The Chinese edition of Mao: The Unknown Story, written by Jung Chang (張戎) and her husband Jon Halliday, was released in Taiwan last month. This biography about former Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong (毛澤東) should be judged as a historical work, but has received more attention in Taiwan for the controversy it generated in the publishing scene earlier this year.
The incident has blown over, but issues deserving of serious attention remain to be clarified. Former National Revolutionary Army and Republic of China Army general Hu Zongnan's (胡宗南) offspring may have focused on whether or not the book describes Hu correctly, but the ultimate question that the great majority of readers are interested in is the same question that the authors ask in the book: what is Mao's true face?
The reason this question is so important is because Mao's image remains a substantive symbol of legitimacy for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As a result, books that portray Mao in a negative light, such as Chang's book and Li Zhisui's (
The CCP knows that if Mao's actions were to be judged as wrong, then former Chinese leaders such as Liu Shaoqi (
This is why Mao is still worshipped by the CCP, and as long as he remains a demigod, the CCP will be built on a foundation of superstition and myth.
Hungarian-born writer Arthur Koestler's well-known 1941 novel Darkness at Noon is set in the 1930s during the Stalinist purges promulgated by the Soviet Communist Party and reflects the public's deep-seated fear of living under communist rule.
The beginning of the book tells the story of Rubashov, who is arrested by authorities while sleeping. Rubashov is jailed and then sentenced to be executed by a firing squad.
While waiting to die, he realizes that the source of the terror Joseph Stalin -- the former general secretary of the Soviet Union's Communist Party -- inspires results from the institutionalized belief that he is forever right.
Thus, people executed under Stalin should admit that he is right even at the point when bullets enter their bodies.
Over the past five decades, Beijing has executed and imprisoned millions of Chinese people in a series of so-called reforms and revolutions. Although these multitudes are dead and buried, history has yet to render a verdict on their deaths.
This can be attributed to the continuation of the myth that Chairman Mao, the CCP's eternal "Number One," was infallible, and thus gives legitimacy to the CCP.
Chang's careful research reveals Mao as an inflexible tyrant constantly obsessed with mind games and wielding power. But her description of Mao does not truly reflect the dark side of his character. This fault means that many readers still have no idea of how such a calculating strategist could so easily become the "big brother" of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.
Many Western academics have conducted research into Mao's life. However, most have not focused on analyzing the Chinese style of cultural politics that informed Mao's views.
Earlier China experts, such as Benjamin Schwartz, Stuart Schram and Lucian Pye, or more recently Ross Terrill and Jonathan Spence, have all written biographies about Mao, but each has emphasized different aspects of his life, and thus the complete picture of his dark side has yet to be disclosed.
Li Fu-chung is a professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese History at Chengchi University.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti and Daniel Cheng
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under