Reviews (1)

He looks like the monopoly guy and the pringles guy
I haven't read his book, but I took his class in Chinese History this quarter, and on the basis of this I can strongly recommend this book. Guy Alitto is one humourous guy, prone to just going off on random tangents in lecture, sometimes in Chinese, even though knowing Chinese isn't part of the class. Also, he likes to reference obscure movies and if one person in the class of 120 says they saw it, he starts referencing it like we all know what he is talking about. He also wears this huge hilarious black babushka, and really likes Shandong province, even though these two are in no way related. I loved the class, though, and will probably get a good grade, so it's all good. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

"I was born in southern China in 1962,
in the tiny town of Yellow Stone. They called it the Year of Great Starvation."


In 1962, as millions of Chinese citizens were gripped by Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards enforced a brutal regime of communism, a boy was born to a poor family in southern China. This family--the Chens--had once been respected landlords in the village of Yellow Stone, but now they were among the least fortunate families in the country, despised for their "capitalist" past. Grandpa Chen couldn't leave the house for fear of being beaten to death; the children were spit upon in the street; and their father was regularly hauled off to labor camps, leaving the family of eight without a breadwinner. Da Chen, the youngest child, seemed destined for a life of poverty, shame, and hunger.

But winning humor and an indomitable spirit can be found in the most unexpected places. Colors of the Mountain is a story of triumph, a memoir of a boyhood full of spunk, mischief, and love.The young Da Chen is part Horatio Alger, part Holden Caul-field; he befriends a gang of young hoodlums as well as the elegant, elderly Chinese Baptist woman who teaches him English and opens the door to a new life. Chen's remarkable story is full of unforgettable scenes of rural Chinese life: feasting on oysters and fried peanuts on New Year's Day, studying alongside classmates who wear red armbands and quote Mao, and playing and working in the peaceful rice fields near his village.

Da Chen's story is both captivating and endearing, filled with the universal human quality that distinguishes the very best memoirs. It proves once again that the concerns of childhood transcend time and place.


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Reviews (57)

A Memoir or a Fiction
I was very impressed by the overwhelmingly positive reviews about Da Chen's memoirs (Colors of Mountain) in the national media (especially the article on News Week). I thought that finally, here comes a fresh writer from China with such passion and humility and was writing about the time our generation care deeply about. Well, I have to check it out. Indeed, his use of humor and earthy style is very effective and touching. One could not but to resonate with him at various points of his struggle and triumph. The book would be good if he did not pass it along as a memoir but as a first person fiction. My rough assessment on the contents of the memoir is as followings. There is about 20% of real-life experience that can be easily dissociated and are commendable. The rest can be divided as about 70% second hand exaggerated fantasies for the situation effects and about 10% deliberated fabrication for the sole propose of self-indulgence.

Let's set a few records straight as an illustrative example. First, Da Chen is not a son of a landlord (his father is). There is only one sentence that talked about that because his grandpa is a landlord, so that his father was dismissed from his teaching job. This is hardly a true statement. I have not encounter a single instance that a teacher was dismissed solely because his/her father is a landlord. Indeed, my study of China of the same period shown that about 40 to 60% (dependent on the specific geographic location) of school teachers' fathers are landlords or worse according to the standards of the day. There must be something else he was hiding.

His vivid description of his first day of schooling (the trouble with tuition) is hardly credible either. He might, indeed, hold 50 fens (equivalent of 50 cents) in his hand and that the teacher gave him the extension on tuition. But the tuition was only 3 Yuan (equivalent of 3 dollars). The education was essentially free at the time and 3 Yuan was mostly for the books etc. For example, any one of his piglets (when fatting up by the end of the year) would easily sell for 60 to 100 Yuan at the time (a princely sum, indeed), not to mention the mother pig they had all along (if only one knows the truth, all that sympathy for him would evaporate). The recollection of his association with the gang-activities is equally laughable. Without getting into the details, I just want to remind the readers that at the high of his gang association, he was only 9-10 years old (I had the sense of dislocation of time when reading his description). There must be other ways to generate the same sensation.

