The 2005 biography of Mao by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday opened many Westerns eyes to the real Mao; the Mandarin who was carried on a litter during the Long March, the debauched lecher who surrounded himself with young girls and the man who drew inspiration from the worse Emperors who wasted the lives of millions. This book by the personal physician of Mao, adds more information to the man behind the posters; the master politician who could wait years for his revenge, the man who believed his own propaganda.
For twenty-two years, Dr. Li Zhisui lived a life largely away from his family, in the heavily guarded compounds where Mao led an indulgent life. Aside from security, nothing concerned Mao so much as his comfort. Using State funds, he ordered a luxury personal train from East Germany, built swimming pools at various villas and to insure his comfort, traveled with his own hard wooden bed and insisted on a squat-style privy, even when visiting Moscow.
Being the personal physician of Mao was not an easy job, and it was dangerous. For much of his life, Mao was healthy (although he did not clean his teeth which turned green and gave off a terrible smell), so the doctor’s duties were few, but he was an outsider. The son of a former General of the Kuomintang, married to a woman whose father was a good sized land owner (she had also worked with the British and Americans during the war), and educated in the West, the doctor returned to China after the revolution believing that he could help transform China into a modern state. Instead, his skills were set aside for Mao and as he had no power base of his own and no political skills, he was always viewed as an outsider and suspect.
He gradually grew disillusioned as he saw how the inner circle around Mao lived in luxury with the best foods from their own private farms, how they practiced corruption and valued Western goods as marks of their power, and how the needs or wants of the masses were ignored. He saw Mao lounging around his pools all day long, going off with the newest young adoring girl on the staff while sexual puritanism was preached and planning his long term political revenge on those around him.
At times, one may be a bit skeptical of how the doctor paints himself. He claims that he never really understood the physical and moral costs of the Great Leap Forward, Red Guard Movement, etc.. In a land were 30-55 million died of starvation, and while Mao and company were traveling the land in their private planes and train, was it possible to be ignorant of the human disaster? But then, even if he was aware, what could he have done? Nothing, for Mao felt that the people had to suffer in order to throw off the old order.
This is a fine book to compliment the earlier biography. One better understand the rise of the Gang of Four and is given an insiders view of the corruption of absolute power.
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