China Syndrome

Have you ever read a book that was so bleak, it seemed to suck energy out of you every time you picked it up? I'm reading Wild Swans about three generations of women in China. It is tough going.

We start with the warlord system, where women's feet are bound to make them attractive/helpless and they are sold as concubines, where they are at the mercy of other women and servants. Then we move on to Japanese occupation, Soviet occupation, the Kuomintang, the (first round) Communists, and multiple rounds of Red Guards and Rebels and Cultural Revolution committees setting on each other and all around them. Mass starvation, brutal torture and executions, the palace intrigues brought on by the cult of Mao and his charming wife--there will be no Disney movie from this book. Suicide was common, as was death from untreated illnesses (if you had the right grade under the Communist system, you might get treated (and food)--unless your grade fell out of favor, in which case you had to attend public denunciation meetings, where you would be tortured in a range of creative ways).

I guess the silver lining is gaining some perspective on a country that I have never had much sympathy for. I have read many cruel stories from modern-day China. Having read this book and seen the manipulation of people's minds over the decades, you can see how a total breakdown in normal human behavior would result.

My nephew is in China right now. I want to send him my thoughts on the book, however I expect his laptop will be monitored and anything I say could get him in trouble. Of course, as the Chinese would point out, the NSA could be monitoring me. But I'm allowed to criticize Obama all I want, however no one in China is even allowed to mention the massacre at Tianamen Square or criticize their leaders.