The Private Life of Chairman Mao: the inside story of the man who made modern China
By Zhisui Li
London: Chatto and Windus, 1994. 682 pp., $19.95
Reviewed by Eva Cheng
Official history often only tells half truth and leaves out what the ruling layers do not want to reveal. This is certainly the case with China under the autocratic rule of Mao Zedong.
Mao ruled China between 1949 and 1976 in the name of socialism but steered China on a very different path, bringing massive suffering to many. Despite this, Mao and his followers' rhetoric have confused many — even including those who suffered under his rule.
Li Zhisui, Mao's doctor for 22 years until Mao's death, is one of these. He is one of the thousands of Chinese who left during the earlier part of the century and voluntarily returned (from Sydney) to help rebuild China when imperialism and its cronies were kicked out in 1949. He is one of the millions who suffered through Mao's brutal purges and was left utterly disillusioned and powerless.
Li has left a humble mark on Chinese history; his courageous act was to reveal what he learned during those years. He has provided a basic scaffolding of useful events from the centre of power. Li served Mao at a very close range, chatting with him regularly. Through this 682-page book, Li has filled a useful information gap of that period.
Li's perspective, however, is limited by his lack of understanding of, or interest in, politics. Yet he has given readers a new viewpoint on the dynamics driving China under Mao, which helps a great deal in understanding China today.
Li's detailed narration provides useful insights on the decision-making of the Communist Party during that period — all power to the top and often only to Mao. The CP ruled dictatorially, making a mockery of any claim that there was democracy in China.
The book also provides some hitherto unrevealed sides of the top personalities of that period, including Deng Xiaoping, Lin Biao, Liu Shaoqi, Jiang Qing and Zhou Enlai. It contains startling revelations in some cases, for example, about Zhou and his wife Deng Yingchao. Zhou was widely respected by Chinese, inside and outside China, but his apparent subservience to Mao has provided some basis for reassessment.
The book gives some idea on how these personalities interplayed on Mao's chessboard. Mao is gone, but the chessboard remains. Some of the remaining personalities are running China today. Policies and measures are fiercely debated, knocked down, then resurrected wholesale, such as the current pro-capitalistic program engineered by Deng Xiaoping.
This diversity of substance and colour give the book a potentially wide appeal. It is an easy introduction for beginners on China, as well as a useful supplement for experienced watchers. The book is also a hit in China — where it is banned — with thousands of copies estimated to have been smuggled in. Officials have even denied the existence of Li.
A key selling point of the book relates to Mao's active sex life. The CP's active involvement in ensuring Mao had an unlimited supply of innocent young girls is revolting. Mao was the head of a repressive machinery which not only propagated puritanism but enforced it. Some Maoist outfits outside China still adhere to this thinking uncritically. Li's book should give some basis to reassess Mao's moral authority. Similar hypocrisies are revealed with respect to other CP preachings, which are for everyone but the party's leaders.
Li left China in August 1988 for the US and completed the first draft of The Private Life in 1989. The book was published in 14 languages last year. Li died on February 13 this year.