Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now

Book Description

Jan Wong, a Canadian of Chinese descent, went to China as a starry-eyed Maoist in 1972 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. A true believer--and one of only two Westerners permitted to enroll at Beijing University--her education included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock & roll, hauled pig manure in the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting to the United States. She also met and married the only American draft dodger from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China.

Red China Blues is Wong's startling--and ironic--memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism (which crumbled as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese communism); her dramatic firsthand account of the devastating Tiananmen Square uprising; and her engaging portrait of the individuals and events she covered as a correspondent in China during the tumultuous era of capitalist reform under Deng Xiaoping. In a frank, captivating, deeply personal narrative she relates the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the "worker's paradise." And through the stories of the people--an unhappy young woman who was sold into marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises--Wong reveals long-hidden dimensions of the world's most populous nation.

In setting out to show readers in the Western world what life is like in China, and why we should care, she reacquaints herself with the old friends--and enemies of her radical past, and comes to terms with the legacy of her ancestral homeland.

Customer Reviews:

An account of life in one of the world's greatest tyrranies........2007-02-21

Jan Wong,a Canadian journalist of Chinese ancestry, in this illuminating volume writes of her experiences as an ardent young Maoist in the early 1970's who actually went to China to work and study.
She hauled pig manure in a Chinese re-education farm, and at Beijing University she turned in a fellow student who had begged her help to escape to the West.
Slowly she realized the evil of the Communist system in China and was repatriated to the West in 1978.
Wong returned years later as an undercover journalist to China where she covered the Tianmen Square Massacre, in which three thousand pro-democracy students were mowed down in cold blood by Red China's army, on the orders of dictator, Jian Zemin.
She also covered China's contradictory development into a capitalist state under a Communist dictatorship, or a Communist dictatorship with a capitalist economy...akin to Fascism!
She covers the Tianmen Square Massacre of 1989, letting the the reader know of some of the lesser known details, and how the Communist army opened fire on the students after they began leaving the square:
"A [...]girl was killed and they just brought her body back...After the third barrage I counted more than twenty bodies. One cyclist was shot in the back right below our balcony. There were two big puddles of blood on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. People carried the body of a little girl towards the back of the hotel. After twenty three more minutes, a few people gathred up enough courage to aproach the wounded. The soldiers let loose another blast, sending the would be rescuers scurrying for cover. The crowd was enraged. I grimly kept track of the time. An hour later, the wounded were still on the ground, bleeding to death.
She speaks of the great poverty of the new Red China, with inequalities far greater than anything in the liberal democracies of the world, and crushing poverty in the rural provinces. Despite economic changes, China remains a brutal dictatorship, with no political liberalization or democratization having been allowed by the iron grip of the Communist Party.
Peeople are still opresed in day-to-day life. People are not allowed to own dogs, and to deal with a fad of people acquiring dogs as pets in the early 1990s, special police squads swept through the neigbourhoods, strangling dogs with steel wire looped at the end of metal poles.
The author recounts some regret at buying into the Communist lie, with the realization that "The Western world, especially Canada, is far more socialistic than China has ever been, with it's free public education, universal medicare, unemployment insurance, and government funding for television ads against domestic violence. China has made me appreciate my own country, with it's tiny ethnically diverse population of unassuming donut-eaters. I had gone all the way to China to find an idealistic revolutionary society, when I already had it right to home."
She ends of on a positive note, predicting, in 1997, a great change in China , and the death of the Communist Party, and real democracy.
Ten years later, this is not close to being realized, with a tightening of political control by the Communist dictatorship having taken place.
Despite being one of the most brutal dictatorships on this planet, China has gained international acceptibility, without improving democracy or human rights!
Nobody bats an eyelid at the Olympic Games for 2008 being set in Beijing.
The worst abuses of the Communist regime has it's apologists in the WEst.
The Stalinist Workers World Party in North America, (which has praised Stalinism in the Soviet Union, and applauded suicide bombings against Jewish women and chidren in Israel) congratulated the Chinese regime after the Tianmen Square Massacre, for having 'won a battle against imperialist and counter-revolutionary forces."
The fact that such sentiments can be uttered makes one wonder how far the world has actually come.

