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These articles by Ian Johnson bring back a lot of memories for me. China makes me paranoid.
... like so many things about China truth seems to be nested somewhere there...
I have thought hard about China over the years, harder than I have ever thought about anything else in my life, and I have gotten surprises. I don't know if I have gotten close to the truth about anything China related, however. I don't believe all of the official account of the Lin Biao affair; I don't believe Bo Xilai murdered Neil Heywood, I don't believe Gu Kailai murdered Neil Heywood. I also don't believe Jonathan Ansfield and Ian's NYT account that Bo was purged because he was wiretapping Hu Jintao. About the only thing I have confidence in about either incident is that both Lin and Heywood are dead.
I also don't think foreign writers are going to get the whole truth about anything in China. Are the Tienanmen Papers real? Not even the publishing scholars are 100% sure. Some of the worst writing on the Cultural Revolution was done early on, by esteemed western journalists.The Center has got people planting information to foreign reporters everywhere and ordinary Chinese, like Wang Jingyao to me, are not going to tell the truth to a foreigner. I think Ian Johnson does a good job on Remembrance, as good as can be done by a foreigner but I do not think, as he does, that Remembrance is "brave," or truthful. The sections I read, that "interview" of Song Binbin, were ludicrous. He seems to like Wu, had lunch with him, seems to find him credible, seems to believe him. Whatever. I don't know.
These articles by Ian Johnson bring back a lot of memories for me. China makes me paranoid.
... like so many things about China truth seems to be nested somewhere there...
I have thought hard about China over the years, harder than I have ever thought about anything else in my life, and I have gotten surprises. I don't know if I have gotten close to the truth about anything China related, however. I don't believe all of the official account of the Lin Biao affair; I don't believe Bo Xilai murdered Neil Heywood, I don't believe Gu Kailai murdered Neil Heywood. I also don't believe Jonathan Ansfield and Ian's NYT account that Bo was purged because he was wiretapping Hu Jintao. About the only thing I have confidence in about either incident is that both Lin and Heywood are dead.
I also don't think foreign writers are going to get the whole truth about anything in China. Are the Tienanmen Papers real? Not even the publishing scholars are 100% sure. Some of the worst writing on the Cultural Revolution was done early on, by esteemed western journalists.The Center has got people planting information to foreign reporters everywhere and ordinary Chinese, like Wang Jingyao to me, are not going to tell the truth to a foreigner. I think Ian Johnson does a good job on Remembrance, as good as can be done by a foreigner but I do not think, as he does, that Remembrance is "brave," or truthful. The sections I read, that "interview" of Song Binbin, were ludicrous. He seems to like Wu, had lunch with him, seems to find him credible, seems to believe him. Whatever. I don't know.
