VOICES FROM THE WHIRLWIND - Hardcover

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) subjected the Chinese people to unspeakable cruelties that must never be forgotten. Feng, a leading Chinese writer, has assembled 14 candid and compelling personal reminiscences of that period from a representative array of urban Chinese including former Red Guards, local officials, students, and workers. The artless simplicity of their tragic stories has the ring of authenticity and the feel of traditional Chinese tales. No matter how many other accounts one has read, it is impossible not to be moved by the honesty, introspection, and pathos of these stories. They remind us that the price of Mao Zedong's revolutionary megalomania was paid for in the coinage of wasted lives and human suffering. However, Feng's one-line moral appended at the end of each story is superfluous and a bit irritating. Recommended for all general collections.
- Steven I. Levine, Boulder Run Research, Hillsborough, N.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.