Then the madness of the Cultural Revolution, when millions suffered terribly, many died, and many more behaved disgracefully as Mao sought to destroy those who had rescued China from his earlier follies. Jung Chang’s famous biography of Mao, published in 2005, recounts those awful events in the sort of bleak detail that makes Communist propagandists nervous – and some academic Sinologists critical that Mao’s achievements go too little recognized.
首先是“大跃进”，曾导致了大规模饥荒以及大约3800万死亡。紧跟其后的是文化大革命的混乱局面。几百万中国人深受其害，许多人丧生，而在毛泽东试图毁灭那些曾经拯救中国的老一辈革命者时，更多的人表现得极其可耻。2005年出版的，由张戎所著的著名传记《毛泽东：鲜为人知的故事》详细讲述了那些可怕的事件，其中一些令人绝望的细节让这些共产主义的宣传者们非常恐慌——而一些学院派的汉学家甚至批评道毛泽东的成就被承认的部分太少。