Empire: World History

Jung Chang On Life Under Mao & Being Banned From China

20 min

Jung Chang recounts her harrowing experiences during Mao's Cultural Revolution, starting at age 14, witnessing the destruction of cultural heritage and the public denunciation and detention of her parents. She describes her profound disillusionment with the regime and how secretly reading banned Western books helped her maintain sanity. The episode also teases her later experience of being banned from China by Xi Jinping, preventing her from seeing her dying mother.

Summarized by Podsumo

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✨ Key Takeaways

1

Personal Witness to Cultural Revolution: Jung Chang, at 14, witnessed the destruction of a Confucian temple and the public denunciation of teachers and her own parents, who were subsequently detained.
2

Profound Disillusionment: By age 16, she realized the "paradise" promised by the regime was, in fact, "hell," marking a critical shift in her political perspective.
3

Survival through Literature: Access to a few "allowed" Western books and "The Gulag Archipelago" provided mental refuge and helped her "stay sane" during the tumultuous period.
4

Controlled Violence: She asserts that the Red Guard's actions were not spontaneous chaos but were "very much controlled" and organized by the government.
5

Banned from China: The episode's full version, as teased, covers Jung Chang's later experience of being banned from China by Xi Jinping, preventing her from seeing her dying mother.

💬 Notable Quotes

"I was 14 when the Cultural Revolution started. My school was a Confucius temple."
"I thought the society I lived in was very beautiful. I thought we were always on the brink of coming to paradise on earth. I thought if this was paradise, what was hell?"
"The Cultural Revolution was actually very much controlled, very much orderly... I know for a fact that the government organized the Red Guards to go and work on people, and to organize the house raids and so on."