Thongdao, an obscure town in southern Hunan, is where Mao started in December 1934 to play a prominent role in the ultimate victory over the…
View More A critical analysis of Mao’s achievements – Part 2Tag: Historical China Biographies
A critical analysis of Mao’s achievements – Part 1
Why is Mao revered and celebrated by so many when he is responsible for the “two political disasters” of the Great Leap Forward and the…
View More A critical analysis of Mao’s achievements – Part 1When The Red Gates Opened – Part 1
Unless you are Arundhati Roy, whose memoir on her relationship with her difficult but distinguished mom, ‘Mother Mary Comes to Me’ (published 2025), was reviewed…
View More When The Red Gates Opened – Part 1The Three Kingdoms and Chiang Kai-shek
It is a well-known fact that Chiang Kai-shek is steeped in the Chinese classics. One wonders, therefore, whether this famous quote from the Three Kingdoms…
View More The Three Kingdoms and Chiang Kai-shekBuddhism in China – Part 2
During and post-Mao Under Mao, all religions, including Buddhism, were regarded as “feudal superstitions.” After Mao died, Deng Xiaoping allowed the restoration of religious sites…
View More Buddhism in China – Part 2Inside the Life of Madame Mao
Madame Mao by Ross Terrill is the only English-language biography of Jiang Qing, the last wife of Chairman Mao. First published in 1984, the one…
View More Inside the Life of Madame MaoThe Tiananmen Papers – Part 3
The Tiananmen Papers are fake documents. So asserts Alfred L Chan, [author of Xi Jin Ping, HC 2022 ed] [see p 277 Deng Xiao Ping…
View More The Tiananmen Papers – Part 3The Tiananmen Papers – Part 2
Are the Tiananmen Papers fake? Ezra F. Vogel, in his monumental Deng Xiao Ping and the Transformation of China [2011], has the best discussion. He…
View More The Tiananmen Papers – Part 2On Xi Jin Ping – Part 6
One of the gems in this book is Rudd’s careful analysis of why Xi Jin Ping has deliberately departed from Deng Xiao Ping’s famous 24-character…
View More On Xi Jin Ping – Part 6On Xi Jin Ping – Part 5
Xi Jin Ping became the paramount leader of China in 2012. What is remarkable is that when he took office, he already had a vision…
View More On Xi Jin Ping – Part 5