“Mao- The Unknown Story” (Click here to view the book on Amazon.co.jp)

We should be glad that the Chinese funded communist movements in Japan never gained momentum.

This book by Jung Chang (also know for Wild Swans), is apparently the first time anyone has taken a really deep look into Mao Tse-tung’s reign over China, from the inside, and published such a whopper of a biography.

The Daily Mail said “Few books are destined to change history, but this one will”.

I had never read a book on Chinese history that said anything like this. High-school history class told me that The Cultural Revlution took China from being a backward barbaric country, to a civilised modern country. Ms. Burrows neglected to mention the immense human carnage, and the fact that this was a small part of a much larger plan by one man to in fact take over the entire world, including Japan.

What intrigued me about this story, was how much the entire country of China, and many other parts of the Communist world, were controlled by the ideals and plans of one man, and how much he was able to succeed in his ambitions. Also how he was able to control the information coming in and out of China at the time so that the world saw a Mao that was very different to his image within China.

Of course this book is still banned in China, and Chang’s dream appears for it to be read by all the Chinese people, and thus changing China’s history somewhat. Her disdain for Mao comes through strong, punctualised by unneccesary personal comments right at the end of each chapter, but aside from that, it reads very smooth. All 750 pages.

It’s a doorstopper, but if you have the time, I highly recommend it.

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