Mom's book, published by Oxford University Press, launch date 5th January 2022
amazon.com
A personal account of life in the orbit of Mao and Zhao En-Lai and one woman's effort to tell what it was like to be at the center of the storm.
The history of China in the twentieth century is comprised of a long series of shocks: the 1911 revolution, the civil war between the communists and the nationalists, the Japanese invasion, the revolution, the various catastrophic campaigns initiated by Chairman Mao between 1949 and 1976, its great opening to the world under Deng, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Yuan-tsung Chen, who is now 90, lived through most of it, and at certain points in close proximity to the seat of communist power. Born in Shanghai in 1929, she came to know Zhou En-Lai-second only to Mao in importance--as a young girl while living in Chongqing, where Chiang Kai--Shek's government had relocated to, during the war against Japan. That connection to Zhou helped her save her husband's life in Cultural Revolution. After the communists took power, she obtained a job in one of the culture ministries. While there, she frequently engaged with the upper echelon of the party and was a first-hand witness to some of the purges that the regime regularly initiated. Eventually, the commissar she worked under was denounced in 1957, and she barely escaped being purged herself. Later, during Cultural Revolution, she and her husband were purged and sent to live in a rough, poor area. She and her husband finally moved to Hong Kong, with Zhou's special permission, in 1971.
A first-hand account of what life was like in the period before the revolution and in Mao's China, The Secret Listener gives a unique perspective on the era, and Chen's vantage point provides us with a new perspective on the Maoist regime-one of the most radical political experiments in modern history and a force that genuinely changed the world.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"By opening a personal porthole into China's twentieth-century history, Yuan-tsung Chen, who lived through these tumultuous decades, allows Mao's tectonic and savage revolution to come alive in new and more convincing, if tragic, ways" -- Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Asia Society Center on US-China Relations
"The autobiography of the well-known author Yuan-tsung Chen is an enthralling sequel to her famous Return to the Middle Kingdom and The Dragon's Village. It is a fascinating life story of how challenging it was to be an intellectual woman in Mao's China even with some connections to the Party elite.
The memoir reads like a novel but it also adds precious historical details to our understanding of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and other Chinese Communist Party leaders, as well as of such infamous events as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Thrilling and terrifying, intriguing and captivating, this is a brilliant first-hand account of the Maoist era." -- Alexander V. Pantsov, coauthor of Mao: The Real Story
"Chen Yuan-tsung is not only a secret listener, but more importantly, a secret observer, and in this compelling memoir, she vividly portrays life, conflict, and love among elite and downtrodden circles in the Republican and Communist eras of twentieth-century China. She brilliantly recreates events and conversations that show how behind-the-scenes struggles at the top impact the daily lives of Chinese up and down the social and political hierarchies." -- Thomas B. Gold, University of California, Berkeley
"In 1957, in the midst of Mao's anti-rightist campaign, Chen Yuan-tsung burned the manuscript she had dreamed would become her great book. Since leaving China in 1971, her two wonderful autobiographical novels have received well-deserved, enthusiastic praise. But it is with the publication of The Secret Listener that Chen's dream of writing a great book about China has finally come true. China specialists and neophytes alike will be fascinated, moved, and horrified by Chen's depiction of the struggles of ordinary Chinese, as their world turns upside down and some retain their integrity while many others lose it." -- Anne F. Thurston, Editor of Engaging China
"A sweeping and fascinating tale of an extraordinary life in a tumultuous China from the 1920s to 1970s. From foreign wars to civil wars to revolutionary campaigns designed to radically remake society, Yuan-tsung Chen not only observed it but participated in much of it. In her first-hand account Chen has produced a wonderfully written book easily accessible to all readers." -- A. Tom Grunfeld, SUNY-Empire State College
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