Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now

I have been to China and have many friends from there. From everything they have shared with me regarding their own experiences, Red China Blues fits exactly with their descriptions of life in those times. Having been born in 1948 and lived under far different circumstances, I find the history of China during the Mao years fascinating. Red China Blues rings true and it is written with wicked humour as well as much sympathy/empathy. Jan Wong has heart and her account of the Tienanmen Square massacre is the most moving I have ever read. I believe it is a totally accurate account and I found myself weeping as I read it. I was profoundly moved and gained a much deeper insight of the events that took place at that time. In fact, I learned many things about China through this marvellous book and was hungry for more. I couldn't put it down and can't wait to read her latest, Jan Wong's China which I have just purchased.


A must read for anyone interested in China.   June 2, 2001
Allan M. Gathercoal (Norcross, GA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Nothing is at it seems. Jan Wong, a teenager during the Vietnam era, was dissatisfied with capitalistic Canada and radically sought change. For Wong the truth was to be found in Mao's 'little Red Book' and her reading room was to be China.

Looking back twenty-five years and with 20/20 hindsight, Jan Wong takes us into the dragon's lair revealing both her youth's ideology and Mao's China gone by. For many who remember the 60's and early 70's you will understand how she could turn her back on the comfort and freedoms of her home in Canada, renouncing all, and go to live in Mao's China. For fourteen years, with a religious, fanatical devotion, Jan Wong dedicated her life to become a missionary of Mao.

Her red world crashed around her in 1976, the year when the cultural Revolution and Chairman Mao died.. All of her sacrifice, all of the suffering she went through as a worker-peasant were for naught, as China drastically discarded Mao's ideology and moved towards a hybrid capitalistic communism. She felt betrayed, suckered and stupid, "I vowed I would never again suspend my disbelief. I promised myself I would question everything. I became a skeptic."

Her opportunity to question everything came when the New York Times hired her as a Journalist in its Beijing office.

Jan Wong's on site coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 2600 Chinese citizen's in 1989 stands out as one of the best on site reports I have read on the subject. Even Mao, in his 40 years of rule, did not turn tanks on his own people, but Deng Xiaping slaughtered his own people to keep his grip on Communist power. She writes, "The guns at Tiananmen Square killed my last illusions about China."

This book is a must read for anyone traveling to China today. It does more to help you understand the current history than a dozen guide books will.


fabulous, informative and entertaining   May 4, 2000
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you are interested in Chinese history and culture, Red China Blues is a wonderful starting point to delve into China.

Red China Blues chatty, gripping narrative is the perfect place for a Westerner to begin reading about the fascinating subject of China during the Cultural Revolution. Since it is written from a Westerner's point of view, it explains much that would otherwise be puzzling about Eastern customs.

Ms. Wong's opinions are frank and freely given, and she makes few apologies for her younger, idealistic self's "long journey".

Red China Blues was the first of a dozen memoirs I have read centering around China's Cultural Revolution, and it ranks up there as one of the most enjoyable.


Excellent   February 27, 2000
K.Goldberg (Chicago)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Wong's memoir of her parent's native land during the latter days of the Cultural Revolution ranks with "Wild Swans" and "In Search of History" as the best personal narratives about China. Readers follow Wong's transition from naïve Canadian, to disillusioned realist, to returned journalist in Beijing in 1989. I read this book shortly after returning from China, and found Wong's analysis and readable prose completely on target.


renewed my faith in china memoirs   November 16, 2004
L. S. Newhall (USA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I've both lived in and studied China for a few years now, and have read a few really excellent books on it, but this is by far the most enjoyable book I've found yet on China. It seems most memoir books are either too dry or too one-sided, but Jan Wong's "Red China Blues" is full of rich detail and stories, is never long winded nor boring, and continuously reminds the reader that some of this is her own opinion based on her long experience in China. I loved this book. This is one of those books that makes me disappointed after I finish it because I know I won't find another book this great for a long time. I also recommend "China Wakes" by Kristoff and WuDunn. That book has a bit more of an academic journalistic tone, but is still informative and highly readable nonetheless.