His distaste for the Red Guards is also very strange. True, he might be turn down the first time when he applied to join the little red guards (and I don't believe that the whole class was little red guards except him, perhaps only 30% was in little red guard at first. I personally, have to apply eight times in order to join). But strangely, he did not have any memory of his second and third attempts. I'm sure he was admitted into the little Red Guard eventually. What about his joining of the real Red Guard in middle school (he probably was the first few that was admitted into that organization)? Furthermore, there is no description of his joining the Communist Young League. One might wonder what kind of selective memory he has. Then, there are many instances of bizarre alteration of historical facts that make this reviewer wonder just what he is try to present. For instance, on page 77, he quoted the lyric of a popular song at the time, but inserted the "Russian" there himself, but why?

In all, this memoir should be labeled as a fiction. Even so, one should think twice before been foiled into his semi-genuine sentiment. I do not recommend this book for serious reading.

Heartwarming, inspirational, memorable.
Colors of the Mountain is the story of Da Chen's coming of age in post revolutionary, rural China. The son of a family of "landlords", a despised class in China at this time, the book is semi autobiographical and is an inspirational tale of prevailing against long odds. It is also a wonderful window into life in rural China--the nature of the countryside, the characters all small towns seem to produce in doves all over the planet, the struggles that everyone must endure off in the "boonies". (One suspects that these elements of the story probably aren't far from what life is currently, China being the place it is.)

On the whole I found the narrative to be compelling, the characters memorable and the story quite well structured. If there is a major flaw in the novel it's that the language is sometimes repetitive and awkward--one can intuit that English is obviously not Mr. Chen's native tongue. On the whole, however, this flaw in the end just adds to the charm and mood of the tale far more than it detracts from it.

I bought 5 or 6 copies of this to give out as Christmas gifts this past December and everyone who I gave it to has enjoyed it. You will too.

Colors of the Mountains
The book, Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen, is about a young boy who is the son of a landlord. Landlords in those days were very poor people can literally spit on them or beat them up. The story talks about the life of Da and all the hardships he goes through in life. Da lives in a family of nine; one brother, three sisters, his grandparents, and his parents. He was being continuously kicked out or denied to continue to go to school.

I like this book because the story is very strong. It will hit almost every emotion you have in your body. From sad, happy, or to angry, it will get there at some point. I really like it when there is a happy part to the book. I like it because it made me feel really happy for Da.

What else I like about the book was the detail of the story. The story had a lot of detail which made the book a lot easier to understand. The storyline was also a great part of the book. The book was very unique, the story had the same concept as other books but different because it was set in China. I recommend this book for everyone to read. You will enjoy it as much as I did.

Fiction passed as memoir
This book caught my attention immediately when I saw it. Besides my interest in Chinese history, I found from the book's jacket it was the life story of the author who was born in the same year I was, 1962, also in rural China. Wow, I thought, I could really relate to it. I wanted to enjoy the book.

As I read it, I grew more disappointed. The book was more about fiction than facts. As other readers had pointed out, it was full of fabrications or shades of truth. To cite but one such case, the author talked about being treated by a school nurse after a fight. A school nurse? In a rural elementary school? Perhaps in America, but there was no such thing in China!

Clearly the book was written for the western audience, which is not a bad thing. But, the author, whose intelligence and ability I don't doubt, would have been more honest to market it as fiction rather than memoir. I should have known better, given the manner of the crystal clear memory the author flushes out in the book. All that after some thirty years!

Mesmerizing!
Da Chen's "Colors of the Mountain" is a memoir dealing with the author's childhood in Yellow Stone, a small rural village in China. As a son of a landlord, Da had a difficult time growing up as his family was considered to counter-revolutionary and was blacklisted by the Communist Party. He was constantly targeted and abused by other kids and even teachers seemed to loathe him. This was set during the Cultural Revolution period where education was deemed dangerous and intellectuals were sent to the rural area to be re-educated.

Despite these obstacles, Da persevered to stay in school. As he was isolated from kids of his age at school, he befriended with a few older guys who were not in school, smoke and gamble. Even though these guys were deemed "dangerous" by the village people, they were sincere and accepted Da as who he was rather than what family he came from. However, Da's fortune changed when Chariman Mao passed away and suddenly, college education was what everyone talked about. Da knew that his only chance at getting out of the small village and sought a better life for himself was to get accepted into a college.