Fascinating memoir, full of interesting anecdotes and views on China.......2006-06-04

Jan Wong's account starts with her move to China from Canada to attend university just as the Cultural Revolution dawned. Naive, idealistic and fascinated by Mao, she cheerfully went to the farms to work and describes her own complicity in the tragedies of the time. It is only when the Cultural Revolution is ended and the country suddenly turns around, denouncing most of what the CR had stood for, does she start to think for herself. It may also have had something to do with realizing that her college education was wasted, and that people in China know students from those years did not learn anything.
And so it goes. Wong makes no effort to apologize or hide her original idealism, and in fact she never completely gives it up. She married an American who defected to China, and returned to China repeatedly as a reporter. Only the massacres of 1989 seem to finally make her lose her enchantment with the systems.

But whereas some people have written that this is a weakness of the book, I think it is a strength. You get to see a little of how an intelligent person could be fascinated with Mao and communism, even if it does require a huge amount of self deception and naivete. Further, Wong writes about the subject with great passion and a unique perspective for a westerner: she was one of only a handful of westerners who actually witnessed the Cultural Revolution firsthand (Wong is often able to get into areas not open to western reporters today by bluffing, using her knowledge of China in the 60s to convince guards that she must be a native). I would love to see what she thinks of the rise of capitalism in China today.
Finally, I am a sucker for good writing. This book is clear and compelling and the stories will pull you through.

Excellent Memoir.......2005-03-12

This superb memoir by Canadian Jan Wong describes her student and worker days in China during the latter part of the Cultural Revolution. Rebelling against the middle class values of her Chinese immigrant parents, Wong left for China in the early 1970's as an eager young Maoist. The author describes her student days at Beijing University, her life on a rural farm commune, and her eventual transformation from naïve idealist to disillusioned realist. Wong left for home six years later, but returned to Beijing in 1988 as foreign correspondent for the Toronto Globe Mail. There she witnessed the stunning prosperity China suddenly enjoyed along with the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. I read this eloquent 1996 memoir shortly after visiting China and found the author's analysis completely on target.

This superb memoir is written in a nicely readable style. Readers should enjoy this book, and might also consider two additional memoirs of China, WILD SWANNS and IN SEARCH OF HISTORY.

A must-read if you're planning to visit China.......2004-12-17

I read the book before traveling to China. It was invaluable in helping me understand recent Chinese history. Wong's story helped me understand what someone experienced during the Cultural Revolution. We had a speaker who told many of the same kinds of stories. This book helped make my visit to China richer, more meaningful and interesting. Her images prepared me for what I would be viewing myself. Very well-written and interesting to read.

renewed my faith in china memoirs.......2004-11-17

I've both lived in and studied China for a few years now, and have read a few really excellent books on it, but this is by far the most enjoyable book I've found yet on China. It seems most memoir books are either too dry or too one-sided, but Jan Wong's "Red China Blues" is full of rich detail and stories, is never long winded nor boring, and continuously reminds the reader that some of this is her own opinion based on her long experience in China. I loved this book. This is one of those books that makes me disappointed after I finish it because I know I won't find another book this great for a long time. I also recommend "China Wakes" by Kristoff and WuDunn. That book has a bit more of an academic journalistic tone, but is still informative and highly readable nonetheless.

Red China Blues : My Long March from Mao to Now

Average customer rating:

Red China Blues : My Long March from Mao to Now
Jan Wong
Manufacturer: Doubleday Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NOYCF2

Customer Reviews:

I enjoyed this.........2005-10-15

I enjoyed this..It is good to learn of the stories that men and women endured to tell their tale of human triumph and suffering to all..Read "I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual" too..And see "The Pianist. And watch the History channel show "Hitler's SS"..

