Lin Biao

Another book that will be tossed into the donation box is Jaia and Douglas Childers The White Haired Girl - Bittersweet Memories of a Little Red Soldier.

Apart from the need to address the problem of overflowing books in my possession, I think I have reached saturation point reading and keeping books about China's Cultural Revolution.

The author (Jaia) grew up, naturally, during the Revolution, and remembered Lin Biao (林彪, pictured) in the following way:

"He had sneaked into the Party as an evil worm burrows into the heart of a red apple and waved the red flag higher than anyone to hide his evil intentions.

"We heard many stories about his rotten life. He had slept every night in a bourgeois vibrating goosefeather bed. He had lived behind three layers of curtains, blocking the light, hiding from the Red Sun, proving his heart shadowy and dark. And he had secretly called himself the Flying Horse. What arrogance! Everyone knew there was only room in the sky for the Red Sun!"

"We also learned that our eternally wise Chairman Mao knew of Lin Biao's evil plans from the very beginning, even before the Long March. He was never deceived for even one moment. I puzzled much over this. Chairman Mao knew Lin Biao was an evil spy, yet wrote his name into the Constitution as future Chairman, making him the second most beloved leader of our nation. Why? But the Party told us we could not hope to understand the length, subtlety, and complexity of class struggle, especially as it applied to this situation. But Chairman Mao's great mind encompassed and resolved all the apparent contradictions. We could only trust in him."