I enjoy this book as Da Chen wrote beautifully and at times, almost poetically. His descriptions of the sceneries at his village, the Dong Jing River, the mountains were vivid. The book also describes the lives of landlord families during Cultural Revolution and how it affected the landlords' children. Quite a number of books written on Cultural Revolution usually dealt with intellectuals or people with ties to the West and how they were jailed and torture. "Colors of the Mountain" on the other hand, saw Cultural Revolution through the eyes of a child. I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the dramatic story of Chen Yonggui and his community, Dazhai, where he developed an agrarian collective which Mao Zedong hailed as a model for the reconstruction of all rural china.

But Ninth Heaven To Ninth Hell is not just the story of an incredible success, it is also the account of a heart-rending tragedy.For after the death of Mao, his successor, Deng Xioping, reversed the aim of China's revolutionary course.Deng rejected Mao's collective road and instead embarked on a free-market "Socialism with Chinese characteristics." ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Important defence of a maligned epoch
The manuscript of this book had to be smuggled out of China, where the reactionary government suppressed its publication. Today's Chinese "Communist" Party viciously slanders the achievements of collective agriculture in the community Dazhai and the visionary leader Chen Yonggui who helped to make it a success. Yet thousands of people, both Chinese and foreign, saw for themselves the development of this once backward village into a thriving, highly productive agricultural community. It prospered until the early 1980s, when it was forcibly disbanded by the central government. The effects of decollectivisation were dramatic and criminal: in 1987, Dazhai, formerly a prosperous collective, was not able to feed itself.

Qin Huailu is to be applauded for having the courage to record this important period of history in the face of oppression by the current counterrevolutionary régime. The accomplishments of Chen Yonggui and Dazhai will not be forgotten. ... Read more

Amazon.com

When the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations became a bloody massacre,Zhang Boli, a prominent student leader, was placed on China's most wanted list.Of the 21 listed, he is the only one to elude authorities. Escape fromChina is Zhang's first-person account of his perilous two-year flight fromhis pursuers, a flight that eventually brought him to America. Fleeing from aregime that had "lost rationality and humanity", he went north--crossing intoRussia for a while--relying not only on the kindness of friends, relatives, andstrangers, but also on his own ingenuity. He spent months living rough in theharsh, wild, Russian-Chinese border region east of Mongolia. Zhang's narrativeis blunt, precise, and commendably modest. Especially compelling are theconversations he had during his odyssey. Much of their power derives fromZhang's rendering--unblinking, no matter how gruff and vulgar. Escape fromChina is at once an indictment of authoritarianism and a gripping story ofhardship, bravery, and determination. --H. O'Billovich ... Read more

Reviews (3)

telling truth or not
I was a strong supporter of the Tiananmen movement for freedom and democracy, and those leaders were once a time my heros and heroines. But now I began to question the truth of their statements. They were not respectable as they claimed, and they did something actually not decent during the movement. When the others were on hunger strike, some of them were eating in local restaurants using the donations from those poor students, which were intended to fund the movement. What they have done later in the US is also disappointing. During my years in Beijing University, I secretly contacted some classmates of the former leaders, who I believe are honest people. They gave a totally different description of the deeds of those former heros. The Communists did kill the students, but the roles of these leaders in this movement should be studied more carefully before I believe them. I highly respect those died at the Square for the freedom and democracy of China, but those leaders are not my heroes any more, and began to question their doings in the horrible summer of 1989.

Cat-and-mouse game between government and dissident
Escape from China is a memoir of a Tienanmen demonstration student leader's 2-year harrowing dodge and escape from Communist China. The original Chinese edition postponed its publication until 1998 (almost 10 years after the massacre) for fear of the government's purge of those who helped Zhang Boli flee the country. Zhang Boli, 26 years of age in 1989, was a graduate student of the Writers' Class in Beijing University, the most prestigious institution of the country. Along with Chai Ling, Wuer Kaixi, Li Lu and other university students, Zhang organized a pro-democracy campaign that sent some one hundred thousand students from all over the country to Tienanmen Square in Beijing. The demonstration and hunger strike, the largest and the most overt of its kind since the 1976 April Fifth Campaign, resonated throughout the country and won support from workers and Beijing civilians.

