Three Months in Mao's China
Title
Three Months in Mao's China
Subtitle
Between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution
Translator
Vivien Collingwood
Price
€ 28,95 excl. VAT
ISBN
9789462981812
Format
Paperback
Number of pages
144
Language
English
Publication date
Dimensions
13.5 x 21 cm
Category
History
Discipline
Asian Studies
Table of Contents
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Introduction 9 From Moscow to Beijing 25 Letter 1: Beijing, 24 September 26 Six weeks in Beijing 35 Letter 2: Beijing, 3 October 35 Letter 3: Beijing, 10 October 49 Letter 4: Beijing, 18 October 58 Letter 5: Beijing, 23 October 65 Letter 6: Beijing, 25 October 71 Letter 7: Beijing, 29 October 74 Letter 8: Beijing, 1 November 78 To Xi’an and Luoyang 83 Letter 9: Luoyang, 9 November 93 From Beijing to Guangzhou 99 Letter 10: Beijing, 14 November 101 Letter 11: Nanjing, 22 November 105 Letter 12: Suzhou, 29 November 111 Letter 13: Shanghai, 6 December 119 Guangzhou and Hong Kong 127 Letter 14: Guangzhou, 13 December 127 Letter 15: Guangzhou, 19 December 132 Letter 16: Hong Kong, Saturday 26 December 139

Reviews and Features

"This book provides a fresh perspective from a contemporary sinologist on Mao’s China and vividly recounts the effect of three months’ close observation on the enthusiasm and fantasies of a Western leftist regarding the communist system." - Woyu Liu, Nanjing University, Europe-Asia Studies, 70:9 (2018) "Zürcher's Three Months in Mao's China is an important source for scholars interested in the society and culture of the Cold War, and in everyday life and the politics of traveling in Mao's China. It also sheds much light on the Cold War generation of leftist Chinese observers. Thanks to the editors, Zürcher's rich and valuable comments on modern China are retained in this edited work. As a primary source, I recommend it to scholars and teachers of both modern China and Cold War history." - Zixian Liu (University of Toronto), H-Socialisms (May, 2018).

Erik-Jan Zürcher, Kim van der Zouw (eds)

Three Months in Mao's China

Between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution

In the fall of 1964, sinologist Erik Zürcher travelled to China for the first time, a country he had been studying since 1947. A collection of Zürcher's personal writings from his trip, including letters and diary entries, Three Months in Mao's China offers not only new insights about the great scholar, but also a rich picture of communist China, which was in those days still almost completely inaccessible to Westerners.

During a tumultuous time in world politics, as Nikita Khrushchev was deposed, Lyndon Johnson won the US presidential election against Barry Goldwater, and China became a nuclear power, Zürcher experienced the reality of China under Mao Zedong. Only recently discovered, these documents portray, viewed through an expert's eye, a land in the midst of its own massive political, social, and economic change. Both a fascinating account by an informed outsider and a reminder of just how much China and the rest of the world have changed over the last fifty years, this is essential reading for anyone interested in East Asia and Asian history as a whole.
Editors

Erik-Jan Zürcher

Erik-Jan Zürcher is director of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, as well as member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Turkish Studies at Leiden University.

Kim van der Zouw

Kim van der Zouw is an editor and translator.