My partner keeps trying to read it and they keep stopping and reading me passages and then looking up actual historical fact and going wtf, this book is nonsense? Does it get better?
I don’t know I haven’t read it. I told them I’d ask here. Does it get better? Is it anti communist propaganda or is the ridiculous anti communist screed that starts this book serious off just setup for something better?
Thanks for all the good answers I showed them the whole thread and they said a lot of what you all said is in line with their understanding. So basically the first bit is a caricature of the bad parts of early Chinese communism and then that gets better but it turns misogynist instead. Fun series. They’ll continue to read because we have a lot of family and friends who LOVE the book and they want to understand why but it’s helpful to have the lens on it
The beginning part of the book is a semi realistic portrayal of the cultural revolution tbh. I was talking to someone on here earlier about this. The early stages of the revolution weren’t in fact sunshine and rainbows, bad stuff did happen. Modern Chinese folks look back at it as a sorta shame and growing pains type deal and something they should learn and improve from.
That ability to accept fault and grow is something overall lacking in the west.