The road to Tienanmen originated from the death of Hu Yaobang on April 15. The national mourning of the former secretary lent it a premonition to a horrible historical event that will be seared into memory of Chinese people. Zhang, in taut manner and rabid details, chronicled the events that led to what the Western world claimed to be the darkest and bloodiest day of modern China-June 4,1989, when the Communist Party ordered troops to pull into Beijing and enforced martial law. From the evening of June 3 to dawn June 4, blood splashed all over the capital and mingled with smoke wafting from vehicles ablaze. Party Secretary Zhao Ziying was forced out of office for his open support for the student demonstrators. While the National People's Congress opposed sending troops into the capital, the Party seized to disperse the students and end the movement by all means. The students and civilians simply underestimated the Army's brutality and were blinded by their naivete.

Nobody who has not lived through (and witnessed) the massacre can imagine the terrible burdens imposed on ordinary citizens who live under a totalitarian regime. For two years, Zhang lived the life of a fugitive-he was among the 21 most wanted insurgents who would most likely to be sentenced to death. An executive member of the Preparatory Committee in Beijing University, the editor-in-chief of the News Herald, the deputy commander of hunger strikes, and the President of the Tienanmen Democracy University (a term that refers to the new regime resulted upon the fall of Communist Power, in which people from all over the country can enjoy freedom of speech and rights), Zhang Boli bore the most severe accusations from the Communist Party and was deemed an immediate threat to national security. Zhang fled to Soviet Union and was brought back to the China. He hid in huts along the river banks in Heilongjiang (the northernmost province of China) with the help of friends, distant family relatives and policemen who disapproved of the Party, Zhang settled down as a farmer and lived under a fake identity. His little daughter and his wife Li Yan became his only solace during the struggles. He was determined to live on, to survive as a strong man, struggling against suffering and the Communist dictatorship that had ruined so many lives. When Zhang finally secured a connection in Hong Kong that will help him flee the country, he met his fate that was not only cruel but also excruciating and unexpected.

This book is by far the most gripping account of the Tienanmen massacre in 1989. It contains first-hand information from one of the 21 brave souls who stood up and challenged the Communist Party. While many of his dissident comrades were arrested and imprisoned (some were executed), Zhang managed to seek political asylum from the United States and reunited with his daughter Little Snow 10 years after he left the country. Was not for his account of the tragic events, many will not see the true faces of the Communist Party which ruled over 1.6 billion people in a totalitarian dictatorship. Was not for the souls lost in bloodshed, Chinese people will never see the vileness and the deceit of the leaders. Nothing published so far manages to achieve the same caliber as this memoir has conveyed the excruciating pain of a common civilian under such dictatorship. 4.0 stars.

An adventurous story
I have read the original Chinese version of the book, and found the conversations the most interesting. There are indeed times when the language becomes vulgar - the dialogues between the commoners and the officers, for example - but this shows the author's honesty in writing his book. I found the chapter dealing with his journey to the Soviet Union the most brilliantly written. The author goes through some reflection, admitting the mistakes of the student leaders, including his own. His journey witnesses his change from playing the role of an intellectual to that of a commoner, and it is through this change that he truly understands the fate and lives of the Chinese people.

The relationship (and its development) between the author and his wife is very sad, but worth the reader's attention. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Australian Studies, published by University of Queensland Press on December 1, 2001. The length of the article is 1463 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: Dragon Seed in the Antipodes: Chinese-Australian Autobiographies. (JAS Review of Books). (book review)
Author: Andrew Jakubowicz
Publication: Journal of Australian Studies (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2001
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Page: 116(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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This digital document is an article from The Women's Review of Books, published by Women's Review of Books on March 1, 1995. The length of the article is 60729 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: Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries.
Author: Serinity Young
Publication: The Women's Review of Books (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 1995
Publisher: Women's Review of Books
Volume: v12Issue: n6Page: p28(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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This digital document is an article from Chinese Journal of International Law, published by Chinese Journal of International Law on March 22, 2002. The length of the article is 1427 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: A tribute to Zhao Lihai.(Obituary)
Author: Zou Keyuan
Publication: Chinese Journal of International Law (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2002
Publisher: Chinese Journal of International Law
Volume: 1Issue: 1Page: v(3)

