“The summer of 1950 was the hottest in living memory, with high humidity and temperatures above 100 F. My mother had been washing every day, and she was attacked for this, too. Peasants, especially in the North where Mrs. Mi… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
“So the story of Wild Fox Kang’s attempted coup and murder of Cixi lay in darkness and obscurity for nearly a century, until the… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
My father said he was going to write to the Jinzhou City Party Committee asking for permission to 'talk about love'...My mother supposed it… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
For anyone to open their heart, they need the right atmosphere, and something to prompt them. For my mother it was her trip abroad:… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
“Meanwhile, Mme Mao and her cohorts were renewing their efforts to prevent the country from working. In industry, their slogan was: "To stop production is revolution itself." In agriculture, in which they now began to meddle seriously: "We would rather have socialist weeds than capitalist crops." Acquiring foreign technology became "sniffing after foreigners' farts and calling them sweet." In education:… — Jung Chang Copy Share
“I was extremely curious about the alternatives to the kind of life I had been leading, and my friends and I exchanged rumors and scraps of information we dug from official publications. I was struck less by the West's technological developments and high living standards than by the absence of political witch-hunts, the lack of consuming suspicion, the dignity of… — Jung Chang Copy Share
“Unlike most founding dictators—Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler—Mao did not inspire a passionate following through his oratory, or ideological appeal. He simply sought willing recruits among… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
“MAO TSE-TUNG, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one-quarter of the world’s population, was responsible for well over 70 million… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
“mosquito-netted open windows was an enormous privilege. ‘You must not think you are superior to them,’ he would say. ‘You are just” — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
When he asked my grandmother if she would mind being poor, she said she would be happy just to have her daughter and himself:… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
“Poverty drove their parents to have them castrated as young children, hoping they would earn a better living at court. Usually the father would take the boy to a specialist castrator, who operated by the appointment of the court. After a contract was signed, absolving the castrator from any responsibility in case of death or failure (both highly likely outcomes),… — Jung Chang Copy Share
I was not allowed to take notes but my friend and I memorised those two and a half pages. Most people talked to me… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
If children were brought up to become non-conformists it would only ruin their lives. So parents all over China who loved their children told… — Jung Chang Copy Share Image
