Genuine portrait of Mao

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	• The Private Life of Chairman Mao Li Zhi-Sui Random House, 1996 - 736 pages average customer review:based on 82 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Genuine portrait of Mao

It is difficult to find a relatively objective portrait of Mao, and Dr. Li provides one of the most direct and honest descriptions of the Chairman that I have been able to find. His knowledge of the details of the Chairman's political conflicts is often superficial or naive, but this stems from Dr. Li's desire to stay out of the dangerous, entangling politics that surrounded Mao. The real value of the book is in Dr. Li's observations and insights into Mao's personality and how the political struggles surrounding Mao resulted in disastrous national policies.

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bourgeois meets brute

An urbane bourgeois doctor meets and works for a brutal egotistic self-doubting country boy turned dictator, with hilarious results. Part of the fun of reading this is who you are rooting for. Personally I found the good doctor rather tiresome, he is clearly a lesser man than Mao (although he obviously didn't think so) throughout the book. However Mao's weaknesses - vanity, covetousness, adultery (in the extreme), heck just paste in all the seven sins - also become tiresome after the first exhilaration of meeting this gangster turned dictator. In fact Mao becomes a bit like Tony Soprano - you stop rooting for him after you realise that this kind of life is what it is - unhealthy and harmful to others. Mao was a powerful man, but not a great one, as he did very little to help his people - in fact millions suffered and died under his rule - but he does have the legacy of founding the modern China that right now is on the rise.

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Maos biography

A real, in depth account of Mao from the view of his personal physician. I don't think there is any other point of view that can capture this leader's horrendous acts and thought process.

No fence-sitting

As an off and on student of modern Chinese History and with a decided leaning toward the benefits of socalism for China I was bewildered by Li Zhisui's book. It seems to me that this is either an elaboratly deceptive historical piece or -- very close to reality.

In Medias Res

This doctor could have had a comfortable and fulfilling life but chose to join the spirit of the new China. He, like so many idealistic youth, went back to China (and Russia) to join the "new society" only to be buried in a world created by the revolutionaries in whom they had put their trust.

Dr. Li's suffering was made meaningful in his writing this book. This may be the world's first up close portrait of a national dictator/cult leader. Some of the things that were most striking to me are:

· First, when Dr. Li accompanies Mao to his hometown, Mao tells him how his father, a minor but comfortable landowner, beat him and his brothers so badly that he would run away. Recently I had read how Fidel Castro, was humiliated by living in the workers' homes on the property where his father lived in the "big house" with his legal wife and family. Years ago I had read of Stalin's abuse at the hand of his stepfather. These bright, talented and unwanted sons turned their anger, resentment and hostility on millions of victims.

· Second is that revolutionary warriors had no time for education and their resentment for those that had it ran deep. The facts of the Great Leap Forward imply ignorance, but Dr. Li defines the know-it-all way it got started, grew, got implemented and institutionalized. With science meaningless, Mao's medical treatment was a political decision, and the doctor knew he would suffer for the patient's eventual death.

· Third is the no-win situation everyone was in. The people setting the dynamics had not only the education of third graders, they had the emotional maturity of them too. Slights and unwanted facts create temper tantrums and grudges lethal to the inhabitants of Zhongnanhai and disastrous for China.

· Fourth, was how Dr. Li was expected to know about everything from water quality, to the poisons in food to dentistry and given no opportunities for professional development. When convenient this knowledge was used, but never applauded.

· It's interesting how Mao maintained power even as he lost his eyesight and speech. I'd be interested in some views why/how this happened.

· It's amazing that this book is free of acrimony and sensationalism. For all his troubles Dr. Li was banished to the countryside 3 times and often intentionally separated from his family.

It must have been both painful and cathartic to write this book. I'm curious how his sons got to the US.

This is a must read for anyone interested in 20th century China.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

From 1954 until Mao Zedong's death 22 years later. Dr. Li Zhisui was the Chinese ruler's personal physician. For most of these years, Mao was in excellent health; thus he and the doctor had time to discuss political and personal matters. Dr. Li recorded many of these conversations in his diaries, as well as in his memory. In this book, Dr. Li vividly reconstructs his extraordinary time with Chairman Mao. of illustrations.

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