Article Type: Obituary

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Chinese Journal of International Law, published by Chinese Journal of International Law on September 22, 2002. The length of the article is 563 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: In memoriam: Wang Tieya.(Obituary)
Publication: Chinese Journal of International Law (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2002
Publisher: Chinese Journal of International Law
Volume: 1Issue: 2Page: iii(2)

Article Type: Obituary

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Antipodes, published by American Association of Australian Literary Studies on June 1, 2002. The length of the article is 881 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: A pioneering compilation of Chinese-Australian autobiographies.(Dragon Seed in the Antipodes: Chinese-Australian Autobiographies)(Book Review)
Author: Roger Daniels
Publication: Antipodes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2002
Publisher: American Association of Australian Literary Studies
Volume: 16Issue: 1Page: 100(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Book Description

Considered an authentic account of the historical roots of the Tiananmen Square events, Wang Fan-hsi's autobiography, Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary, documents events in China for the years 1919 to 1949, and the fate of those who dared challenge the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. Wang participated in the Chinese student movement of his youth, escaped from Kuomintang jailers in 1927, and fled to Moscow. There he discovered Trotsky, was eventually expelled from the Chinese Communist Party for being a Trotskyite, and spent six years in jail. The original publication of Wang's autobiography in 1950 consisted of only twenty mimeographed copies, to be read chiefly by those Trotskyites who had survived Mau Tse-tung's rise to power. Since then, it has been published in Japanese, French, German, and English. For this second English edition, the author has written a new preface, translator Gregor Benton has revised and updated his introduction, and material cut from the first English edition has been restored.is an extremely important document about past events in China by someone who was there, on the inside. ... Read more

Book Description

Visionary? Authoritarian? Model for the West? Lee Kuan Yew, the long-time leader of Singapore, has been called all these things, and more. In these vivid memoirs, Lee takes a profoundly personal look back at the events that led to Singapore's independence and shaped its struggle for success. And, as always, he lets the chips fall where they may.In intimate detail, Lee recounts Singapore's unforgettable history. You'll be with Lee as he leads striking unionists against the colonial government; shares tea and rounds of golf with key players in Britain and Malaya; and drinks warm Anchor beer with leaders of the communist underground at secret midnight meetings. From British colonial rule through Japanese occupation in World War II, Communist insurrection, riots, independence -- and the struggles that followed -- few political memoirs anywhere have been this blunt, or this fascinating.Anyone interested in the political history of Singapore, Asia, and the modern world. ... Read more

Reviews (56)

Part One of Two Volumes
This volume is childhood up to Singapore's dumping by Malaysia.

FORTHRIGHT! COURAGEOUS!! CONSCIENTIOUS!!!
Reading Lee Kuan Yew's "The Singapore Story" is analogous to swimming in an ocean of enlightenment. It is a unique piece of writing. Candid and down-to-earth, Mr. Yew's memoirs showed that courage, faith, hope, and perseverance are not only enough to transform a man, but an entire nation. Singapore's victories over colonialism and communism showcased this fact. I no longer wonder why Presidents, Prime Ministers, and other top-notchers find this book irresistible.

One side of "The Singapore Story"
He will go down in history as one of Asia's most famous (or infamous) statesmen. "The Singapore Story" tells one side of the story - Lee's. Former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew has long been acclaimed for his outspoken persona and alert and thorough intellect. However, it is not certain that he is fully aware of his impact (or maybe he is) on other people - specially on Tunku Abdul Rahman.With this, the inaugural volume of his autobiography, he also proves himself as an charming and pleasant narrator - and therein lies the problem. The tone of the book is almost benign - but was her really.His tale begins as an distinguished student from a non pretentious bourgeois, English speaking home (this proves problematic in the future as Lee makes his way around the Chinese speaking communities).

