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Born in 1929 China to a privileged family of Communist sympathizers, Chaozhu has witnessed a country transform while catapulting to its newly-emergent centers of power. Chaozhu's memoir begins during the 1937 Japanese occupation, when his father sent him and his brothers to the U.S. to help raise money for the communists and get "a first-class education," after which they would return to "help build the new China." Returning to China in 1950, after dropping out of Harvard, Chaozhu began working as an interpreter in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, before rising to become a deputy director. After Nixon's ground-breaking 1972 visit to China, Chaozhu had several postings to the U.S. and was appointed as an Ambassador to the U.K. His last position was a 1991-94 stint as under-secretary-general of the United Nations. Chaozhu paints a vivid picture of life in China, both the extreme poverty (by 1958, 30 million Chinese had starved to death) and the civil unrest generated by Mao's draconian economic measures and purges of so-called dissidents. Chaozhu describes hard times but also exciting, eye-witness to history stories featuring Kissinger's and Nixon's first meetings with Enlai. This absorbing book should make an invaluable political (and personal) primer for anyone dealing with today's China.
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Given the steamy revelations and bitter accusations in many popular memoirs on China (e.g., Li Zhisui's The Private Life of Chairman Mao or, more recently, Gao Wenqian's Zhou Enlai), it is a relief to read an account by an urbane and often witty insider who neither idolizes nor demonizes China's top leaders. Ji's childhood in a politically connected family of patriots and scholars was ruptured by the Japanese invasion in the 1930s. The family made its way to New York, where Ji discovered American generosity, political debate, and ice cream while he studied his way into Harvard. The Korean War of 1950 shocked him into returning to China, where his dedication and knowledge of foreign countries eventually took him to the top of the Foreign Ministry. Although he tells revealing anecdotes about being Mao's interpreter, the best stories concern life backstage as foreign policy was made and China regained global respect. Premier Zhou Enlai emerges as a humane but painfully tested leader of almost superhuman ability. Ji's book should attract a general audience, but even China specialists will be intrigued (if slightly tantalized when the stories break off). Highly recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ3/1/08.]
—Charles W. Hayford
1 Our Long March 3
2 To America 13
3 Poor Little Chinese Refugee 23
4 My Movie Star Dad 32
5 Me and Mrs. Roosevelt 41
6 My Short Harvard Education 53
7 Going Home 60
8 The East Is Red 64
9 Back in the Bosom 68
10 The Atomic Death-Belt Plan 79
11 Welcome to Kansas 88
12 Two Years of Perfidy and Fleas 100
13 Foreign Devils Face Off 116
14 The Premier and I Cheat Death 132
15 The Other China 142
16 Calm Between the Storms 153
17 Contradictions at the Top 169
18 Beating a Drowning Dog 184
19 The Man on Mao's Right 195
20 Death and Birth 206
21 Our Dark Ages Begin 218
22 Our Lord of the Flies 225
23 Nothing Public Without Purpose 238
24 The Two Young Ladies 253
25 A Circle Closes, Another Opens 266
26 An Empty Seat on the Stage 279
27 China's Second Liberation 290
28 The Reagan Crisis 302
29 From Cannibals to Caviar 316
Epilogue 331
Acknowledgments 335
Index 337
Anonymous
Posted October 14, 2008
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Anonymous
Posted January 5, 2011
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Anonymous
Posted June 14, 2010
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Overview
No other narrative from within the corridors of power has offered as frank and intimate an account of the making of the modern Chinese nation as Ji Chaozhu’s The Man on Mao’s Right. Having served Chairman Mao Zedong and the Communist leadership for two decades, and having become a key figure in China’s foreign policy, Ji now provides an honest, detailed account of the personalities and events that shaped today’s People’s Republic.The youngest son of a prosperous government official, nine-year-old Ji and his family fled Japanese invaders in the late 1930s, escaping to America. Warmly received by his new country, Ji returned its embrace as he came of age...