The coldest winter in Peking: A novel from inside China

By Chih-yen Hsia

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385134029
• ISBN13: 9780385134026
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Important documentary value

This documentary novel explains the 'Tiananmen' incidents of 1976. They were not less than a power struggle between the partisans of Mao Zedong and his Prime Minister Zhu En Lai, where the latter were beaten. This struggle continued with the `Gang of Four', whose members were in the end annihilated themselves. The Chinese people didn't want a new Cultural Revolution. This book gave already an excellent portrait of the real Mao: `He transformed a popular democratic regime into a fascist dictatorship. He assembles the youth for a Cultural Revolution in order to destroy all those in the Party, in the government, in the army who disposed of a few parcels of power and who stood in his way to wield absolute power.' The author stresses the deep chasm between a wealthy and cynical bureaucracy and the innocent proletarians completely indoctrinated and educated with slogans. This book is successful as a `human document', but less so as a novel. The `reality' part is excellent, the `fiction' part only average. Highly recommended, and certainly for sinologists.