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The Generalissimo's Son: Chiang Ching-kuo and the Revolutions in China and Taiwan, by Jay Taylor
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Chiang Ching-kuo, son and political heir of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, was born in 1910, when Chinese women, nearly all illiterate, hobbled about on bound feet and men wore pigtails as symbols of subservience to the Manchu Dynasty. In his youth Ching-kuo was a Communist and a Trotskyite, and he lived twelve years in Russia. He died in 1988 as the leader of Taiwan, a Chinese society with a flourishing consumer economy and a budding but already wild, woolly, and open democracy. He was an actor in many of the events of the last century that shaped the history of China's struggles and achievements in the modern era: the surge of nationalism among Chinese youth, the grand appeal of Marxism-Leninism, the terrible battle against fascist Japan, and the long, destructive civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists. In 1949, he fled to Taiwan with his father and two million Nationalists. He led the brutal suppression of dissent on the island and was a major player in the cold, sometimes hot war between Communist China and America. By reacting to changing economic, social, and political dynamics on Taiwan, Sino-American rapprochement, Deng Xiaoping's sweeping reforms on the mainland, and other international events, he led Taiwan on a zigzag but ultimately successful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
Jay Taylor underscores the interaction of political developments on the mainland and in Taiwan and concludes that if China ever makes a similar transition, it will owe much to the Taiwan example and the Generalissimo's son.
- Sales Rank: #935967 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Harvard University Press
- Published on: 2000-10-15
- Released on: 2000-09-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.52" h x 1.33" w x 6.55" l, 1.95 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 544 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
Taiwan enjoys a booming economy and a lively, boisterous democracy. In this deeply detailed biography, Taylor maintains that Chiang Ching-kuo is largely responsible for both. Though historically still in the shadow of his famous father, Chiang Kai-shek, whose Nationalist party lost China to the Communists in 1949 and who then fled to Taiwan, the younger Chiang spent a life that is itself fascinating. Born in 1910, as China was disintegrating into anarchy, Chiang as a young man spent 12 years in the Soviet Union as a student and Soviet Party functionary. Returning to a China in chaos, he proved himself a capable administrator amid the otherwise corrupt Nationalists. In exile in Taiwan, he gained immense power, especially after the death of the elder Chiang in 1975. According to the author (a former Asia specialist with the U.S. Foreign Service), he used this power for bad and good. As head of numerous secret agencies, Chiang helped keep Taiwan a brutal dictatorship for 30 years. Yet he was prescient enough to draw into the government skilled personnel who laid the groundwork for the island's spectacular economic development, and pragmatic enough in the years before his death in 1988 to see that a transition to democracy was necessary and inevitable. Of special note is Taylor's account of how Chiang skillfully read and used the changing trends of the Cold War and the post-Cold War period to allow Taiwan to not only survive but prosper. Whether the good Chiang did outweigh the bad remains an open question, but he clearly was a leader of importance. This work will long remain his definitive biography, which means that this could remain in print indefinitely, enjoying small but steady sales. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Taylor, who once served in the U.S. Foreign Service, was asked by the semiofficial China Times Publishing Company in Taipei to write an independent, unrestricted biography of Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of and successor to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Chiang Ching-kuo witnessed the loss of the mainland to Mao's Communists, having returned to China in 1937 from a decade in the Soviet Union, but eventually he led the building of Taiwan into a thriving commercial society and feisty democracy. Taylor used published sources in English and Chinese but also had unprecedented access to political figures in Taiwan and the People's Republic. Although no biography could settle all the questions regarding this colorful, controversial, and powerful figure, Taylor's strong narrative deals with it in an informed and frank but sympathetic way, addressing such topics as CIA intervention, economic policy, and family affairs. Recommended for both specialist collections and public libraries with depth in international affairs.DCharles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
A breakthrough in information available in English about an important and relatively little-known historical character, about U.S.-Taiwan relations from the 1950s through the 1980s, and about political dictatorship and reform in Taiwan. (Andrew J. Nathan, author of China's Transition)
A well-written account of an extraordinary life, narrated against the background of the world-shaking events in which Chiang Ching-kuo was deeply involved: the Soviet Revolution, the Sino-Japanese war, the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists in China, and the Cold War. Taylor's book fills a glaring gap in the literature; it will be valued by scholars and by others interested in the character and role of a memorable individual in the making of today's Taiwan. In writing this full-length biography, Taylor has interviewed scores of people who knew Ching-kuo well at various stages of his life. He traveled to his hometown, Hsikou, and to the area that he administered in southern Kiangsi to interview people in both places about Ching-kuo's early life. He has also located documents and interviewed individuals who cast light on Ching-kuo's experience in the Soviet Union. It will be a distinguished addition to Harvard's publications on China. (Ralph N. Clough, Johns Hopkins University)
