Dan and Bob,
Lao Dong asked me to talk to publishers for him, but I don't know anyone at Monthly Review (which I also think would be the best place). Dan, if you're in touch with John Foster, and Bob, if you're in touch with anyone, please mention this to them. I also like Dan's idea of publishing this along with Mobo's article and other related articles in a collection on the topic of "manufacturing truth"-- i think it's normal for journals to allow aricles to be published separately in book form, so this should be doable.
Thanks,
[the monkey king]:
he swings his golden-banded cudgel
and shatters the firmament;
his anti-dogmatism is manifested
in doing as he pleases."
---
Mao Zedong >From: Saul Thomas
>To: zhongguo@openflows.org >Subject: Forwarded from Dan Vukovich: re-publish Manufacturing History? >Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 07:22:12 -0600 > >Hi all, and happy new year, > >Matt, I agree with your diagnosis and your desire to get this text >in circulation. Ive also been wanting to read this for quite some >time. The only related thing Ive seen has been the petition/letter >that was floating around on the net years ago (also from csg I >recall). > >MR press would be I think the or an obvious place to publish this. >If Bob Weil is out there, and since he's published with them, maybe >he can chime in here. I took a class with John Foster years ago, >and would be happy to run this by him too. But I think the first >step would of course be to get the authors and editors on board, and >see if they are interested. Come to think of it, maybe the texts >could be put up at the csg web site at some point? Yet another >option would be to add some more pieces to the Manufacturing Truth >collection (like Mobo's if its still available) and try to >re-publish it that way. Its an important topic, and Im not just >saying that b/c I'm working on a chapter on the changes in the >historiography of Mao in the West >(in sinology and American culture). (Though Im not focussing on the >Li memoir). > >There is a useful piece by Margaretta Jolly on the Li book, on its >contradictions and the genre of "creative" biography-writing >(Biography >23.2 >(2000) 481-503), if youre interested. I have a downloaded copy of >it if its of interest to anyone. > >Mobo, is the review you mention the one from 1998 in BCAS on >writings by Chinese expats? If not, would you care to circulate it? > Hope its a nice summer down under! > >yours, Dan > > > >------------------------------ >Daniel F. Vukovich Visiting Humanities Scholar Kresge College >University of California -- Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA 95064 >------------------------------ > >----- Original Message ----- From: "Mobo Gao" >To: Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 3:18 PM >Subject: Re: re-publish Manufacturing History? > >Hi > >Frederick Teiwes might have written something. I once sent a piece >to the China Quarterly which included a critique of the book by >citing Manufacturing History; but it was knocked back. > >Mobo > >At 07:47 PM 8/01/2004 +0000, you wrote: Please see my blog entry: > >http://www.chinastudygroup.org/b2/ > >Contents: > >Several years ago the CSG published a collection of articles >debunking Random House's book The Private Life of Chairman Mao >(1994). Within a few months after publication of the Random House >book, numerous Chinese scholars and prominent individuals had >already spoken out against the book in the Chinese language media in >mainland China and abroad, so that few scholars who paid attention >to the Chinese media even took the book seriously anymore. This >criticism, however, somehow failed to find its way into the English >language media. CSG tried to resolve this situation by giving a >presentation on the book's problems at the "Cultural Revolution >Revisited" conference in 1996 (or was it the Socialist Scholars >Conference?) and publishing its collection of articles, >Manufacturing History: Sex, Lies, and Random House's Memoirs of Mao >Physician. Unfortunately, rather than seeking larger scale >publication and marketing for the collection, CSG only distributed a >few copies to those who requested it. It's not available in any >academic library that I'm aware of, and a google search for the >title yields only our website, MIM (who claims to have copies for >sale), and the Socialist Scholars Conference. Meanwhile, Random >House's book has remained a best-seller, stocking the shelves of >major bookstores (in the conspicuous absence of any remotely >progressive China scholarship, especially with regard to Mao's >reputation), and even being taught in some universities. I almost >vomited when I looked at Amazon's page for customer reviews of the >book: review after review, the book is praised as "a miracle" that >"masterfully reveals" Mao's "true nature" as "a disgusting, >perverted and ignorant mass murderer". Someone even exhorts us to >"tear down Mao's portrait off Tiananmen square already!" And this >goes on for 53 reviews! I plan to post a review of my own, but I >hope many of you will also post comments, even if only a sentence, >so we can try to counter-balance this trash. Of course writing >reviews on Amazon won't change much, but it's better than nothing. > >More importantly, I'd like to open up discussion as to the >possibility of pursuing larger scale publication and distribution of >Manufacturing History. At the least, I think Dong Xulin's chapter >should be published in a China Studies journal and/or a mainstream >progressive journal such as Monthly Review. Perhaps other criticisms >have already been published in English? If so, I haven't been able >to find them by searching the internet. And they certainly haven't >had an impact on how the Random House book is perceived by >mainstream China Studies, in the U.S. anyway. The vilification of >Mao continues to play a significant role in the negative >representation and "remembering" of "really existing socialism" that >has become such an obstacle for the Left today, so I think we should >use whatever resources we have available to fight it. > >Matt > >"We should learn from Sun Wukong, the monkey king: he swings his >golden-banded cudgel and shatters the firmament; his anti-dogmatism >is manifested in doing as he pleases" ---Mao Zedong > >_________________________________________________________________ >The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* >http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > >This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from >http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm > 