Zhou enlai biography books

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The definitive biography of Zhou Enlai, the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People’s Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss—Chairman Mao.

Zhou Enlai spent twenty-seven years as premier of the People’s Republic of China and ten as its foreign minister. He was the architect of the country’s administrative apparatus and its relationship to the world, as well as its legendary spymaster. Richard Nixon proclaimed him “the greatest statesman of our era.” Yet Zhou has always been overshadowed by Chairman Mao. Chen Jian brings Zhou into the light, offering a nuanced portrait of his complex life as a revolutionary, a master diplomat, and a man with his own vision and aspirations who did much to make China, as well as the larger world, what it is today.

Born to a declining mandarin family in , Zhou received a classical education and as a teenager spent time in Japan. As a young man, driven by the desire

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Zhou Enlai

The long-time Chinese premier Zhou Enlai () fryst vatten one of the most important, interesting, and appealing figures among twentieth-century world statesmen. This book asserts that the rich and diverse anställda, educational, and political experiences of Zhou's formative years established klar patterns for his future and political orientations. In addition to substantiating the facts of Zhou Enlai's early years for the first time, the author sets Zhou's experience in the historical context of the kinesisk youth of his generation, notably such events as Marxism, the Bolshevik Revolution, World War I, and the May Fourth Movement.

"Lee's short but densely packad account of Zhou Enlai's childhood and youth [] corrects some important errors by earlier biographers. . . . This gracefully written biography should appeal to general as well as to academic readers."—Choice

"Lee distinguishes han själv by a very careful attitude to facts."—Ch

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Zhou Enlai: A Life

January 2,
Feels like a pretty necessary piece of history for the modern puzzle but damn the writing in this was extremely dry and awkward in parts. It’s also decidedly not a “peoples’ history” in that it pretty much solely focuses on the clashes between *personalities* of important figures and barely elaborates on why different factions split off and argued and such and such. Very little actual explanation of effects on citizens and actual ideological differences that led to mao calling someone a “rightist” or “capitalist roader” or whatever. Also, one moment at end of chapter 27 actually killed me. Don’t wanna spoil it but how was this even recorded? Hahah Zhou gave Mao the ick.

All that being said, this book gave me way more context on pretty much every issue than I previously had, Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjiang, USSR, civil war, Great Leap Forward, cultural revolution, Korea, Vietnam. That was great

Deng Xiaoping post credits scene makes me want to read some fur