The Unknown Story to appear Wednesday

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Tuesday September 5, 2006

Taipei- The Chinese translation of the controversial book on the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976), by Chinese-British writer Chang Jung and her British historian husband Jon Halliday, will soon be launched globally, Taiwanese media reported Tuesday. The 800-page book, translated from English to Chinese by Chang and published by Kaifang Publishing Co. of Hong Kong, is to be launched Wednesday in Hong Kong, Taipei and New York, the United Daily News (UDN) said, quoting Chang's Taiwan agent Chong Fang-ling.

Chang, who left China to study English in Britain in 1991 and later married Halliday, became famous after writing her first novel Wild Swans.

In writing Mao: The Unknown Story, she and Halliday spent 12 years interviewing people who had come into contact with Mao and researching historical documents, including the secret archives of the former Soviet Union.

Since it came out in June last year, the book became an instant bestseller and has been translated into some 30 languages. It portrays Mao as a dictator worse than Hitler, responsible for the loss of millions of lives during the 1958-1961 famines and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.

The book challenges China's claim that Mao led China's War of Resistance against Japan (1937-1945), saying Mao fought Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops to preserve Mao's Communist troops, not to deter the Japan's invasion.

The book has triggered heated debate among mainland Chinese who still hold Mao in high regard.

"We were racking our brains to try to find something good to say about Mao, but there was nothing," Chang said in an interview with CNN's Talk Asia programme, insisting her book was only presenting the facts.

She said everywhere she and her husband went in China, those who had known Mao begged them to write the book so that the truth about the him could come out before they died, she said.

Taiwan's Yuan-Liou Publishing Co won the bid to publish the Chinese translation of the book, but withdrew due to differences over the book's allegations that nationalist general Hu Tsung-nan, a favourite of Chiang Kai-shek, was a Communist spy.

Hu's son Hu Wei-chen and some retired military officers insisted Hu Tsung-nan was loyal to Chiang and have threatened to sue Chang for libel.

It is not clear whether Chang has revised section concerning Hu in the Chinese translation.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur