There are several parts to this story that grabbed me. First of all, I will never cease to be amazed about the sheer insanity of the Great Leap Forward. Seriously? Backyard steel production? Obviously, Mao thought that was a good idea, but there was no one to say “Hey, Zedong, you are such a great joker, now tell us the real plan”? He had no one around him who could find a gracious way to talk him out of it? It would be hilarious except for the resulting famine.
My recent area of interest in emerging markets has been Africa, and the political situation in China has so many analogies. Namely, when you have times of dramatic transition, you have people are punished for making perfectly rational decisions. Jung Chang’s family were respected merchants in Manchuria, and her mother was married off as a concubine to a general. They considered themselves Manchurians as much as, or maybe more than, they thought of themselves as Chinese. Her family was not happy about the Japanese invasion, but they accepted the installation of the puppet emperor, Pu Yi, because he was Manchurian. They were thrilled that the Kuomintang overthrew the Japanese, even though many people sided with the Communists in the Civil War.
Jung Chang’s mother had the misfortune of being an ardent Communist who had supported the Kuomintang in its fight against the Japanese. She was an ardent Communist who was raised to respect the emperor. She didn’t choose to be born to a warlord’s concubine (with bound feet, no less) or to be the granddaughter of a merchant. In the Cultural Revolution, though, she was not judged for her work with the Communist Party, but rather for past choices that were perfectly rational at the time.
My African-Country-A-Week project has taken much longer than I thought it would. It’s also been a bit depressing. I thought I’d find a lot of evidence against the Africa-as-basketcase cliche, but it’s been mostly missing. Wild Swans offers a clue to the problem, though: the people have had their loyalties pulled in many different directions, and what seems resourceful at one time can be evidence of treachery at another. The nations of West Africa in particular were created by colonists with little or no regard for tribal or family connections. People are further split by the use of colonial languages. Then – did they side with the colonists or against then? And if against them, with which group? With all these tensions, how are people in, say, Liberia expected to go through their everyday lives, let alone build a strong nation with a strong economy?
We are so often our own worst enemies. Nations in transition have enough trouble without fighting side battles.
Thanks for the recommendation. This sounds like a compelling work. I find that learning about a particular person’s story is a good way to read about history–it just becomes more engrossing. Did you ever read Red Azalea by Anchee Min? It was a good introduction to the Cultural Revolution for me as a reader.