Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century

Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century by Orville Schell and John Delury

How does one begin to write the history of a country and manage to contain it all in one volume? I would daresay a task is impossible; especially for a country that has been in existence for thousands of years. Truth be told, this book is not an actual history of China, yet this isn’t really the authors’ intentions.  The purpose of this book is to show how a once isolated, maligned country could rise from the depths of humiliation and subjugation and become, arguably, the most prosperous nation of the 21st century.  To tell this story accurately, a fair amount of history needs to be told, though.  What is China’s past? What were the seeds that allowed them to grow? And most importantly, who were the key figures that planted these seeds?

This book does a splendid job of telling the history of China (starting around the 1850s during the Opium Wars) through the eyes of some of the keenest minds and instigators within the country.  This really is a magnificent way of telling a story without allowing the reader to become immersed with too much minutiae and daily comings and goings that can weigh one down.  Each chapter in this magnificent work serves as a sort of ‘Cliff’s Notes’ version of a period in the history of China, telling about the key events that would continue to shape the country. Since the focus of each chapter is also on a key player, we’re exposed to many of the normalcies and behaviors of the population as well.  The authors do such a magnificent job, that I was tempted to read a complete biography on each key figure from each chapter.

So roughly 170 years of history is told, and only about the last 25 could be looked at as marginally successful.  China, from about 1850 through about 1980, is looked at as backwards, unsophisticated, and a far cry from a world power.  What makes this book fascinating is the key insiders within the country realize this as well.  They know the worldview of China isn’t positive nor powerful, and they realize that changes must be made.  And these changes are slow. Boy are they slow. In fact, you have to admire the patience and perseverance of many of these nineteenth and early twentieth century figures .  They’re convinced they’re contributing to the future success of China, but know that the changes being implemented are no guarantee for success, and they know that if these changes are successful, they won’t see results any time soon. In other words, they know that the changes won’t happen until long after they’ve been dead and buried.  Is this a trait unique to those indigenous to Far-Eastern culture?  As an American, I have to believe so to a point.  I can’t imagine many in my country trying to radically change the direction of the country without some sort of instant gratification.

When China is ravished by neighboring Japan during World War 2, a present-day resident probably couldn’t help thinking that all of the changes so far were for naught. Especially when the turmoil gives rise to the bloodthirsty despot Mao Zedong. Mao manages to ravage his homeland by starving and killing the masses as he believes it will somehow encourage and inspire proletariat unification that will allow his homeland to finally rise through the ashes.  What’s a bit scary is that the authors suggest that Mao might have, in a strange way, succeeded at his goal. Most on the outside looking in, however, would conclude that the price that was paid was far too high. Although this book devotes two chapters to Mao (most other key figures only get one), there’s not a terrible amount of detail focusing on the atrocities of his regime during his so-called “Great Leap Forward”.  We’re not exposed to the mass starvation, executions, and brutality of his regime. Oh sure, we read that it happened, but we’re not really allowed a front row seat.

It’s after Mao’s depth that this book (and China itself) becomes the most interesting. Deng Xiaoping, Mao’s “successor” also gets an additional chapter devoted to him and the particular time in history, and I thought the chapters devoted to Deng were the most fascinating of the entire book.  Deng, like Russia’s Nikita Khrushchev, realizes that he’s succeeding a bloodthirsty dictator, and humanitarian changes must be made to achieve China’s overall goal. Like Khrushchev, though, Deng doesn’t go nearly far enough.  It was during his reign when the infamous Tiananmen Square incident took place in 1989.  Deng’s most arduous goal for his country is for economic strength and not necessarily human rights.  So although the country rises in economic power globally within the next few decades, the notion of ‘equality for everyone’ takes a significant backseat.

In fact, the focus on economics as opposed to humanitarianism seems to be the focus of the last chapter or two of this book. The authors seem to stress to us that China has made significant strides financially, yet they still have quite a ways to go if they want to be looked at as ‘equals’ among the more philanthropic nations. The authors even hypothesize that China’s sprouting growth towards wealth and power might, in fact, be short lived if humanitarian changes remain slow and infrequent.  This leads the reader to admire China’s economic growth, but there’s far too many warts for one to become impressed overall. Ironically the words in this book’s title “Wealth and Power” are looked at favorably from a monetary, hedonistic perspective, but those who know history know that these two words don’t come close to equaling success from a moralistic perspective.  This is crucial that the reader doesn’t miss this. 

I loved this book. This is one of those rare books that I’m sure I’ll one day re-read. It was incredibly easy to understand and assimilate. It also taught so many valuable lessons of human nature of the past, present, and even the future.  This book is a great starting point for those who might not follow current events closely yet have recently noticed that China seems to be in the headlines an awful lot.  This book does a magnificent job of telling you the how and the why.

Intensity

Intensity – by Dean Koontz

When my father was alive, he never could understand why I enjoyed reading books as much as I did; especially horror books. “How can anybody get scared reading a book?” he would ask incredulously. If anyone thinks they can’t get scared reading a book, reading Intensity by Dean Koontz just might make you change your mind.  The scariest thing about this novel is that the horror doesn’t stem from mythical monsters, ghosts, vampires, and/or zombies.  The scariness is emitted by one of the two main characters in the book.  It’s scary because we know such individuals, while thankfully rare, do actually exist.  In other words, a real living and breathing human being. This is not a book a young woman should read if she’s alone in a house on a stormy night.

