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Rating: 
Summary: A "real" tale on China
Review: Every chapter tells us a different story of individuals, as they spent or lost their lives during the 10 years of Cultural Revolution in China.
The stories brought to us from Feng Jicai are really upsetting, showing another time that reality could overtake our all immaginations. He break the "silk veil" on the real stories happened during the Cultural Revolution and give us a real insight on why the current Chinese culture and people's behaviour has been so greatly affected by that period.If you really want to know more about China, beside the economic development datas and political commentaries, read it.
Just a remark: I did not give it a five-star rating (the content deserves it all) because the translation to English is sometimes "imaginative" (well, in a sense that makes it more Chinese, sounds like some pages of China Daily)
Rating:
Summary: A "real" tale on China
Review: The narratives in this collection of oral histories about the Cultural Revolution are varied , well-ordered, and of a good length. Feng includes victims, perpetrators, "non-participants." Particularly fascinating/ horrifying is the chapter about the infamous #63 torture block. The author also includes some striking, though possibly one-sided, interviews with people born post-1976. Feng himself seems to have a bit of a saviour complex, and his commentary struck me as overdone and interfering - particularly the trite maxims he insists on including after each narrative. He is most interesting in the interview at the end of the book, during which he discusses his methodology and "Documentary Literature". Chihua Wen's oral histories of children during the Cultural Revolution (The Red Mirror) is less varied, but has a lighter touch, and therefore comes off as more richly poetic. Cheng Jung's Wild Swans is a good companion to these oral history style books, as it offers a detailed and incisive analysis along with its personal story. Ten Years of Madness is a good collection of narratives, but I wish Feng's commentary had been more analytical and less Holy.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Idea, but the execution is spotty
Review: These are stories collected from interviews the author did with survivors of the Cultural revolution. However, the author is not interested in the tribulation and redemption stoirs commonly published (E.g. Life and Death in Shanghai,Red Azalea). Instead it is more a catalogue of the bizarre, with the author selecting stories that he found uniqe and interesting. Sometimes I also thought that the stories were interesting, but there were several stories where I could not really see the point. The author also inserts a line at the end of each story, I guess to explain each one, but they did not translate well into English and were an annoying distraction.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Idea, but the execution is spotty
Review: These are stories collected from interviews the author did with survivors of the Cultural revolution. However, the author is not interested in the tribulation and redemption stoirs commonly published (E.g. Life and Death in Shanghai,Red Azalea). Instead it is more a catalogue of the bizarre, with the author selecting stories that he found uniqe and interesting. Sometimes I also thought that the stories were interesting, but there were several stories where I could not really see the point. The author also inserts a line at the end of each story, I guess to explain each one, but they did not translate well into English and were an annoying distraction.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of compelling stories
Review: When reading Jicai's book, it is best not to be too softhearted. TRhat is because the stories regarding the horrors of China's "Cultural Revolution", where paranoia ran rampant as if it was a twisted role playing game, only these events are only too real. Jicai did an excellent job in giving us first hand accounts of so many individuals and how their lives were effected by this madness that enveloped China from 1966 until Mao's death in 1976. However, one must be careful not to cry; some of the stories within are that emotional.
Rating:
Summary: Full of compelling stories
Review: When reading Jicai's book, it is best not to be too softhearted. TRhat is because the stories regarding the horrors of China's "Cultural Revolution", where paranoia ran rampant as if it was a twisted role playing game, only these events are only too real. Jicai did an excellent job in giving us first hand accounts of so many individuals and how their lives were effected by this madness that enveloped China from 1966 until Mao's death in 1976. However, one must be careful not to cry; some of the stories within are that emotional.
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