Original link: https://www.skyue.com/23061114.html
I recently read “The Era of Deng Xiaoping”, a triptych edition.
I usually read a lot of big history, such as “General History of the World” and “A Brief History of Europe”. But I seldom look at the details of history, especially modern Chinese history.
Although “Deng Xiaoping Era” is a biography of Deng, because of Deng’s identity and experience, it is also a very good work for understanding modern Chinese history.
The author Fu Gaoyi is lucky.
He is an expert in the study of East Asian (especially China and Japan) issues. Since he became famous with “Japan First” in 1979, he has had more and more opportunities to get in touch with many parties involved in historical events, or their descendants. Through these social relationships, he collected a large amount of material, the granularity of the material is very fine, down to a certain day, who said what on what occasion. Xu Zhiyuan’s Thirteenth Invitation had a dialogue with Fu , and Fu bluntly talked about the benefits brought about by his fame. At the same time, he also mentioned, “I was 49 years old when I became famous, and fame can’t change me much. Fortunately, I didn’t become famous at 29. If I did, I might not be who I am now.”
On the other hand, he is an American. Regarding sensitive issues in modern Chinese history, he does not need to self-censor, and he can present the materials he has collected to readers to the greatest extent. He also organized the material very well, with timelines and themes. It can be seen that his writing is more cautious, trying to present the facts (collected materials) as much as possible, sometimes it reads like a journal. Of course, I also interspersed with my own opinions, even speculations, which are generally based on facts and relatively restrained.
Although Fu’s creative process is not bound by self-censorship, the triptych version I read is based on the deletion of the Hong Kong version. There are deletions. Even so, it is said that many historical details are appearing in mainland publications for the first time.
The reading experience of this book is also very good, in addition to the rich historical details and effective content organization, but also because this history is very close to us, especially the many events and decisions in the part of reform and opening up, which profoundly shaped today’s social form, The reading process is easily connected to the current reality.
The overall impression of Deng, if described in one word, would probably be “Mingzhu”. He advocated “democratic centralism” and believed that the separation of powers in the West is not applicable in China. Looking back at the prosperous dynasties in Chinese history, it was often after the founding of the country that a wise monarch appeared and laid the foundation for the prosperous age, such as Li Shiming in the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Di in the Ming Dynasty, and Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. As the core of the second-generation leadership collective, Deng’s position and achievements are very similar to these people.
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