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Title: Son of the Revolution by LIANG HENG, JUDITH SHAPIRO ISBN: 0-394-72274-4 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 February, 1984 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Monumental Book
Comment: I have read many books concerning people whose lives were destroyed by the Cultural Revolution in China, but none can compare to "Son of the Revolution." Liang Heng paints a very vivid and clear picture of life from an enthusiastic Mao Youth to a cynical, knowledge-starved young man. If there is any book out there that records the folly of both the Cultural Revolution and Communism in general, it would be this masterpiece.
I have read this book many times, and each time I go over it I discover something new. If you are truly interested in a first-hand account of the brutality of the Communist Chinese regime or is in interested in a great read, you must get this book.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Lost Generation--A Personal Narrative
Comment: In recent years, a plethora of books have been written on the Cultural Revolution and the folks who had to live through it. This book is interesting, because the author begins with a description of his mother's detention as a result of the "anti-rightist" campaign, which preceded the Cultural Revolution by almost a decade. In some respects, there is nothing particularly unique about this, because every book I have read on the Cultural Revolution eventually becomes a repudiation of the system that produced it, or, at least, of Mao as a leader. But it is still helpful, because it puts the Cultural Revolution in context. The Cultural Revolution happened mainly because of too much power and or influence being given to one person.
Liang Heng came from a "bad" family. Over and over again he mentions the influence that this superficial categorization has on his life. He is beaten and harassed as a child, and hounded throughout his life by the shadow of his past. This book is fascinating as a study of how a regime which claimed to be building a classless society, actually created one that was exponentially more segmented than what had preceded it.
It may take us a long time to fully understand the meaning of the Communist Revolution in 1949, and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1977, or, for that matter, the revolution of 1911, which was really a pseudo revolution, because Sun Yat Sen was in power for only three months, and he was replaced by Yuan Shikai, who was one of the Empress Dowager's henchmen. What are we to conclude about the past century of China's history? Will it be viewed historically as a unique dynasty of its own, or an interlude between dynasties? And what of the new China that is currently developing? Are not the current developments in China in some ways more revolutionary than the political changes of the past century that bear that name? I'm just thinking out loud now--this book is not philosophy. I mention some of these questions, not because the book specifically raises them but because I think this book has brought me a little closer to understanding them.
I was interested in this book primarily because of my interest in the developments which shaped the history of China during the last half of the twentieth century. I would not recommend building your entire knowledge of its history only from the personal narratives of those who have left China behind them. But books like this one are most definitely an essential part of understanding what went wrong-what kinds of forces came together to produce the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese government is understandably sensitive about material which seems to discredit the current government as a legitimate authority. But disdain for the Cultural Revolution is now established orthodoxy in the People's Republic, and books like this have a role to play in developing a better understanding of that tragic period in the history of modern China, of the "lost generation" that it produced, and especially, of the extent to which the current atmosphere in China is perhaps, in part, a reaction to the excesses of the Cultural Revolution.
Rating: 3
Summary: INTERESTING BOOK ABOUT A MAN WHO EXPERIENCED MUCH PAIN
Comment: I THOUGHT THIS BOOK WAS RATHER INSIGHTFUL. YOU COULD ACTUALLY FEEL THE PAIN THAT COAUTHOR HENG MUST HAVE EXPERIENCED AS A CHINESE CITIZEN. IT MUST HAVE BEEN HARD FOR HIM TO FIRST SEE HIS PARENTS' MARRIAGE CRUMBLE ALL BECAUSE OF POLITICAL PRESSURE, AND THEN FOR HIM TO SEEK ESCAPE (ANYWAY HE COULD) FROM WHAT APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN AN UNHAPPY EXISTENCE. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR PEOPLE SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND A LITTLE ABOUT CHINA.
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Title: Family by Li Fei-kan Pa Chin, Sidney Shapiro ISBN: 0881333735 Publisher: Waveland Press Pub. Date: 1989 List Price(USD): $8.50 |
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Title: Red Star over China by Edgar Snow ISBN: 0802150934 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1968 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: The Malaria Capers : More Tales of Parasites and People, Research and Reality by Robert S. Desowitz ISBN: 0393310086 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman by Lao Toai-Toai Ning, Ida Pruitt ISBN: 0804706069 Publisher: Stanford University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1990 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Millennium by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto ISBN: 0684825368 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 10 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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