Book Description

This revised and expanded edition of a Brookings best seller explains recent budgetary events in clear, understandable language. But the book is more than update--over half of the material is new. In addition to explaining how the deficit was liquidated and providing insights on how to protect against them in the future, it analyzes the changes in the appropriations process, friction between the president and Congress, and the reliance on omnibus legislation to resolve budget impasses. The book also contains vital statistics and trends, extracts from important documents, and case studies which dramatize contemporary budgetary politics and provides readers with a "you are there" appreciation of how budgeting works and decisions are made in Washington

Praise for the first edition:

"Schick makes the federal budget process understandable for those unfamiliar with budgeting while providing sufficient detail for policymakers interested in understanding more about its Byzantine rules.... [A] strong contribution to the understanding of budgeting at the federal level." -Perspectives in Political Science

"The serious student of life in this country can profit from having this volume readily accessible.... [It] will be empowering to those seriously interested in public affairs." -Presidential Studies Quarterly

"Allen Schick has once again provided an up-to-date, clear explanation of the federal budget.... [He] has captured the politics of federal budgeting from the original lofty goals to the stark realities of today." -Pete V. Domenici, U.S. Senate

"Schick ... unquestionably knows the arcane intricacies required to construct the federal budget." -Choice

Customer Reviews:

Excellent overview - also get the poster!.......2004-05-23

Dr. Schick's book is outstanding. If you use this book in the classroom or teach the congressional or federal budget process, you should also look at the Congressional Operations Poster.

One side of the poster covers the federal budget process, with a flowchart that is very useful when teaching about the federal or congressional budget process. (But don't take my word that the poster is useful - I have seen it hanging in federal agency offices in Washington, DC.) The publisher, TheCapitol.Net, has more information about the poster, and many useful links, on their web site: congressposter.com

Book Description

In the United States many important programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, are paid from trust funds. At a time when major social insurance funds are facing insolvency, this timely book provides the first comprehensive study of this significant yet little-studied feature of the American welfare state. Trust funds are at the heart of US budgeting and public social provision, and also raise a fundamental question of democratic politics: can current officeholders bind their successors? Through detailed case studies Patashnik shows how long term government commitments are effectively designed.

The federal budget in balance.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Public Manager

Average customer rating:

The federal budget in balance.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Public Manager
James A. Nordin
Manufacturer: Bureaucrat, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Public Manager, published by Bureaucrat, Inc. on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 820 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The federal budget in balance.(Review) (book review)
Author: James A. Nordin
Publication: The Public Manager (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: Bureaucrat, Inc.
Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Page: 63

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process. (book reviews): An article from: Government Finance Review

Average customer rating:

The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process. (book reviews): An article from: Government Finance Review
Philip M. Dearborn
Manufacturer: Government Finance Officers Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Government Finance Review, published by Government Finance Officers Association on June 1, 1995. The length of the article is 784 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process. (book reviews)
Author: Philip M. Dearborn
Publication: Government Finance Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 1995
Publisher: Government Finance Officers Association
Volume: v11 Issue: n3 Page: p57(1)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process.(Brief Article): An article from: Government Finance Review

Average customer rating:

The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process.(Brief Article): An article from: Government Finance Review
Rowan Miranda
Manufacturer: Government Finance Officers Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Government Finance Review, published by Government Finance Officers Association on April 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1799 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process.(Brief Article)
Author: Rowan Miranda
Publication: Government Finance Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2001
Publisher: Government Finance Officers Association
Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Page: 56

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Federal Budget Deficits: What's Wrong With the Congressional Budget Process (Essays in Public Policy)

Average customer rating:

Federal Budget Deficits: What's Wrong With the Congressional Budget Process (Essays in Public Policy)
John F. Cogan
Manufacturer: Hoover Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Macroeconomics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Public Finance | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0817954120

The U.S. Federal Budget Process: An Overview and Glossary of Terms (Second Edition)

Average customer rating:

The U.S. Federal Budget Process: An Overview and Glossary of Terms (Second Edition)
G.I. Maltese
Manufacturer: Nova Science Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

Public Finance | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Debt & Deficits | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Federal Government | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The federal budget is the primary policy statement of the President's fiscal priorities and proposals for allocating expenditures and taxes. The budget also functions as a framework and reference point for congressional actions. Because of the budget's economic, social, and political importance and its role in providing the information needed to assess program efficiency and effectiveness, an understanding of budget concepts is important to anyone interested in how the United States Government works or does not work. Budgetary terms and definitions must also be understood in order to consider and implement changes in the budgetary or financial management process and to grasp what the government is doing at any given point in time. This book is a basic reference document for the Congress, federal agencies, and others interested in the federal budget-making process. It emphasizes budget terms, but relevant economic and accounting terms are also defined to help the user appreciate the dynamics of the budget process. It distinguishes between any differences in budgetary and non-budgetary meanings of terms.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books