The wilting of the hundred flowers

About this book

This is an outstanding book written by a Chinese scholar educated in the West who spent a year and a half in Communist China in 1957. The author has a remarcable ability for introspection, very rare among authors writing about their own culture. Two chapters stand out as very informative: "The Cultural Background" and "Self-examination". After a review of recent Chinese history, culture, and the experience of Communism, he concludes that considering the immense and continuous suffering of the Chinese people under a constant succession of corrupt regimes, democracy was not the cure-all solution envisioned by the West and especially by the U.S. after WWII. The author's belief was that an authoritarian regime was more adequate for China and explains how Communism - without the author approving its methods - was in the end successful in coming to power in China. It would have been very interesting to read the author's comments after Mao's Cultural Revolution, famine and destruction caused by Communism. A reader of this book may want to read an equally interestin one: Autocratic Tradition and Chinese Politics by Zhengyuan Fu