Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now

Jan Wong was a third-generation Canadian of Chinese descent at Beijing University studying Mandarin and Chinese history during the early 1970s. In the midst of the Cultural Revolution she was one of only two westerners there at the time, and considered herself an enthusiastic Maoist. Part of the reason Wong went to China was to search for her roots; she also had visions of becoming a reporter in Beijing. At age 17, Wong had also become a feminist, something she calls a natural step to Maoism - both women and workers were 'oppressed.' Wong was not only unusual for being a foreigner in China, she also looked Chinese, wanted to be treated like one and experience their lives, but didn't speak Chinese. At the time, there were only 800 million Chinese, and passes were required to travel within China. Her book covers life under both Mao and successor Deng. Wong opens by describing a with meeting Mao's 23-year-old grandson in a Beijing hospital where he is trying to slim down from 300 lbs (5' 9"). The year was 1988, Wong had returned to China and was shocked at the changes. She found Mao's son scared of his mother (always telling him what to do), wanting to go to the U.S., but not allowed because the Central Committee nixed it - ironic for the son of one of the formerly most power men in the world. Returning to her first visit (six-years, based at Beijing University), she describes student conditions - students slept 8/room, drinking water was several buildings away, and there was no hot water at all. Wong was given a stipend equal to that of Chairman Mao. There were no washing machines or laundry services. She tells us that the Chinese are great believers in rote learning, perhaps developed from the need to memorize thousands of written characters. Wong herself learned about 120 words/week. Students were assigned majors; being a foreigner, Wong, however, was allowed to choose her own. After fifteen months she left China and its austerity to graduate from McGill University in Canada, then returned to China under Deng. One of the first things Deng Xiaoping did when he returned to power in 1973 was to reinstate university entrance exams - previously scrapped by Mao's wife in favor of admission based on loyalty and connections. Chinese students still were not allowed to date, and Wong began to wonder about treatment differences based on contacts and background in a supposedly classless society. Deng's children made out quite well, as did others with high connections. She volunteered for work farm assignment to strengthen her revolutionary, non-capitalist thinking. Planting work required 320 man-days for seven acres of rice; they also had to manually create earthen borders around the fields, fertilize, and then harvest by hand. Workers even crawled over the fields to glean the last bits. After her group finished its work, they had to help another group that had fallen behind. One worker was turned in to security for collecting a stamp from Canada with

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.

Nothing is at it seems. Jan Wong, a teenager during the Vietnam era, was dissatisfied with capitalistic Canada and radically sought change. For Wong the truth was to be found in Mao's 'little Red Book' and her reading room was to be China. Looking back twenty-five years and with 20/20 hindsight, Jan Wong takes us into the dragon's lair revealing both her youth's ideology and Mao's China gone by. For many who remember the 60's and early 70's you will understand how she could turn her back on the comfort and freedoms of her home in Canada, renouncing all, and go to live in Mao's China. For fourteen years, with a religious, fanatical devotion, Jan Wong dedicated her life to become a missionary of Mao. Her red world crashed around her in 1976, the year when the cultural Revolution and Chairman Mao died.. All of her sacrifice, all of the suffering she went through as a worker-peasant were for naught, as China drastically discarded Mao's ideology and moved towards a hybrid capitalistic communism. She felt betrayed, suckered and stupid, "I vowed I would never again suspend my disbelief. I promised myself I would question everything. I became a skeptic." Her opportunity to question everything came when the New York Times hired her as a Journalist in its Beijing office. Jan Wong's on site coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 2600 Chinese citizen's in 1989 stands out as one of the best on site reports I have read on the subject. Even Mao, in his 40 years of rule, did not turn tanks on his own people, but Deng Xiaping slaughtered his own people to keep his grip on Communist power. She writes, "The guns at Tiananmen Square killed my last illusions about China."This book is a must read for anyone traveling to China today. It does more to help you understand the current history than a dozen guide books will.

Wong's memoir of her parent's native land during the latter days of the Cultural Revolution ranks with "Wild Swans" and "In Search of History" as the best personal narratives about China. Readers follow Wong's transition from naïve Canadian, to disillusioned realist, to returned journalist in Beijing in 1989. I read this book shortly after returning from China, and found Wong's analysis and readable prose completely on target.

What a fascinating book! I loved it. It is a wonderful piece of writing and it's easy to see why Jan Wong is such an acclaimed journalist. I have been to China and have many friends from there. From everything they have shared with me regarding their own experiences, Red China Blues fits exactly with their descriptions of life in those times. Having been born in 1948 and lived under far different circumstances, I find the history of China during the Mao years fascinating. Red China Blues rings true and it is written with wicked humour as well as much sympathy/empathy. Jan Wong has heart and her account of the Tienanmen Square massacre is the most moving I have ever read. I believe it is a totally accurate account and I found myself weeping as I read it. I was profoundly moved and gained a much deeper insight of the events that took place at that time. In fact, I learned many things about China through this marvellous book and was hungry for more. I couldn't put it down and can't wait to read her latest, Jan Wong's China which I have just purchased.