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| {{short description|2008 book by Gao Wenqian}} | |||
| {{Infobox book | {{Infobox book | ||
| |name = Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary |image = |
|name = Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary | ||
| |image = File:Zhou Enlai the last perfect revolutionary.jpg | |||
| |caption = 2008 first edition | |||
| |image_caption = Cover of the 2008 first edition. | |||
| |author = Gao Wenqian | |author = Gao Wenqian | ||
| |illustrator = | |illustrator = | ||
| |cover_artist = | |cover_artist = | ||
| |country = | |country = | ||
| |language = English(Translated from Chinese |
|language = English(Translated from Chinese(晚年周恩来) by Peter Rand and Lawrence R. Sullivan) | ||
| |genre = Biography | |genre = Biography | ||
| |publisher = New York: Public Affairs | |publisher = New York: Public Affairs | ||
| |release_date = |
|release_date = 2008 | ||
| |media_type = Print (]) <!-- first edition --> | |media_type = Print (]) <!-- first edition --> | ||
| |pages = 344 | |pages = 344 | ||
| |isbn = |
|isbn =1-58648-645-4 | ||
| |preceded_by = | |preceded_by = | ||
| |followed_by = | |followed_by = | ||
| }} | }} | ||
| '''Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary''' |
'''''Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary''''' is a book written by ]. Before moving to the United States in 1993, Gao had been a researcher at CPC Central Party Literature Research Center, where he penned the official biographies of ] and ]. The book was published in 2008 by Public Affair in English. As the book is based on secret and classified Chinese archives, upon emigrating to the United States Gao realized it would not be possible to take all the necessary documents and notes with him, so for a decade he had friends of his in China send and smuggle them out in chunks. | ||
| The book is a biography of ], the Premier of China from 1949 to 1976, one of the most important Chinese leaders of his generation. Zhou is portrayed as "a conflicted, even tragic, figure",<ref name=ritter>{{cite news |title=Saint and Sinner | |||
| ==Introduction== | |||
| |author=Peter Ritter|url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1678668,00.html#ixzz1B5DfjFjX |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071107105017/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1678668,00.html#ixzz1B5DfjFjX |url-status= dead |archive-date= November 7, 2007 |newspaper= Time Magazine|date= 1 November 2007|access-date=15 July 2011}}</ref> succeeding in remaining at the center stage of Chinese politics for fifty years, through the troubled years of the ] and ]. In 2003 Gao wrote a similar book in Chinese, ''Zhou Enlai's Later Years'' ({{lang|zh|晚年周恩来}}), using similar research materials. | |||
| Andrew Nathen (China scholar) writes in the introduction: ] was a man *“unique…in his capacity to endure abasement”; | |||
| *was Mao’s “indispensable yet despised assistant...(and) enabler” | |||
| *had a “servant mentality” | |||
| *possessed “an inability to take existential risks, a psychological need to be another leader’s number two.”<ref> http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/may/28/the-mystery-of-zhou-enlai/ The Mystery of Zhou Enlai May 28, 2009 Jonathan D. Spence | |||
| ==Reception== | |||
| </ref> | |||
| The book has been praised for portraying Zhou Enlai as a human, and not a political or ideological icon, by both presenting the man's flaws and his successes. Peter Ritter of '']'' magazine praises the book for depicting both sides of the Premier; as thoughtful and cultured, yet ultimately obedient to Mao whims, as "an active, if not always enthusiastic, participant". Ritter concludes that Gao's book creates "a conflicted, even tragic, figure".<ref name=ritter/> Dong Wang, at the ], shares a similar view, stating that "Mr. Gao’s unprecedented work reveals Zhou to be a tragic hero who had a very complex character".<ref name=wang>{{cite news|title=Zhou Enlai: A Tragic Hero? |author=Dong Wang |url=http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=4539 |newspaper=UCLA News |access-date=15 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130307200500/http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=4539 |archive-date=March 7, 2013 }}</ref> ], in '']'', credits the book as "further proof of the payoffs of telling the truth about politically sensitive matters" and congratulates it for ultimately helping to "secure a positive memory of Zhou".<ref>{{cite news |title=The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth; Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary|author=Lucian W. Pye|url= http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/63198/lucian-w-pye/the-long-march-the-true-history-of-communist-chinas-founding-myt|newspaper= Foreign Affairs|access-date=15 July 2011}}</ref> | |||
| The author, Gao Wenqian, has criticized that some of the reception to his book "seem to misread and hence exaggerate the extent to which is critical of Zhou". According to Gao, "his attitude toward Zhou is neither to conceal his faults, nor to excoriate him" and that, "as he himself later revealed, he was quite "sympathetic" toward Zhou".<ref name=wang/> | |||
| ==Reviews== | |||
| *"Gao points out, the collapse of the former Soviet Union and East European Communist countries began with the demystification of official history and the re-evaluation of major historical events and people. This is his contribution to that process in his native country." -- Tribune, December 30th, 2007 | |||
| ==References== | |||
| *"Zhou Enlai, usually obeyed him(Mao Zedong), at first because they shared his ruthlessness, and later, understandably if contemptibly, to save themselves." -- Far Eastern Economic Review, December Issue | |||
| ⚫ | {{Reflist}} | ||
| ] | |||
