP and the world. Among the persons covered are Wang Shi Wei, a fierce critic of Mao in the Yanan era, and Zhao Zi Yang.

The intent of this anthology is to give a snapshot of how 10 persons’ lives were either enriched or destroyed under the rule of the CCP.

What’s missing are the voices of the young and old who lived and are still living in the prosperous years post-Deng Xiao Ping’s economic reforms. This absence, sadly, gave a skewed picture to readers of how the CCP is viewed by this present generation.

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