This book consists of basically two characters, and the bulk of the story takes place in one 24-hour period. We’re introduced to Chyna Phillips, a young woman of 26 who’s driving from another state with her girlfriend to stay with her friend’s family for a few days. Her family lives in some rural part of the country where you can imagine a lone house surrounded by a bunch of corn, but not much else.

Without giving away too much of the plot, Chyna encounters a psychotic killer, and she narrowly avoids death.  Most people in Chyna’s shoes would be incredibly overcome by fear if they were faced with such an encounter. Yes, Chyna is plenty scared, but Dean Koontz tells us throughout the story of Chyna’s miserable childhood.  After being raised by an abusive, alcoholic mother who drags Chyna all over country to live with low-life boyfriends, Chyna knows suffering and fear better than most.  So when she avoids the clutches of this madman, her urge isn’t to run, yet to fight.  Yet to fight effectively, she must plan. This takes time, and she really doesn’t have much of it.

The other half of the book is told through the eyes of her adversary, the psychotic lunatic.  When Koontz takes his readers into this man’s brain, the scariness is inescapable.  Whether we admit it or not, we subconsciously pray every day that we’ll never encounter an individual such as this man. Again, it’s terrifying when we’re reminded that there are actually real demented people out there.

So as the story progresses, we move deeper into the cat and mouse game of these two individuals.  They learn from each other, and learn about each other. Because of the surroundings, the story is downright eerie.  Many criticize a large part of this story as ‘slow’, and to an extent, they’re right.  This book has a lot of introspection; a lot of intense introspection.  Because of the intensity, we simply get impatient, and we want many of the scenes in this book to conclude much quicker than they actually do.  Think of a horror, or suspenseful movie that you’ve recently watched.  Whatever the scene you’re watching, you’re hoping the character will hurry up and finish what he/she is intending so the camera will cut to a happier, cleaner scene.   So yes, the book is slow at times, but that’s precisely the point.  “Intensity” is a perfect title for this novel.

I really enjoyed this book, but I’m 99% certain I’ll never read it again. Nor do I have any intention to ever watch any type of movie that may have been created that was based on this novel.  I admired this book’s boldness, its craft, and its….well….intensity. The subject matter for such an endeavor, though, is something that many, including myself, prefer not to think about.  Koontz did a great job here. He manages to write an incredibly intense, and terrifying scary piece of work. 

Yes, you can write a horror story without elements of fantasy or supernatural.

The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 by Frank Dikotter

This book is part one of a chronological trilogy, yet I believe the second book of the trilogy was written prior to this one. The three books in this series cover Mao Zedong’s rapacious destruction and rule over Communist China. The author is very good at telling a narrative, and this book is very well written and easy to understand. I confess, however, that I felt this book was less than stellar.  The author simply has the ratio incorrect concerning the focus when telling this historical account.

There’s very little politics or focus on the country’s leadership in this book. We rarely read about Mao’s interaction with other global leaders, nor within the factions of broken China.  We don’t read much about the “why”, yet this book mainly focuses on the “what”.  “What” in this case is the result of Mao’s brutal insurgency and quest to propel Communist China into greatness. The methods and results weren’t pretty, and this book seems to be about 85% of anecdotes of people and tribes throughout China and how they suffered under Mao’s tyranny. We read about such incidents in horrid, explicit detail.  I felt it was too much.  Like Stalin’s despotic rule over Russia in the 1930’s, Mao seems to want to outdo his fellow communist neighbor.  This is a very tough, nauseating read. No human being should be subjected to the tortures inflicted by Mao and his cronies, let alone several million.

I’m not sure why Frank Dikotter chooses to place so much focus on the multitude of atrocities. Again, it’s fine to talk about “why” Mao felt this was necessary. History shows us the Mao felt he needed to “destroy” before he could “create”, and destroy he does. Yet we don’t really get too much of the reasoning here.  Perhaps the goal of the author is to ensure that his readers never forget the massacres that happened during Mao’s reign.

It’s almost blasphemous to admit, but seventy years after Mao came into power, one might make the argument that many of his initiatives actually produced favorable results. China has rebounded its economy in ways that no one could have ever predicted, and many give Mao a degree of credit since his killings and purging, while unforgivable, did help set China on the right track.  Perhaps that’s the motivation behind this (and the other two) works of the author. Maybe Dikotter’s aim is to make a case that, whereas China may be prospering economics-wise, the price that was paid was simply too great in terms of loss of human lives and perpetual suffering.

The few times when we’re NOT reading about torture after torture of ordinary citizens, this book really excels.  It was rewarding to read, for example, about China’s entrance into the Korean conflict in 1950 from a Chinese perspective. I also learned for the first time about Mao’s Hundred Flowers Campaign, where he initially seemed to be repenting of his actions after his desecration of China. He appeared to briefly allow dissidents to express their concerns of his actions.  As soon as enough had spoken up, however, Mao quickly turned on them all and killed or imprisoned those who thought they were safely expressing their opinions and concerns.

So had the author switched his focus - meaning focus more about more of the events and the reasons behind them as opposed to the massive slaughter and torture of the everyday people, I would have enjoyed this book more.  I learned a lot, but it was simply a tad too much to stomach.