Chairman Mao’s personal physician and confidant for twenty two years, takes us for the first time into the Chinese dictator’s very private world.
Customer Reviews
This poor poor doctor:
All the while while reading this book, the only thing I could think about was to feel for this poor poor doctor. Dr. Li was supposedly headed for a great life as a doctor in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, by following his brother’s urging, he returned to China to a pretty much “doomed” career. Not only did he not get to pick his hospital job as wanted after returning, but after being summoned to be Mao’s personal doctor, his dreams as a neurosurgeon was pretty much over. He was abolished to pretty much treating common colds and maladies, and acting as “nanny” to the Mao family, living in fear throughout the 20 years that he would be blamed for any illness of Mao.
I also felt so much for Dr. Li’s wife Lillian whose career was reduced to rudimentary tasks.
Not a global view, but a wonderful sharp focus:
This is a fascinating examination of one of the most powerful and (arguably) destructive world leaders of the 20th century. For somebody like me with a very basic familiarity of the history of Communist China, this book is a little lacking as a biography. It offers little detail on Mao’s background and nothing about his rise to power. It does provide, however, a unique perspective on the Chairman’s life between the years of 1954, when Dr. Li became Mao’s personal physician, and Mao’s death in 1976. It is the first biography I’ve ever read to so closely examine the head/body connection in terms of how one’s politics affect one’s health and one’s health, one’s politics.
The book has a natural bias, since Dr. Li lived with Mao throughout most of this time and was directly involved in many of the events described. He seems to strive for frankness, but a reader might sense that his memories are colored by his own attempts to save face. In some respects, it’s more memoir of Li than biography of Mao–though that seems a small point to quibble about, since Mao was such a profound presence and influence in Li’s life. Those seeking a detached perspective are advised to look elsewhere; this is a purely personal view.
I found it very rewarding. It humanized Mao to a much greater extent than biographies of political leaders generally do. Li seems to want to do justice to his subject, casting blame where appropriate and giving credit where he believes credit is due. The overall picture it presents of the Chairman is of a man with a sharply manipulative mind, but far more power than he could manage; with a much greater love for himself and his image than for the people he professed to serve. But at the same time, though Li may not intentionally have presented the image, Mao also emerges as a prisoner of the system he helped to emplace and so liberally exploited, particularly as he ages and his heath deteriorates. Hounded by his own superstitions and paranoias, he was ill-served by the sycophants he chose to surround him, but so blinded by his own cult of personality that he could never accept a true friend. This towering and terrifying figure is reduced to a querulous, feeble old man with no recourse to privacy or claim to humanity even in death, where his objectification extended to the point that his doctors were ordered to preserve his bloated corpse for eternal display. Sadly, I can’t help but think that the Chairman would have approved.
take a look:
Fascinating reading but not substaniated with facts. A personal experience point of view which may well be close to the truth.
Also a lesson of survival from Dr. Li:
This book is not only an entertaining way to learn Chinese modern history as many of the reviewers here pointed out but also an important personal lessons of survival when we have to deal with a difficult boss for example. Borrowing the language from “7 habits of effective people,” it is to focus your energy on your circle of influence and not on the circle of concern. In this book there are countless examples of people who did the latter (voiced their concern about the welfare of China as a nation and the common people) and invited misfortune upon themselves almost without exception. Dr. Li taught us that we must be aware of what we can do and never worry about what we cannot do.
If I could recommend only one China book…:
Dr. Li was the man responsible for Mao’s health from 1954 until Mao’s death in 1976. He saw a lot. He’s honest, eminently readable, and eye-opening. The translation is excellent. A cover blurb by Professor Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia University, calls it, “The most revealing book ever published on Mao, perhaps on any dictator in history.” I agree with that. Even though it’s almost 700 pages, I enjoyed every word. Long-time subscribers know I prefer to read a book in one sitting instead of two. Dr. Li had me for three, despite my notoriously short attention span. If I could recommend only one China book…
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, this book makes me feel like I’ve been “behind the scenes” during Mao’s regime. I almost want to go back and reread all my “China books” and enjoy my new perspective.