A readable, and fascinating book--a breakthrough in information available in English about an important and relatively little-known historical character, about U. S.-Taiwan relations from the 1950s through the 1980s, and about political dictatorship and reform in Taiwan. The book paints a large canvas. It gives attention to the man, his family life, and his immediate relationships, but also to the general political setting. The writing is direct and clear. Taylor is good at reimagining circumstances, sometimes because he's visited the scenes and met the people. With his voracious appetite for sources and reliance on interviews, he can often bring a scene to life. Taylor is shrewd and honest at the level of particular incidents and issues, and he writes in a voice of tolerant disillusionment about human folly in general. He creates a plausible, humanly complex sense of the thinking and motivation of characters. (Andrew J. Nathan, author of China's Transition)
Taylor tells the story of Chiang Ching-kuo's life well. The writing is clear and the relationship between Ching-kuo's family and career to the dramatic 'sweep' of the century is maintained throughout. A consistent effort is made--rather successfully--to contrast Ching-kuo's experience with that of his old Moscow classmate, Deng Xiaoping. Taylor offers a significant reinterpretation of Ching-kuo's time in the USSR, leading one to conclude that he may really have meant it in all of those Stalinistically stylized denunciations of his father, or at least in some of them. More important, Taylor makes it clear, even in an understated way, that the time in the USSR was formative, politically, for his subject. (William C. Kirby, Harvard University)
Taiwan enjoys a booming economy and a lively, boisterous democracy. In this deeply detailed biography, Taylor maintains that Chiang Ching-kuo is largely responsible for both. Though historically still in the shadow of his famous father, Chiang Kai-shek...the younger Chiang spent a life that is itself fascinating...Of special note is Taylor's account of how Chiang skillfully read and used the changing trends of the Cold War and the post-Cold War period to allow Taiwan to not only survive but prosper...This work will long remain his definitive biography. (Publishers Weekly)
Most historians have not been kind to the man who failed China and then ruthlessly established his presence on the island of Taiwan, which he ruled under martial law until his death in 1975...Jay Taylor tries to convince us that Chiang Ching-kuo, despite his own ruthless suppression of any opposition in Taiwan, was fundamentally a better man than his father...Following his life in this book gives one a good picture of this tumultuous period in China's history. It may also help to explain at least a little of the passion felt on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. (Danyll Wills South China Morning Post 2000-10-14)
Jay Taylor has written a superb, magnificently researched biography of Chiang Kai-shek's son, Ching-kuo, the man who set the stage for the democratization of Taiwan. [The Generalissimo's Son] tells the fascinating story of the man who set Taiwan on its new course, a course which seems to preclude unification with China and presents a grave danger to the peace of the world. (Warren I. Cohen Times Literary Supplement 2001-04-20)
The first comprehensive Chiang Ching-kuo biography in English, this very readable book is based on extensive documentary research and interviews. It is an important addition to the literature of China's (and Taiwan's) modern history and politics. (J. Chen Choice 2001-07-01)
Taylor has written an excellent biography. (Jonathan Fenby Times Higher Education 2009-07-30)
[A] detailed and revealing biography. (Jonathan D. Spence New York Review of Books 2009-10-22)
Break[s] new ground--introducing a relatively unknown figure to the West. By weaving together numerous interviews and historical research, [Taylor] create[s] a fast-paced narrative that crackle[s] with the excitement of international diplomacy and Cold War espionage. (Robert Green Far Eastern Economic Review 2009-05-01)
Most helpful customer reviews
41 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
Generations will thank him
By Guo Zicheng
This is a very important introduction for the West of a remarkable,
and still little understood, Chinese leader.
If Chiang Ching-kuo
(CCK) had survived to lead a unified China, he would be one of the few
non-Westerners who would be extensively written by Western scholars.
(The "twentieth" century, a name that itself implies a
Western perspective on history and time, is of course a history of the
West's triumph over other civilizations. Consequently contemporary
society remembers little of the other great civilizations that have
contributed to the human experience: the Arabic Islamic, the Chinese
(or Sinitic), the Indian, to name the few obvious ones. But I
digress.) Had his father not been the great but tragic Chiang
Kai-shek, whose influence on modern China will forever overshadow his,
CCK would be even more respected in his own right. Had he been
educated in English (the most influential language in the past
century) and lived in a country that was able to engage with the rest
of the world, such as Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, he would have been
able to let his own views be better known throughout the world, and
thereby improve his chances of a favorable historical review. CCK had
none of that. By the time he reached the pinnacle of power, his arena
was not great and ancient China, but tiny Taiwan, isolated and
ostracized by the rest of the world, and beholden to a far-away
country (the US) which, though arguably well intentioned, was also
quick to sacrifice its interests for geopolitical needs. CCK will
probably never command the attention accorded to a Mao, a Deng, a
Chiang Kai-shek or even a Lee Kuan Yew. Yet to the extent that
Taiwan's separation from the mainland is temporary, CCK's legacy may
yet positively impact the fate of one quarter of humanity.
