Chinese history.

[La Comédie Noire]

I need a good book suggestion for chinease history..

preferably one that centers on mao to the present. and one thats open minded.

Thank you.

[Folk The System]

hmm i was in the airport and i saw a thick new book about mao.... i dont remmeebr the title so i guess that doesnt help. sorry!

[Zeruzo]

Open minded?

I'll just give you some good maoist literature.

The Chinese road to socialism - Wheelwright & McFarlane
(From the start of the people's republic till somewhere during the cultural revolution)

China: The revolution continued - Jan Myrdal & Gun Kessie

Well, i cant really find literature about modern day china in my book-shells... So, i dunno :).

[Honggweilo]

Red Star over China - Edgar Snow
http://www.amazon.com/Star-over-China-Edga...w/dp/0802150934 (http://www.amazon.com/Star-over-China-Edgar-Snow/dp/0802150934)


Well, i cant really find literature about modern day china in my book-shells... So, i dunno

Made in China - Marc van der Pitte

http://www.epo.be/international/rightsinfo...n=9789064454073 (http://www.epo.be/international/rightsinfo.php?isbn=9789064454073)

I would highly recommed "het Chinese Socialisme" by Rolf Berthold, but its only in dutch and french

http://www.epo.be/uitgeverij/boekfiche.php...n=9789064453441 (http://www.epo.be/uitgeverij/boekfiche.php?isbn=9789064453441)

[Honggweilo]

Originally posted by Folk The [email protected] 14, 2006 03:43 am
hmm i was in the airport and i saw a thick new book about mao.... i dont remmeebr the title so i guess that doesnt help. sorry!
Please don't use that book , i know what book that is, Mao the uknown story - by Jung Chang. And that is all BUT objective, that book is so overly conservative and nationalistic even the Havard "experts" and the U.S goverment says it puts communist china in too negative perspective. And its about a thousand pages of rants from induvidual experiences of the author against specific situations, with a lot of exageration and plain lies. it also praises feudalism, monarchy, conservative values, discrimination of minorities and women, and free-market capitalism. That and the fact that it is boring as hell.

[Severian]

"The Communist Party in Power" by Peng Shu-Tse is an excellent book covering 1949 through the 70s.

"China After Mao" by Leslie Evans is good for the 70s and 80s.

If you're going to read Maoist stuff, Fanshen by William Hinton is the best. Account of land reform in a village, pre-1949.

I know none of that is the total overview of PRC history which Floyd was originally asking for - I just don't know a good book that covers everything to recommend.


Originally posted by [email protected] 14, 2006 07:11 am
Red Star over China - Edgar Snow
http://www.amazon.com/Star-over-China-Edga...w/dp/0802150934 (http://www.amazon.com/Star-over-China-Edgar-Snow/dp/0802150934)

That's an OK book about the Chinese Revolution, by a journalist at the time - but "China Shakes the World" by Jack Belden is a better book of the same type. Belden observes what's happening in the villages more closely - Snow's a bit fixated on interviewing the leaders.

[Zeruzo]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14, 2006 01:11 pm
I would highly recommed "het Chinese Socialisme" by Rolf Berthold, but its only in dutch and french

http://www.epo.be/uitgeverij/boekfiche.php...n=9789064453441 (http://www.epo.be/uitgeverij/boekfiche.php?isbn=9789064453441)
I actually do have this one, only i figured he doesn't speak dutch :).

[Janus]

Some of the good English ones I've read:

Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and the evolution of the Chinese Communist leadership
Mao: A life
The Deng Xiaoping era

[Xiao Banfa]

Red Star Over China- Edgar Snow

Also Rewi Alley Of China - Geoff Chapple
NZ China Friendship Society (http://www.nzchinasociety.org.nz/rewi.html)

By Han Suyin:

China in the Year 2001 (1967)
Asia Today: Two Outlooks (1969)
The Morning Deluge: Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Revolution 1893-1954 (1972)
Lhasa, the Open City (1976)
Wind in the Tower: Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Revolution, 1949-1965 (1976)
China 1890-1938: From the Warlords to World War (1989; historical photo-reportage)
Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China (1994)

[RedJacobin]

Mao's China: A History of the People's Republic by Maurice Meisner is a decent read and relatively well-known (it was translated into Chinese and is used in college classes in the US on modern Chinese history). Meisner seems to be a social democrat, but it's much better than the junk from Jung Chang.

[Xiao Banfa]

Here is a link to a brilliant selestion of left books on China that can be ordered.

NZCFS-Books. (http://www.nzchinasociety.org.nz/chinabooks.html)

[mac1905]

I advise you to take a look also at english language versions of books from Soviet books, cause after splits between China and USSR these books showed a bit different point of view than capitalist or chinese maoist. Just try 'Novosti' english editions.

[La Comédie Noire]

Thank you all, but I chose A People's History Of China. It had to be ordered by my local book store though.