Lee's deftly moves to recount how his education was discontinued by the Japanese occupation in World War II - of which he also elaborates how it taught him the many life lessons and impressions he would take into the future political and personal trials he would undergo. After a brief experiment as a black-market entrepreneur during the war (for which he was able to support his family as well as other interests), he decided to make his way to England after the Japanese defeat - to become a practitioner of the Law. He recounts as well how he managed to convinced Cambridge University to admit - not just himself - but his future wife Choo as well - they were both eventually called to the Bar in England. Upon passing the British rendition of the bar examination, Lee decides to return home - to Singapore. Lee is quickly embroiled in the complex labyrinth of Singaporean politics of independence while both fighting and using - the Communist Party. If you read between the lines, it is clear that Lee was anxious to be rid of this red menace while playing "The Prince" and playing sides against each other.

Convinced that the red threat from Singapore could only be controlled by assimilation into the federation of Malaysia, the Tunku entertains the call by Lee to form Malaysia. Lee's story, told in extended and obviously well documented detail really zeroes in on his dream of uniting Singapore with Malaysia - only for it to come apart in the seams - of which he is not completely blameless. Lee bitterly relates his disappointment over Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman's decision to ungraciously expel Singapore from the recently formed Malaysian federation. Lee wishes to play the victim. If you treat each side as a discourse - with its own set of truth creating mechanisms (ontology) and societal formulas - it will be quickly evident the Lee's formula is not welcome in the Tunku's Malaysia. No matter which side of the argument the reader places him/herself, Lee posed a threat to everything that the Tunku and his cadre held dear. As much as Lee viewed (or perceived) the ills or threat that the Tunku's cadre (if not the Tunku himself) represented, Lee had to admit that he was not in his "zone" - he was out of his element. He did, in effect, break a trust not to engage in federal politics (as originally agreed) - predictably causing the ire of the Tunku. It is the chickens coming home to roost.

While gracious towards the Tunku, Lee turns his harshest appraisals ofother politicians in Kuala Lumpur - zeroing in on the close cadre of the Tunku - the book goes into very informative detail in this regard. Lee's wonderfully in-depth character analyses and impressions only foreshadows volume two (Lee, Kuan Yew From Third World to First - The Singapore Story: 1965 - 2000 Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2000 - also available on Amazon.com) describes an entire generation of world class leaders. It seems that most leaders were mindful of this as several former presidents, secretaries of state, prime ministers, and foreign ministers have sang the praises to Mr. Lee. There is no argument from this reviewer that the praise is well deserved and the reader of this and the subsequent book will come to know Lee as crafty but exceptionally brilliant political animal - but there are always more sides to a story.

Miguel Llora

Gripping tale
A simple and concise history of the nation-state, my original home. A handbook for building a nation-state, or any other
multi-cultural organization. In this volume, LKY provides insight into his decision making, but does not spend much time reflecting upon his deepest motivations/expectations. The rationalizations are kept on an even-keel, and the text has a bit of a grade-school history text feel to it.

I'm looking forward to the 2nd volume. It would probably be too much for LKY to describe his deepest rationalizations, his actions speak louder than his words. I would have liked to have understood the role of his wife and children more.

Fantastic Book!
I read this book a few months after returning from a business trip to Singapore.What an amazing story.It was particulary interesting to read about British colonization, the Japanese occupation during World War II, the struggles against communism and ultimately how Singapore was "kicked out" of the Malaysian states.I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Deng Xiaoping has been one of the world's preeminent leaders of the late twentieth century. His impact will be felt well into the next century as China's economic reforms begin to have impressive effects. Although he endured six years of internal exile during the Cultural Revolution, by 1977 he had reached the ultimate pinnacle of power in China. His actions since have been devoted to deconstructing the Maoist state, and introducing economic reforms while maintaining a firm hold on the party-state political system. This volume analyzes the effect of Deng Xiaoping's leadership on China, dealing in turn with his role in foreign policy, in politics, in the economic system, in social reforms, and in his relations with the military. This work will be invaluable to students and academics requiring an evaluation of Deng that is both comprehensive and authoritative. ... Read more