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A riveting account of a turbulent period in Chinese history.
In 1966, with the words ‘Bombard the Headquarters!’ Mao Zedong unleashed the full, violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China's cultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, its institutions of government were damaged and its society was bitterly divided.
The shadow of these terrible years lies heavily over the twenty-first-century nation. The history of this period is so toxic that China’s rulers have gone to great lengths to bury it – while a few brave men and women risk their freedom to uncover the truth. For as both they and the Party know, to grasp the history of the Cultural Revolution is to understand much about China today.
Bombard the Headquarters! is not just Mao’s story. It’s the unforgettable stories of countless individuals, mass manias, sacred mangos and spectacular falls from grace. At once rigorous and readable, brief yet teeming with colourful detail, this is a marvel of historical storytelling.
Author: Linda Jaivin
Paperback Published 3 June 2025 128 pages
'Deftly narrated in precise, pellucid prose, Jaivin wears her meticulous research lightly to provide a lively and essential reading on the maddeningly complex politics of the Cultural Revolution. With insightful commentary and vivid sketches of some of its operatic protagonists, this brilliant short history is a great start for anyone who wants to understand a central decade in the Maoist epoch whose catastrophic legacy endures to this day. A tour de force.' —Jianying Zha, author of Tide Players
'A beautifully concise account that makes sense of a hugely complex event in modern Chinese history. Linda Jaivin puts her formidable, deep experience both of Chinese history and language to excellent use, conveying in 100 pages what most would struggle to achieve in a thousand.' —Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London
'To upend an entire society, to pitch a country into a decade of chaos – Linda Jaivin expertly and concisely dissects the origins and the gruesome trajectory of China's Cultural Revolution. Mao's ego, the Party's compliance and the ideological mass hysteria that left perhaps 1-2mn ordinary Chinese citizens dead and drove many of its intellectuals and brightest talents to kill themselves rather than suffer torture and suffering.' —Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking
'Excellent . . . a powerful account of a truly extraordinary period in recent Chinese history, surefooted and perceptive, enlivened by a wealth of vignettes and anecdotes which bring to life the dramatic and frequently horrific events that have played a seminal role in forming Chinese society as it exists today.' —Philip Short, author of Mao: A Life