China After Mao

The Rise of a Superpower

De: Frank Dikötter

Narrado por: Daniel York Loh

Bloomsbury presents China After Mao by Frank Dikötter, read by Daniel York Loh.

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A SPECTATOR AND NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘A revolutionary book’ Sunday Times

‘A pulsating account that makes clear how important it is to look beneath the surface when it comes to any period or region in history – but above all to China’ Peter Frankopan, TLS

'Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what has shaped today's China and what the Chinese Communist Party's choices mean for the rest of the world' New Statesman Books of the Year

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023
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From the Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author of Mao's Great Famine, a timely and compelling account of China in the wake of Chairman Mao

In China After Mao, award-winning historian Frank Dikötter explores how the People’s Republic of China was transformed from a backwater economy in the 1970s into the world superpower of today. His account is the first to be based on hundreds of previously unseen archival documents, from the secret minutes of top party meetings to confidential bank reports. Unfolding with great narrative sweep, this riveting, richly detailed chronicle recasts our understanding of an era that both the regime and foreign admirers celebrate as an economic miracle.

In charting four decades of so-called ‘Reform and Opening Up’ and China’s emergence as a world power, Dikötter tells a fascinating tale of contradictions and illusions, of shadow banking, anti-corruption drives and extreme state wealth standing alongside everyday poverty. He examines China’s approach to the 2008 financial crash, the country’s increasing hostility towards perceived Western interference and its development into a thoroughly entrenched dictatorship – one equipped with a sprawling security apparatus and the most sophisticated surveillance system in the world. Ultimately, the book concludes, the communist party’s goal was never to join the democratic sphere, but to resist it – and then defeat it.

©2022 Frank Dikötter (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Deep analyses

Accessible for understanding, logically explained. As I have read first books of Dikotter, this book also give you deep understanding of China, its way of development as a country, and as a dictatorship power.

Very informative, reader is a bit intense

Information flowed from the pages. Seemed a bit difficult listening to the information but having to deal with changes in dates. The reader was too intense to not be a bit irritated at times.

Lots of facts

I thought the book was boring, dry, and negative, but the author definitely did his research.

What every American should read

Having spent 30 years in China this book tells the story of the real China and what every American or other NATO member should read and understand. The second most powerful country in the world as different views and goals than most believe.

OUTSTANDING

This is the second book in the series about China.
The author addresses so many different facts, which does not make it boring.
Chapter 9, about “going global”, is unbelievable in their ignorance of pollution, environmental protection, contaminants in drinking water, etc.
Their only goal is global gains.
Since I always kept up with the news and commentaries, I remember many of the incidences mentioned in the next to the last chapter.
All in all I HIGHLY recommend this book that EVERY American needs to read.
The writing style is outstanding and the narration is excellent.
Now I am up to the last book in the series: “The cultural revolution-a people’s history 1962-1976.
My heartfelt thanks to all involved, JK.

This guy's writing style is trash

For a book that starts with opening the archives to under the CCP, Frank sure didn't refer to things actually found in those archives