Dismantling of a fairytale

An entirely new narrative into the formation of modern China and the rise of communism

- C UDAY BHASKAR

CHINA'S COMMUNIST PARTY of China (CCP) maintains very strict control over the discourse and narrative that frames the emergence of the party as the revered saviour of the nation that was born in October 1949.

The communist party is the core of modern China, and Chairman Mao Zedong is deified as the central figure—the principal founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and the new China.

The CCP's narrative portrays 1949 as the inevitable triumph of a 'people's revolution' driven by broad peasant and worker support, heroic struggle against imperialism/feudalism, successful land reform, and patriotic resistance to Japan. The hagiography is understandable.

This is exactly the 'fairytale' that the book under review dismantles in a persuasive, brisk and unifocal manner. Frank Dikotter, an acclaimed Dutch historian of modern China (currently at the University of Hong Kong), relies in the main on a treasure trove of archival material that he was able to access in Hong Kong.

As he notes in the preface: "A window into the past is offered as a result of a formidable enterprise undertaken by the Party itself between 1981 and 1989. The Central Party Archives, under the control of the Central Committee, working in collaboration with provincial archives from every corner of the country, produced well over 300 volumes (400 to 600 pages per volume) containing original Party documents from 1923 to 1949."