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2 books match the query 'Gao, Mobo'

cover of Constructing China: Clashing Views of the People's Republic

Constructing China

Clashing Views of the People's Republic

Mobo Gao

Pluto Press, 2018

For years now, China’s economic and political rise has provoked fear—even paranoia—around the world. But how do we get our information about China, and how are our understandings of it actually produced?
            Constructing China presents a detailed examination of the means through which our knowledge of China is created. Rejecting the supposed objectivity of empirical statistics and challenging the assumption of a dichotomy between Western liberal democracy and Chinese authoritarianism, Mobo Gao dissects the political agenda and conceptual framework of commentators on China and urges those on the right and the left alike to be carefully critical of their own views on the nation’s politics, economics, and history.
 
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cover of The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution

The Battle for China's Past

Mao and the Cultural Revolution

Mobo Gao

Pluto Press, 2008

Mao and his policies have long been demonised in the West, with the Cultural Revolution considered a fundamental violation of human rights.

As China embraces capitalism, the Mao era is being surgically denigrated by the Chinese political and intellectual elite. This book tackles the extremely negative depiction of China under Mao in recent publications and argues most people in China, including the rural poor and the urban working class, actually benefited from Mao's policy of a comprehensive welfare system for the urban and basic health and education provision for the rural, which is being reversed in the current rush towards capitalism.

By a critical analysis of the mainstream account of the Mao era and the Cultural Revolution and by revealing what is offered in the unofficial e-media debates this book sets the record straight, making a convincing argument for the positive effects of Mao's policies on the well-being of the Chinese people.

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