| *"a valuable and revealing book on the brutish and incredibly cruel nature of the Maoist regime..." -- BBC History Magazine, January Issue | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| *"an incredibly fascinating eyewitness or well researched account about a man the West knew little about." -- Daily Kos, December 12th, 2007<ref> http://www.amazon.com/Zhou-Enlai-Last-Perfect-Revolutionary/dp/158648415X Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary </ref> | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ===Doug Bandow=== | |||
| ] | |||
| ], a senior fellow at the ] has this to say about the book: | |||
| ] | |||
| {{cquote|Reading Zhou(The book) leaves one frustrated by yet another example of the banality of evil. There is nothing to suggest that Zhou was filled with blood lust, enjoyed killing supposed counter-revolutionaries, plotted to imprison tens of millions of regime opponents, or was indifferent to the mass starvation and hardship around him. Indeed, he counseled colleagues and protected them, to the degree possible, from the madness of the Cultural Revolution, essentially an intra-party civil war which ruined the lives of millions of people, including many loyal communist apparatchiks. Like Stalin’s purges, the Cultural Revolution was bloody – estimates of the number of dead start at around 500,000 and top out at three million – and was no less mad, convulsing China for years.<ref> http://original.antiwar.com/doug-bandow/2008/01/11/zhou-enlai-the-last-perfect-revolutionary/ Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary by Doug Bandow January 12, 2008 | |||
| </ref> }} | |||
| ===Jonathan D. Spence=== | |||
| ] suggested that the title of the book is "deliberately sardonic" and the book shows a ] which is "fallible, often devious, and capable of great cruelty to his friends and fellow revolutionaries"; moreover, Zhou was often “trailing like a faithful dog” behind Mao, and prone to use “rhetorical babble” whenever doing so in order to survive a bit longer.<ref> http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/may/28/the-mystery-of-zhou-enlai/ The Mystery of Zhou Enlai May 28, 2009 Jonathan D. Spence</ref> | |||
| ===Peter Ritter=== | |||
| Peter Ritter of the Time.com, commented that the book: "paints the Premier as thoughtful and scrupulous, yet so blinkered by loyalty to Mao that he sanctioned the arrest of his own brother". The author suggested that Zhou "was an active, if not always enthusiastic, participant..." of the ] and ], when millions of Chinese died of unnatural death, and an entire generation of Chinese intellectuals was purged and exiled to the countryside. ] was quoted in his hand written letter to Mao's wife ]:"From now on you make all the decisions, and I'll make sure they're carried out," <ref> http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1678668,00.html#ixzz1B5DfjFjX Saint and Sinner By Peter Ritter Thursday, Nov. 01, 2007 | |||
| </ref> | |||
| ==Reference== | |||
| ⚫ | {{Reflist}} | ||
Latest revision as of 01:26, 5 June 2024
2008 book by Gao Wenqian 2008 first edition | |
| Author | Gao Wenqian |
|---|---|
| Language | English(Translated from Chinese(晚年周恩来) by Peter Rand and Lawrence R. Sullivan) |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publisher | New York: Public Affairs |
| Publication date | 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 344 |
| ISBN | 1-58648-645-4 |
Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary is a book written by Gao Wenqian. Before moving to the United States in 1993, Gao had been a researcher at CPC Central Party Literature Research Center, where he penned the official biographies of Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong. The book was published in 2008 by Public Affair in English. As the book is based on secret and classified Chinese archives, upon emigrating to the United States Gao realized it would not be possible to take all the necessary documents and notes with him, so for a decade he had friends of his in China send and smuggle them out in chunks.
The book is a biography of Zhou Enlai, the Premier of China from 1949 to 1976, one of the most important Chinese leaders of his generation. Zhou is portrayed as "a conflicted, even tragic, figure", succeeding in remaining at the center stage of Chinese politics for fifty years, through the troubled years of the Long March and Cultural Revolution. In 2003 Gao wrote a similar book in Chinese, Zhou Enlai's Later Years (晚年周恩来), using similar research materials.
Reception
The book has been praised for portraying Zhou Enlai as a human, and not a political or ideological icon, by both presenting the man's flaws and his successes. Peter Ritter of Time magazine praises the book for depicting both sides of the Premier; as thoughtful and cultured, yet ultimately obedient to Mao whims, as "an active, if not always enthusiastic, participant". Ritter concludes that Gao's book creates "a conflicted, even tragic, figure". Dong Wang, at the UCLA, shares a similar view, stating that "Mr. Gao’s unprecedented work reveals Zhou to be a tragic hero who had a very complex character". Lucian Pye, in Foreign Affairs, credits the book as "further proof of the payoffs of telling the truth about politically sensitive matters" and congratulates it for ultimately helping to "secure a positive memory of Zhou".
The author, Gao Wenqian, has criticized that some of the reception to his book "seem to misread and hence exaggerate the extent to which is critical of Zhou". According to Gao, "his attitude toward Zhou is neither to conceal his faults, nor to excoriate him" and that, "as he himself later revealed, he was quite "sympathetic" toward Zhou".
References
- ^ Peter Ritter (1 November 2007). "Saint and Sinner". Time Magazine. Archived from the original on November 7, 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
- ^ Dong Wang. "Zhou Enlai: A Tragic Hero?". UCLA News. Archived from the original on March 7, 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
- Lucian W. Pye. "The Long March: The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth; Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 15 July 2011.