晚年周恩來 Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary

I always feel that the best way to understand someone who has already passed away is to read his autobiography and biographies written by reputable scholars. For Zhou and almost all early senior officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), autobiography is out of the question. They did not have the chance or freedom to write them. Even if they had, they would not have been able to write freely to tell all the truth. The only option for us to understand Zhou, a fascinating figure in the modern history of China, is reading a well-researched biography.

At this point of time, the author Gao is best positioned to write a biography of Zhou due to his unique background. Zhou worked all his life for the CCP that has little transparency with a tremendous amount of documents yet to be declassified. Some in China may have access to classified documents, but they are not allowed to write freely. Scholars in the West have disadvantages in obtaining first-hand materials and understanding the intricate relationships related to Chinese culture and history. Gao grew up in China, went through the brainwash, experienced the era that he writes about, and most importantly, he was a member of the CCP Literature Research Section with access to classified documents. He was the leader of the group studying Zhou. He lives in the US now enjoying the freedom of speech. Who could have a better background than him to write about Zhou?

Since Zhou was involved in every major political event in China when he was alive, this book offers much more than about Zhou himself. Zhou completely submitted him to the de facto last Emperor of China, Mao, so this book exposes Mao, a ruthless ruler and hypocrite, from the angle of a submissive subordinate. Zhou may be the best example of how a highly intelligent and originally conscientious person lost his backbone under an emperor, and unwillingly became an accomplice of brutal and evil acts. I was a kid when Zhou passed away, and like hundreds of millions of my fellow Chinese, I wept at the loss of him. Now my feeling about him is very mixed. I certainly have much more respect of people like Peng Dehuai who stood up against Mao’s disastrous policies, and suffered from purge consequently.