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Book reviews for "Liang,_Heng" sorted by average review score:

Son of the Revolution
Published in Hardcover by HarperCollins Publishers (13 December, 1984)
Authors: Heng Liang and Judith Shapiro
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Okay but not great
I read this book at the suggestion of a friend of mine and found it to be moderately interesting. Liang Heng could have cut a great many of his family stories (I think you had to be there to really enjoy them the way he did). The book could also have used a concise historical overview of China from 1949 to the present day. On the other hand, if you didn't live through the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s or somehow missed it, you might enjoy this book more than I did.

The Lost Generation--A Personal Narrative
In recent years, a plethora of books have been written on the Cultural Revolution and the folks who had to live through it. This book is interesting, because the author begins with a description of his mother's detention as a result of the "anti-rightist" campaign, which preceded the Cultural Revolution by almost a decade. In some respects, there is nothing particularly unique about this, because every book I have read on the Cultural Revolution eventually becomes a repudiation of the system that produced it, or, at least, of Mao as a leader. But it is still helpful, because it puts the Cultural Revolution in context. The Cultural Revolution happened mainly because of too much power and or influence being given to one person.

Liang Heng came from a "bad" family. Over and over again he mentions the influence that this superficial categorization has on his life. He is beaten and harassed as a child, and hounded throughout his life by the shadow of his past. This book is fascinating as a study of how a regime which claimed to be building a classless society, actually created one that was exponentially more segmented than what had preceded it.

It may take us a long time to fully understand the meaning of the Communist Revolution in 1949, and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1977, or, for that matter, the revolution of 1911, which was really a pseudo revolution, because Sun Yat Sen was in power for only three months, and he was replaced by Yuan Shikai, who was one of the Empress Dowager's henchmen. What are we to conclude about the past century of China's history? Will it be viewed historically as a unique dynasty of its own, or an interlude between dynasties? And what of the new China that is currently developing? Are not the current developments in China in some ways more revolutionary than the political changes of the past century that bear that name? I'm just thinking out loud now--this book is not philosophy. I mention some of these questions, not because the book specifically raises them but because I think this book has brought me a little closer to understanding them.

I was interested in this book primarily because of my interest in the developments which shaped the history of China during the last half of the twentieth century. I would not recommend building your entire knowledge of its history only from the personal narratives of those who have left China behind them. But books like this one are most definitely an essential part of understanding what went wrong-what kinds of forces came together to produce the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese government is understandably sensitive about material which seems to discredit the current government as a legitimate authority. But disdain for the Cultural Revolution is now established orthodoxy in the People's Republic, and books like this have a role to play in developing a better understanding of that tragic period in the history of modern China, of the "lost generation" that it produced, and especially, of the extent to which the current atmosphere in China is perhaps, in part, a reaction to the excesses of the Cultural Revolution.

Gut wrenching true story.
You won't believe your eyes. If you want to hear someone wax intellectual about China, go somewhere else. If you want to read about the consequences of living in China during the Cultural Revolution, read this. It is a severely sad story of people growing up in China. Heng writes as if he wrote it the day after these events happened, with all the mixed feelings a child would have. He writes without hindsight but leaves that up to you. Great book.


After the Nightmare
Published in Hardcover by Random House (1986)
Authors: Liang, Heng, Judith Shapiro, and Liang Heng
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After the Nightmare: Inside China Today
Published in Paperback by Collier Books (1987)
Authors: Liang Heng, Judith Shapiro, and Liang Heng
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Chinois de Paris
Published in Unknown Binding by Seghers ()
Author: Tsong-heng Liang
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Cold Winds, Warm Winds: Intellectual Life in China Today
Published in Hardcover by Wesleyan Univ Pr (1986)
Authors: Judith Shapiro and Liang Heng
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Energy conservation in buildings in China and Sweden : seminar in China, 1984 = [Chung-kuo ho Jui-tien chien chu chung ti neng liang shou heng hsüeh shu t°ao lun hui 1984, Chung-kuo]
Published in Unknown Binding by Swedish Council for Building Research : Distribution, Svensk byggtjèanst ()
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Intellectual Freedom in China After Mao: With a Focus on 1983
Published in Paperback by Fund for Renewable Energy & (1984)
Authors: Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro
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Return to China: A Survivor of the Cultural Revolution Reports on China Today
Published in Hardcover by Vintage/Ebury (A Division of Random House Group) (26 January, 1987)
Authors: Heng Liang and Judith Shapiro
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