China Books Review x Barbarians at the Gate: The Private Life of Chairman Mao

The Politburo had given Mao Zedong’s personal physician Li Zhisui a direct order: prepare the Chairman’s body so that he can be on permanent display. Li was aghast. It was not what Mao had wanted, and besides, “How to pickle your country’s leader” wasn’t one of the courses he studied in medical school. But after the turbulence of the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s death meant a potential political showdown between the Gang of Four, including Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and Mao’s chosen successor, Hua Guofeng. Dr. Li did not want to be caught in the middle. So Li and his team did the best they could. Spoiler alert: it involved a massage that nobody would want to give. Li Zhisui’s controversial memoir, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, was published in 1994. Readers were titillated by Mao’s sex life, questionable hygiene regime, and gruesome medical maladies. Defenders of Mao labeled the book pure propaganda. Dr. Li was a disloyal liar, and his collaborators and publishers were pushing anti-Mao agendas. Jeremiah is joined by Alexander Boyd, Associate Editor of the China Books Review, to discuss Mao Zedong, Li Zhisui, and Jeremiah’s recent retrospective essay about The Private Life of Chairman Mao. Who was Dr. Li? What did it take to survive in the courtyards of power at the peak of Mao’s paranoia? And did Dr. Li really witness all of the major events he described in his book?