My partner keeps trying to read it and they keep stopping and reading me passages and then looking up actual historical fact and going wtf, this book is nonsense? Does it get better?
I don't know I haven't read it. I told them I'd ask here. Does it get better? Is it anti communist propaganda or is the ridiculous anti communist screed that starts this book serious off just setup for something better?
Thanks for all the good answers I showed them the whole thread and they said a lot of what you all said is in line with their understanding. So basically the first bit is a caricature of the bad parts of early Chinese communism and then that gets better but it turns misogynist instead. Fun series. They'll continue to read because we have a lot of family and friends who LOVE the book and they want to understand why but it's helpful to have the lens on it
How Xi defines himself is a matter of how the party wants to mythologize the head of the state because that person represents the party. The reason why Xi and the other person who got sideswiped by the party in bizarre circumstances Bo Xilai, represent the ''populists'' within the party in contrast of the more elitists clique of the party defined by Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. The reason why the populist managed to win is because of there are rampant corruptions within the party especially with the aftermath of the Sichuan Earthquake. This is why both Xi jinping and Bo Xilai play on their backgrounds as some grassroot organizer and some pseudo red guard ideology respectfully because CPC wants a new image to represent the party.
At the end of the day, it's political theater and what matters for the people is really the policies
Bo Xilai ended up getting convicted on corruption charges as well though.