The private life of chairman Mao

To be sure, Mao Tse Tung was a bit of a prick. There, I've said it. The Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party he may have been but he was a queer duck, and his personal doctor Li Zhi-Sui was there to record Mao's many foibles.

We get an indepth look at Mao's health, his refusal to brush his tea, preferring to drink tea, his peccadilloes and the good doctor's waning faith in Mao. What sticks in my mind is Mao's constipation, so bad that the good doctor was forced to use his fingers to dig out hard stools. What made this so memorable though was the translator's phrase to describe using his fingers to dig out hard stools; "digital manipulation". Now, whenever I hear someone say "let's digitally manipulate that" I wince.

Rather than some "expert" who never met Chairman Mao, this book is written by his doctor. That doesn't mean that every word has to be taken as gospel, but Zhisui Li does make a believable picture of a dictator.

One of the wisest sayings is, "All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." and this book is the proof. I suspect that Mao started as a well meaning leader but, couldn't handle the adulation which, over time, turned to fear. He became a monster who viewed human life in numbers.

Who better to tell us this than Mao's personal doctor. From his eccentricities to his strangely effective ability to unite un-unitable people; it's all here and highly entertaining. Having read this book you will far better understand Mao, and likely be even more puzzled about how the country has changed as much as it has since his time, given his founding leadership.

Fascinating behind the scenes account by Mao's personal physician has the ring of truth to it. The amazing thing when reading about Mao is always how anyone as basically repulsive as he was could hold such a sway over people.

Thirty-something years after Chairman Mao's death, his personal physician breaks doctor-patient confidentiality to tell us what we mostly suspected to begin with: that Mao was crazy six ways from Sunday. The text is interesting, of course, and has historical value, coming from an original source, but lacks pizazz. At times, it reads like a laundry list of the same old cliche stuff that everybody does when they become an isolated, untouchable, megalomaniacal dictator of China:

1) Swim in the Yalu River.

2) Sleep around with starlets from "The Peoples' Cultural Dance Troupe".

3) Sleep around with little boys from "The Peoples' Cultural Dance Troupe".

4) Force your enemies to break rocks in a quarry so you can build an insanely large

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hydroelectric powerplant.

5) Never brush your teeth.

6) Intimidate your doctors to make sure they take good care of you.

7) Force your FRIENDS to break rocks in a quarry so you can build an
insanely large hydroelectric powerplant. (how embarrassing... what a pseudo-Soviet poser)

8) Sit around ruminating about all the people who want to kill you.

9) Starve everybody.

10) Impress fellow dictators with your insanely large hydroelectric powerplant. (Kim Il Sung just about shit a brick!)

I would have liked this book better if Li Zhi-Sui would have shared with us a little more of how all this crazyness made him feel. It seems clear he didn't like Mao too much, or he wouldn't have written all this, but he's too reserved, like he's giving a deposition rather than telling his personal story. show less

Gives a very good sense of the way that the "court" read the signs of Mao's preference, and the way that power flowed from conveying a sense of fear.

Dr. Li Zhisui recounts his personal interactions with Chairman Mao throughout his years as Mao's personal doctor. This account is not only captivating, but gives insight into the personality and events surrounding Mao.