This year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong and a biography written by a foreign scholar has become a big hit once again in China.
The full Chinese translation of the latest version of Ross Terrill's book: "Mao: A biography", has sold more than 50,000 copies since January and has been reprinted four more times.
"The book was reprinted to mark the 30th anniversary of Mao's death, but we didn't expect such a large amount of sales," said Pan Yu, editor of the Publishing House of the People's University of China, the publisher of the translated version.
Written by Terrill, a Ph.D., research associate at Harvard University's Fairbank Center, the book was first published in 1980. It is the translation of the revised version published in 1999.
"I started to worship him when I was a little boy. His thoughts and views have influenced me greatly," said Zhang Zhicheng, a marketing professional, who came to the book store to check out the book.
"I wanted to see how Chairman Mao is portrayed in the foreigner's book," he said.
The biography has sold more than 1,670 copies in the Beijing Book Building, the largest bookstore in the capital. It sold 727 copies in February, the best selling biography that month. "It's not very common for such a highly academic biography to sell so well, especially as most of the buyers are individuals, not government departments," said Sui Guoli, the person in charge of sales in the store.
He said books related to Mao all sell well, and the readers are of all ages.
There are over 10,000 kinds of Mao-related books published in China, but only ten biographies, said Hu Weixiong, processor of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and translator of the new Chinese version of "Mao: A Biography", who revised the translation in 1990, which sold more than 1.2 million copies in eight years.
As a scholar and a journalist, Ross Terrill researched all the documents about Mao from the 1940s. He discussed Mao Zedong's wit and policies through storytelling.
Compared to the previous edition, the latest version is more rhetoric and easier for the readers to read, said Hu. The book focuses more on analysis and his personal way of living, and a lot of revision was made of Mao's activities after the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially during the "Cultural Revolution" period (1966-76).
At present, the most authoritative biography of Mao is "Biography of Mao Zedong (1949-1976)", published by the press under the literature research center of China's CPC Central Committee to mark Mao Zedong's 110th birthday in 2003. The publishing of that book together with Biography of Mao Zedong (1893-1949) put an end to the fact that the Chinese could only read biographies written by foreigners.
Pan Yu, editor of the book, said she was influenced by Chairman Mao greatly. "People can learn about Mao's experiences and thoughts through the works of Chinese as well as foreign scholars, so that they can develop a more balanced and sophisticated view on Chinese history."
She said people today are more interested in understanding Mao as a human being and the origins of his thoughts.
"Mao Zedong does not only belong to China but also to the world," said Liao Wang, a graduate student from Beijing University, who is proud of his ability to recite Mao's poems. He said he had read all the works about Mao and he even wears a badge of Mao on his clothes.
People remember him in many aspects: Mao was a romanticist; he led the people to defeat Japanese aggression and advocated "serve the people" as a fundamental principle of government, Liao said.
The book "Quotations of Mao Zedong" had an accumulated circulation of more than 5 billion copies last century. Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall in Beijing was visited by more than 138 million people from the day it was established in 1977 to December 26 in 2003, his 110th birthday.
There are many reasons that made Mao's biography a bestseller. Some people are just curious about him, some respect his personality, some want to study and understand him again and some regard him as the emblem of national spirit and a political symbol, Hu Weixiong said.
"The enthusiasm for Mao also reflects a complicated social psychology. With the throes brought by the reform and social change, the pros and cons about him are a way of explaining people's own views on modern life, their concerns and requests of the country's development," he said.
"Mao Zedong was a mirror for China," Ross Terrill said.
(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2006)
