Does it bother anyone besides me?

[Occhidiangela]

Although at the time his Nationalist party rival Chiang Kai Shek wasn't terribly great either, I'll add a few practical bonuses to what was being kicked out through revolution.

Things like: Multiple wives, foot-binding, kicking out european opium stranglehold. Got rid of feudal class system. Establish better semblence of egalitarianism. Lots of oppressive old traditions needed to be thrown out. Also did establish a rather impressive railway system that wasn't in place before (do I play Railroad tycoon II too much?). So... social benefits abound.

There's no question his economic decisions ended up unsound. While few of the educated lurkers here would think it, I'd just like to stress Mao wasn't terrible on the Evil scale. He f'ed up the economy and millions starved! He freed the people, women and men from being slaves to economy, social order or drugs. Hmm... Can't say I'm not glad the old leadership is gone, but how much worse or lacking was that leadership previous to or rivalling Mao?

The cultural lens is much different when made in china  :whistling:
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Yes, the Kuomintang was almost a Tong gone public. (That is how The Soong Dynasty" describes it anyway. Excellent book.)

I had thought that the original revolution, led by Sun Yat Sen among others, made the first dent in the Opium problem. Did not realize Mao continued the theme. He did have 20+ years of civil war and war with Japan to fight in the meantime. :D And write his book. Busy man! :blink:

Trivia: When I lived in Taiwan, Chiang Kai Chek was still alive. The currency there had pictures of Sun Yat Sen on it. All of the bills, as I recall.

As to assessing Mao: his predecessor was Sun Yat Sen, and as I read it, the country was never really unified (as it looks on the map today) since Dr Sun's death was soon after followed by Civil War. The Kuomintang under Chiang did not, as I understand it, ever really have all of China under control. It took Mao's final victory and Chiangs exile to Taiwan to "unify" China. I may be off on a few details, however.

Rogue out