The Private Life of Chairman Mao [Format Kindle]

This book opens with one of the most hilarious opening chapters of a book that I have read. Mao has just died and in what had become a tradition for Communist regimes his body had to be preserved to be kept on display. The problem was that on one knew how to preserve bodies. Calls were made to Lenin's Tomb and to the display in which Ho chi Min was kept all to no avail. It appeared that Lenin's mummification had not worked well as his nose had fallen off. A substitute nose had to be put in place. The feedback was to ring America as they were good at that sort of thing. A call to America suggested filling the blood stream with formaldehyde. There was a debate about how much to put in and it was decided to put in double the advised amount to make sure there were no mistakes. Mao after all was important and heads would roll (literally) if his body started to decompose. Huge amounts of formaldehyde were pumped into the body. Unfortunately it started to look like the Michelen Man. The assembled doctors realised that they had to do something so that they decided to massage the body to pump out the excess. The only problem was that during the massage process part of Mao's face broke of. This had to be hurriedly repaired using wax. A General came in to look at the body and looking at the face wanted to start a murder investigation.

The other chapters can't keep pace with this frantic opening but it is a batman's biography of one of China's most important leaders. The author was his doctor for most of his later years and gives an account not just of the politics of Mao but of every aspect of his life.

The author's role was to keep Mao alive and to fend of disease. This was not easy. Mao for instance refused to clean his teeth. As a result his teeth were covered in a sort of green coating. Although Mao liked to swim and (his residences) he never liked to wash. Mao was sexually predatory and large numbers of young women went through his bed. He picked up a number of sexual diseases and refused to be treated for them and thus spread them to his companions.

The book however is more interesting than a list of scandals. It describes he mechanics of power and the court that Mao ran. The author was there constantly. He was used by Mao as a source of gossip and as such perhaps learned more of his subject than most physicians. The book describes the way that Mao's favourites would circle around him drifting in and out of favour and how they would be used by Mao so that he could remain at the centre of power.

The book is not only important as a close source about one of histories (perhaps regrettably) towering figures but is fascinating to read. It has the grim fascination that a work of fiction can never have as you know that the events unfolded just a short time ago.

The book is highly readable, and is crammed with enough facts to make it believable. I understand that some people have challenged Dr. Li's claim to have been as close to Mao as he indicates in the book. One must either read the book and accept his claim, or deny it entirely. There is no middle ground.

The book presents a picture of Chairman Mao Zedung and of China very different than one would remember from living through the era. Perhaps most interesting (did our government intelligence services have any idea of this?) is the degree to which Mao seemed to admire the United States, while all the time doing everything he could to antagonize it. But this was typical of the man Dr. Li paints, a man full of contradictions.

One episode in the book (I won't spoil it) that is absolutely fascinating is Mao's reaction to three requests Krushchev made of Mao in 1958. Mao's reaction to Krushchev (defiance and rudeness) even so early on was not something I think we knew much about, and is interesting, indeed.

The book really tantalized me with one big unanswered question. Li portrays Mao as a virtual recluse, lolling around his various bedrooms, never having an office or any kind of work schedule. He seems to have successfully avoided any responsibility for government activity, and in fact spent most of his time in power back stabbing those he put into positions of government.

But Dr. Li leaves half the story untold: how did Mao manage to stay in power while being so reclusive? Dr. Li does not speculate about what Mao did when he wasn't with him, so he does not even address this question.

Somehow, and it would be interesting to read how, Mao managed to retain the ability to "hire and fire" prime ministers, ministers, generals, governors, and everyone else from behind the scenes. The Cultural Revolution could have easily gotten out of hand, yet it didn't. Any of the prime ministers who he purged, recalled and purged again (like Deng Xiaoping) could have, and one thinks would have, rebelled against Mao, arrested him, and sent him off to hard labor or worse. But, it didn't happen, even when Mao was very sick and almost totally incapacitated.

The picture of Mao is of a cruel, totally inwardly focused, selfish, controlling person who could charm anyone straight into an inferno. What Mao really believed is opened to question in the book, although much of his thinking comes through in Dr. Li's reporting of his discussions. On one hand Mao was a simple peasant; on the other he seemed to have an incredibly complex grasp of Chinese history and of human nature. His lack of grasp of economics resulted in the starvation of tens of millions of Chinese people, about which Dr. Li indicates Mao didn't care a whit.

When I finished the book I had this feeling that I was leaving a friend (Dr. Li) with whom I had developed a close relationship. His style of writing, his presentation of himself and his thoughts is thoroughly engaging.

I prefer to accept Dr. Li at his word and have enjoyed my friendship with him.

Dr. Li Zhisui was an American educated doctor who became Chairman Mao's personal physician for over twenty years. The book he has written does not purport to be Mao's biography, but a simple and honest account of the years Dr. Li spent at the "court" of the "last Chinese Emperor." I totally agree with a previous reviewer who after finishing the book felt he had left a friend. Dr. Li comes across as a gentleman, a competent preofessional, an unrepented intellectual who learned to integrate his knowledge of medicine with the Byzantine politics of Mao's court. The poor doctor had to put up with a lot of distress and suffering. He was not able to spend time with his family; he was not allowed to quit his job in Group One (the President's entourage); he had to fend off Jiang Qing relentless attacks; he had to care for Mao, who did not believe in medicine and was most uncooperative when it came to being treated. In the early years he admired Mao, but following the purge of Marshal Peng Dehuai and the Chairman's numerous sexual indisgressions, he "felt onlt revulsion for the man I had once revered." (p.331)
The book offers interesting information about the many purges launched by Mao against the rightists, the intellectuals, the capitalist roaders; the relationship betwen Mao and his cronies (Chou Enlai, Lin Biao and the most evil and messed up woman in human history: his wife Jiang Qing). After reading about all the "palace wars" that took place in Communist China (complete with imprisonment, demotion, hard labor and even death) many readers will feel overwhelmed and disgusted with the evil ideology of Communism and with the morally bankrupt Mr. and Mrs. Mao tze Tung. By the way, I have read an online English version of the essay "On Practice" which Mao regarded as one of his masterpieces (Dr. Li believes that he fell in Mao's good graces after telling him he had read it and enjoyed it) and I am not ashamed to say that I found it absolutely common sensical, simplistic and un-imaginative.