Mao's Children in the New China

Around 18 million young Chinese people were sent to the countryside between 1966 and 1976 as part of the Cultural Revolution. Mao's Children in the New China allows some of them to tell their moving stories in their own voices for the first time. In this inspiring collection of interviews with former Red Guards, members of the first generation to be born under Chairman Mao talk frankly about the dramatic changes which have occurred in China over the last two decades. In discussing the impact these changes have had on their own lives, the former revolutionaries give a direct insight into how ex-Maoists view contemporary China, revealing an attitude perhaps more critical than that of most Western commentators. These poignant memoirs tell the very personal stories of how people from all walks of life were affected by both the cultural revolution and Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms. They cover subjects as diverse as marriage and divorce, the privatization of industry, family relationships, universities and the stock market. Mao's Children in the New China is essential reading for all those interested in learning more about the personal and social history of modern China.

Jiang, Yarong; Ashley, David

Part I Authors' introductory remarks; Part II The interviewees; Chapter 1 Lu Xin, female: novelist; Chapter 2 Wu Shanren, male: private businessman; Chapter 3 Wang Chen, male: cadre in charge of a ferry company, and Wu Qing, male, his friend: private businessman; Chapter 4 Jie Qian, male: director in a securities company; Chapter 5 Wang Xiaozhi, male: deputy manager for a western company; Chapter 6 Yang Yinzi, male: factory technician; Chapter 7 Wan Jinli, male: general manager of a government-sponsored project; Chapter 8 male: college professor; Chapter 9 Chou Linlin, female: former head of a factory clinic; Chapter 10 Li Xiqiang, male: unemployed, and working on a book; Chapter 11 Chen Jianxin, male: college professor; Chapter 12 Yang Yuan, male: college administrator, and Song Ming, male, his friend: purchasing agent for an industrial plant; Chapter 13 Gao Yunhua, female: unemployed worker; Chapter 14 Hong Yongsheng, male: historian; Chapter 15 Zhang Aixiang, female: small business owner; Chapter 16 Lin Yuling, male: publishing editor; Chapter 17 Dai Buqing, male: unemployed worker; Chapter 18 Xu Xinhua, male: high-school principal; Chapter 19 Cao Zhenshan, male: foreign trade coordinator; Chapter 20 Cai Jinzhi, male: general manager of a state farm factory; Chapter 21 Lin Juan, female: editor of a woman's magazine; Chapter 22 Chai Beihua, male: manager of a printing shop; Chapter 23 Xu Yaoming, male: manager of a herbal medicine trading company; Chapter 24 Song Xu, male: lawyer; Chapter 25 female: member of the Shanghai Writers' Association;