Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was a founder and leader of the Chinese Communist Party who became the paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. He led the party through civil war and revolution, then launched campaigns including the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution that transformed China while causing widespread persecution, famine and social disruption.

In Jeff Shaara’s The Frozen Hours, Douglas MacArthur believes China will not intervene in strength, but Mao Zedong sends large forces across the border. Lisa See’s Dreams of Joy places Mao Zedong within a narrative shaped by social change and the pressures of ordinary life, family, marriage and personal loyalty, and art, learning and intellectual life.

In non-fiction, Mao Zedong is discussed in Anchee Min’s Red Azalea, John Man’s Conquering the North, and Stephen R. Platt’s The Raider. Anchee Min’s Red Azalea approaches the subject through social change and the pressures of ordinary life, political ambition and government, and exploration, travel and cultural encounter.