Zhou Enlai
A Life
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A Financial Times Best Book of the Year
The definitive biography of Zhou Enlai, the first premier and preeminent diplomat of the People's Republic of China, who protected his country against the excesses of his boss--Chairman Mao.
Zhou Enlai spent twenty-seven years as premier of the People's Republic of China and ten as its foreign minister. He was the architect of the country's administrative apparatus and its relationship to the world, as well as its legendary spymaster. Richard Nixon proclaimed him "the greatest statesman of our era." Yet Zhou has always been overshadowed by Chairman Mao. Chen Jian brings Zhou into the light, offering a nuanced portrait of his complex life as a revolutionary, a master diplomat, and a man with his own vision and aspirations who did much to make China, as well as the larger world, what it is today.
Born to a declining mandarin family in 1898, Zhou received a classical education and as a teenager spent time in Japan. As a young man, driven by the desire for China's development, Zhou embraced the communist revolution as a vehicle of China's salvation. He helped Mao govern through a series of transformations, including the disastrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Yet, as Chen shows, Zhou was never a committed Maoist. His extraordinary political and bureaucratic skill, combined with his centrist approaches, enabled him to mitigate the enormous damage caused by Mao's radicalism.
When Zhou died in 1976, the PRC that we know of was not yet visible on the horizon; he never saw glistening twenty-first-century Shanghai or the broader emergence of Chinese capitalism. But it was Zhou's work that shaped the nation whose influence and power are today felt in every corner of the globe.
About this Author
A leading scholar of the Cold War and the history of modern China, Chen Jian is Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at New York University and NYU Shanghai; Hu Shih Professor of History Emeritus at Cornell University; and Zijiang Distinguished Visiting Professor at East China Normal University.
Reviews
Vividly stages [the enigma of Zhou Enlai] in all its complexity so that readers are forced to wrestle with Zhou's paradoxes on their own. Chen's prodigious research using Chinese, English, and Russian sources helps him paint an old-fashioned but enthralling narrative. Free of the kind of jargon and theoretical gibberish that strangles much other academic writing, [this] biography brings twentieth-century Chinese history alive in new and very personal ways.
Chen Jian has published a monumental biography of Zhou Enlai that makes him the pre-eminent scholar of the contemporary Chinese diaspora. [This] book, a comprehensive portrait of Zhou that took twenty years to research and write, will change [the way Zhou is perceived in the West]. Rather than merely applauding or attacking Zhou, it sets out to understand him at a level no previous work has approached...a compelling narrative.
A life of Zhou Enlai...can be nothing less than an exploration of China's history during the greater part of the 20th century. Chen Jian has drawn on such an astonishing wealth of sources in Chinese archives and elsewhere that it is difficult to see how his biography could ever be bettered.
A lucid, well-researched narrative...a satisfyingly fine-grained account of an influential figure often lost in Mao's shadow.
Chen delivers an authoritative, incisive look at an unquestionably significant historical figure. An excellent biography and capable deconstruction of the labyrinthine mechanics behind the CCP's development.
Enlightening and moves along briskly...describes [Zhou's] initiatives with clarity and detail.
Magnificent and thoroughly detailed...[a] comprehensive and important work.
An illuminating work of historical scholarship...one cannot help but come away from [this book] impressed by the enormous breadth of Zhou's work and his unquestioned accomplishments.
A useful and engaging biography that turns the spotlight on events that in so many ways shape Chinese politics today.
A model biography of 20th century China...This is a thoroughly entertaining, historically accurate portrayal of Zhou Enlai, consummate diplomat and intellectual giant of the CCP.
Chen Jian's Zhou Enlai compellingly documents the whims, illusions, and eccentricities of Mao Zedong. I know of no better account of the arbitrary nature--but also the consequent waste--of authoritarian rule.
A must-read. Chen Jian's book illuminates Zhou Enlai's life from the earliest years to his final days with nuance, empathy, and scholarly depth. Along the way, he also tells the breathtaking story of Zhou's China. This is a rare work of history shot through with the lived experience, and even occasional pensiveness, of an eminent authority on twentieth-century China.
At last, Zhou Enlai has the full-dress biography he deserves, one that uses rich documentary evidence to make an objective assessment of his enduring influence on twentieth-century China as well as the world. This is a profoundly important work of history.
Communist China resembles a labyrinth. This brilliant study of Zhou Enlai's life has given us a key and a map to understand it. A masterpiece and a must-read for anyone who cares about China and its impact on the world.
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