I have been reading some interesting material lately. I’d thought I’d like to share my little thoughts on some of them.
Victims of the Cultural Revolution: Testimonies of China’s Tragedy
Wang Youqin, 2023, Simon & Schuster
Type of reading: Academic
Topics covered: China’s Cultural Revolution
Length: 500+ pages
My final grade: B+
Wang Youqin has been working on this project for more than 20 years. The culmination of this impressive research period results in a collection of oral history reports stemmed from the victims of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), as well as revealing brutal accounts of torture, extortion, and the psychoanalysis in justifying the revolution’s violent nature. Vivid in the victim’s account and advocating more public conversations on the Cultural Revolution, Wang provides humanity in making sure that these victims, no matter how big or small in status, do not go unrecognized.
This book is a translation of the original manuscript that was originally supposed to be published in Hong Kong, but was banned by the authorities. Wang eventually released the Chinese version PDF online for free. The translators of Wang’s book have some slight errors in Pinyin transcription. Wang, as much as she is detailed, also sometimes provides no background context onto some of the Revolution’s most prominent characters, such as Peng Dehuai or Lin Biao. As such, the book can be quite confusing, and daunting for a 500+ page affair, if you are not steeped into Chinese history. However, I give Wang a big seal of approval for going through with this psychologically heavy project, and for showcasing the stories the victims and their families want to finally release even in the era where the Chinese authorities dissuade talks of the Cultural Revolution.
Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
Jing Tsu, 2023, Penguin Random House
Type of reading: Academic
Topics covered: Chinese linguistics, Chinese cultural history
Length: 300+ pages
My final grade: A-
Jing Tsu’s book is brilliant in structure. Her main goal is to show readers how the Chinese language has been fitted to be written in modern technologies such as the telegraph, the typewriter, the personal computer, and the smartphone. She also goes into depth how the Chinese authorities from the late Qing dynasty, the Republican era, and the Communist era debated on how to unify the Chinese language for the masses to easily access and use. Finally, she explains the complex debates surrounding the modern integration of Chinese characters into a digital database that is led by leading linguists in China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.
This was such a joy to read because even though I have a major in East Asian linguistics, I did not begin to think about how Chinese characters have been implemented in technologies that were created by and mostly intended for Western audiences. The amount of brainpower and compromise needed to integrate Chinese characters into modern applications shows the uniqueness of the Chinese script, and Jing does a pretty good job in explaining how these characters were formed from ancient times. Recommended read for anybody who is starting to go into language input in computers and AI.
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
Jung Chang, 2013, Alfred A. Knopf
Type of reading: Biography
Topics covered: Chinese history: Late Qing dynasty
Length: 450+ pages
My final grade: B-
Jung Chang tries to dismantle the common argument that the Empress Dowager Cixi, essentially the ruler of imperial China from 1861 to 1908, was the reason the Qing Dynasty collapsed and that it was her ignorance and lust for power that effectively sealed the fate of China’s imperial era. Chang wants to bring to light an alternative explanation of the Qing’s shortcomings, and presents Cixi as a strong, willful woman who believed in China’s best interests and was actually a strong proponent for modernizing China.
I found Chang’s account of Cixi not only interesting, but it was totally against the grain from what I was taught at university. She took into account Cixi’s sheltered upbringing, her near downfall after taking in a eunuch as a lover, and for her playing political chess which ensured that not only would she be safe from persecution, but also become one of China’s most powerful rulers. She also deep dives into the lives of Cixi’s close confidantes, such as Prince Chun, and digs into the origins of the struggles against the conservative clique and modernist clique of the imperial family. My only complaint is that Chang tends to ramble on in some subjects that are not important, and sometimes uses “syrupy” tabloid-esque phrases in trying to heighten Cixi’s image.
Many Sinologists believed that Jung Chang used sources that were either lacking in sufficient evidence or were exaggerated in nature in order to make the claim that Cixi was actually an effective, pro-modern ruler, and that historical records state that Cixi was powerless in many of her actions towards modernizing technology and warfare. I find however that Chang makes no such heavy claims, instead merely looking to highlight some of the positives that Cixi tried to accomplish in her life and her struggle to leave her legacy and the fate of future China into the hands of competent ministers. The camp known as the “New Qing History” are mainly American sinologists who emphasize more the Manchu nature of the dynasty, rather than as maintain the status quo narrative of “Hanization” within the foreign-led dynasties, so it is rather surprising to note that these critics would try to criticize Chang for trying to uplift Cixi into one who has been greatly misunderstood by academics in the modern sphere.
Origins of the Cultural Revolution: Part 1: Contradictions Among The People 1956-1957
Roderick MacFarquhar, 1974, Oxford University Press
Type of reading: Academic
Topics covered: Chinese history: Cultural Revolution
Length: 300+ pages
My final grade: C+
The Cultural Revolution is one of my pique interests in studying modern Chinese history, so I was curious when I came across Roderick MacFarquhar’s seminal work in discussing the origins of how the Cultural Revolution came about. The Origins of the Cultural Revolution are in three parts: the first part details the periods of 1956-1957 at the right of campaigns such as the Hundred Flowers Movement and the Anti-Rightist Movement.
In short, I appreciate the amount of work MacFarquhar put into creating such masterpieces of historical knowledge, but coming in at a modern sense, this work is incredibly dry. It was a slog to read through all of the internal memos of the CCP, and MacFarquhar relies heavily on quotes or primary sources. Overall, it was interesting to see the research of the Cultural Revolution taking place (this part was published in 1974, two years before the Revolution ended), but I’m happy that there are other histories being published in modern times that are more palatable to read.
BAOYU'S STONE, DAIYU'S TEARS 