The
book's greatest strength is its objectivity. The author did not start
by writing a laudatory biography of CCK. Indeed the author does not
disguise any of the Kuomintang's and CCK's cruel misdeeds and follies.
However, in the end the author assesses the man and paints a largely
favorable picture. This is important, for it is a very human picture,
unlike the almost saint-like quality created by CCK's more ardent
supporters, nor the dismissive cold shoulder given by the opposition
("CCK only did this because the Americans forced him to; CCK did
this only for the KMT's own surivival."). Readers will
appreciate the author's description of CCK's Russian experience, which
molded his character, his philosophy and his methods. His struggle
with the KMT right wing is little understood even by many Taiwanese
today, who mistakenly believed that he could have democraticized
Taiwan much earlier without bloodshed. The roles of the United
States, which was not always a true friend, and the Chinese
communists, which was not necessarily always an enemy, are portrayed
in a balanced manner. We learn that, long before Washington broke off
ties with Taipei, CCK had calmly prepared for Taipei's isolation and
its eventual reckoning (reconciliation?) with the mainland. A true
Chinese republic, the first in our history, came of age under his
stewardship. Unlike his father, who wanted to re-create an ancient
China on Taiwan, and unlike his successors, who now want to separate
artificially Taiwan's undeniable links with Chinese civilization, CCK
led a Taiwan that became Chinese ("became" because it first
had to rid itself of 50 years of Japanese colonial influence) but also
unique, modern and, later, democratic. James Soong, one of CCK's
better lieutenants, once commented that if the Republic of China were
to succeed, it needed to be "more Chinese than the Chinese
communists and more Taiwanese than the Taiwanese independence
advocates." CCK knew that Taiwan could be both. For the last
decade in which he led, Taiwan accomplished just that. When future
scholars examine the years from 1949 through 1990, they may conclude
that Taiwan's scholastic and literary contribution to the Chinese
speaking world was disproportionately large relative to its
size.
The book has minor deficiencies. Perhaps to retain the
attention of the average Western reader, the author skips much detail
in describing various important events, leaving the serious reader
craving for more. The book attempts to, but does not convincingly
answer, many important questions surrounding CCK: How did he reject
communism after starting out as a staunch bolshevik in Russia? Was he
a closet communist? What were his true views about the Americans?
Did he truly desire unification, or was he waiting for a moment for
independence? The conventional wisdom is that he was a staunch
patriot, that he desired unification, and that he never truly believed
that the Americans could be trusted. CCK was also capable of
incredible cruelty, and perhaps more should have been devoted to this
dark side of Taiwan's development, which will remain a blemish on an
otherwise favorable record (the author contends, however, that CCK was
not chiefly responsible for much of the "white terror", a
view shared by many). Like all good works on Chinese issues, the book
should have included a map of China and Taiwan, and a glossary of
Chinese characters.
One hopes that this work will invite more
scholarship on CCK and this important period in history. When CCK
died in 1988, it was still difficult to fully assess his legacy.
Twelve years have passed. While still short by historical standards,
one can already safely say that he was one of the greatest Chinese
statesmen of the last century.
Those who lived in Taiwan during the
CCK years saw a time of unprecedented economic opportunity and greater
political participation. For those whose families came from the
mainland, it was also a land where traditional Chinese culture could
continue even as it was being systematically destroyed on the mainland
(it has only recently been rehabilitated). For those who lived
through that era, CCK's historical assessment is no longer important.
He was the man who symbolized peace, stability, security and
prosperity. He will be fondly remembered.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
A good case of historian, not journalistic work. I actually read it all.
By T. P. Lee
I enjoyed reading it. Given the busy schedule, I myself find it amazing actually having finished the whole book.
I like the matter-of-fact'ly attitude and the author's historical perspective, and that adds credibility to his research and work.
The personal encounters and rapports by those early makers and shakers were very facinating. Some documents, as the author put it, are still not released yet and we have to wait some more. The file on the last encounter between Stalin and CCK before CCK returned to China was one of them. What exactly was communicated and expressed, and what was truly in their minds? The only early ally of Chinese struggle against Japanese invasion was Russia? With real airplanes, pilots and so on? This part was never played out hard in KMT/Taiwan's history lessons. Don't know how the CCP/Mainland portrait that part of the history *today*. Obviously, Stalin has his reasons and he was not just charitable in heart. The Great Terror executed 800,000 in the USSR and is more than how many Russians killed in the first two years of WWII. What a contrast!
It makes you think how the turns of events gets to us here today as an individual and as communities.
Leave the rhetoric to people who cannot think and reflect and have preconceived notions and unshakable emotions, and read this book with the feel of a by-stander.
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent Insight
By T. Peck
This book provides a unique perspective into a previously unknown history to western culture. It is rare to come across such an extensive biography of such a fascinating Asian leader written in english.
See all 12 customer reviews...
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