The Generalissimo's Son

Chiang Ching-kuo led Taiwan on a zigzag but ultimately successful transition from dictatorship to democracy. Jay Taylor underscores the interaction of political developments on the mainland and in Taiwan and concludes that if China ever makes a similar transition, it will owe much to the Taiwan example and the Generalissimo's son.

A breakthrough in information available in English about an important and relatively little-known historical character, about U.S.-Taiwan relations from the 1950s through the 1980s, and about political dictatorship and reform in Taiwan. -- Andrew J. Nathan, author of China's Transition A well-written account of an extraordinary life, narrated against the background of the world-shaking events in which Chiang Ching-kuo was deeply involved: the Soviet Revolution, the Sino-Japanese war, the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists in China, and the Cold War. Taylor's book fills a glaring gap in the literature; it will be valued by scholars and by others interested in the character and role of a memorable individual in the making of today's Taiwan. In writing this full-length biography, Taylor has interviewed scores of people who knew Ching-kuo well at various stages of his life. He traveled to his hometown, Hsikou, and to the area that he administered in southern Kiangsi to interview people in both places about Ching-kuo's early life. He has also located documents and interviewed individuals who cast light on Ching-kuo's experience in the Soviet Union. It will be a distinguished addition to Harvard's publications on China. -- Ralph N. Clough, Johns Hopkins University A readable, and fascinating book--a breakthrough in information available in English about an important and relatively little-known historical character, about U. S.-Taiwan relations from the 1950s through the 1980s, and about political dictatorship and reform in Taiwan. The book paints a large canvas. It gives attention to the man, his family life, and his immediate relationships, but also to the general political setting. The writing is direct and clear. Taylor is good at reimagining circumstances, sometimes because he's visited the scenes and met the people. With his voracious appetite for sources and reliance on interviews, he can often bring a scene to life. Taylor is shrewd and honest at the level of particular incidents and issues, and he writes in a voice of tolerant disillusionment about human folly in general. He creates a plausible, humanly complex sense of the thinking and motivation of characters. -- Andrew J. Nathan, author of China's Transition Taylor tells the story of Chiang Ching-kuo's life well. The writing is clear and the relationship between Ching-kuo's family and career to the dramatic 'sweep' of the century is maintained throughout. A consistent effort is made--rather successfully--to contrast Ching-kuo's experience with that of his old Moscow classmate, Deng Xiaoping. Taylor offers a significant reinterpretation of Ching-kuo's time in the USSR, leading one to conclude that he may really have meant it in all of those Stalinistically stylized denunciations of his father, or at least in some of them. More important, Taylor makes it clear, even in an understated way, that the time in the USSR was formative, politically, for his subject. -- William C. Kirby, Harvard University

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