Inflamed Views of Communist China

...As in his previous Chinese Shadows, here he again assumes the role of protector of the Chinese people and their culture...

...He reprints a lengthy article on human rights originally published in 1978, for example, rehearsing a litany of woes: It told the story of a man executed for defacing Mao's portrait...

...Especially notable is an analysis of Lu Xun that may be among the most perceptive treatments of this cult literary figure, whether by a Chinese or a foreigner...

...This piece appeared in 1981, before Terrill published White-Boned Demon, a sensationalized, half-fictional biography of Madame Mao, written with an eye on the best-seller list...

...he uses her own words from different books to show how she "displays two faces simultaneously, heads as well as tails" throughout her work...

...Then a note spells out the relevance: The piece has been presented to warn the West against a "mindless and cowardly betrayal" of Hong Kong...

...His conclusion is blunt: "The regime is dead...

...to simply buy today's newspaper.' As for those who find themselves having qualms about his pretensions to objectivity in the light of his sweeping negativism, let me quote a saying of Lu Xun that appears in the book: "Whoever thinks he is objective must already be half drunk...

...Had Demon been produced earlier, Leys could have played the game of heads and tails with Terrill, who is suddenly no longer an apologist...

...The second brands Ross Terrill, one of the "China Experts" he despises, an "admirer and sympathizer" of the Maoist regime...

...From the Chinese point of view, however, Hong Kong is no more a place for the Western powers to "betray" than China was a country for the United States to "lose" to Communism...

...Leys leaves no doubt that he is equally disenchanted with all of the Peking Communists...

...The essay about the death of Lin Biao, commissioned by the American publishers of Yao Ming-le's book on the subj ect and finally rejected for its "excessively polemical" character, does reveal some startling information: After Lin Biao's assassination, "a similar fate was prepared for [Zhou Enlai] a few years later...

...Leys is one of those sentimental birds, desperately eager to save China from ruin...

...He was, Leys correctly points out, essentially a dissenter and "an awkward fellow traveler" for the Communists, a writer who might well be deemed intolerable today by Beijing if he were living...

...Generally a rather straightforward writer, Leys is not averse to being more colorful in this instance: "Deng'sruleismoreakintothe aimless drift of a dead dog...

...When God informed them that this would serve no practical purpose, they replied, "We used to live in this forest, and seeing it being destroyed breaks our hearts...

...The section on politics will disappoint even Simon Leys' ardent admirers...

...He thinks Zhou was a "hollow" man, a liar "with angelic suavity," and mocks the likes of Henry Kissinger for having been "seduced" by him...

...In the first, Leys derides the "double vision" of Han Suyin...

...listed a number of Western apologists, each with a different excuse for the horrors in China...

...only its belly, swollen with the windy promises of the 'Four Modernizations,' still keeps it vaguely afloat...

...Leys asks rhetorically, then answers: "To write is to hope, and what hope is there left...

...A collection of 14 critical essays and reviews written since 1978, the book is divided into two sections, "Culture" and "Politics...

...charged that the regime was bent on destroying both legality and morality...

...But the freshness that resulted in Shadows creating something of a sensation when it appeared in 1977 is lacking in The Burning Forest...

...While generous enough to have included an appendix of Lu Xun's sayings, Leys regards him as a minor writer, chiefly of journalistic commentaries, whose oeuvre boasts only a few short stories that can be counted as creative achievements...

...reported that news photos were routinely being doctored...

...Certainly not Deng Xiaoping, who he asserts "has been known for more than 50 years as an orthodox and narrow Stalinist bureaucrat...

...To say that the Party leaders behave like gangsters would be a gratuitous slur on the latters' reputation," he tells us...

...Is there life after Mao...

...The political pieces, though, largely rehash Leys' views in his earlier works, including Broken Images and The Chairman 'sNew Clothes...

...Now despairing, he turns frustration into anger, and his strong, resentful feelings seep through these pages...

...His inclusion of the short piece, "Fools with Initiative" (1979), which attacked President Carter for "rashness and irresponsibility" insanc-tioning "normalization,' strikes us as primarily demonstrating an unwillingness to cut anything, no matter how outpaced by subsequent events...

...and compared Maoist theory to Mein Kampf...

...but Zhou was lucky enough to have a cancer that eventually developed faster than the Chairman's schemes...

...Apparently he is one of the few China-watchers who thinks the country has stood still since 1978...

...Reviewed by Timothy Tung Associate professor, librarian of Chinese materials, City College, City University of New York The title of his latest book, Simon Leys tells us in the Foreword, is taken from a fable written by a 17th-century Chinese scholar: A flock of wild doves passed over a forest engulfed in flames...

...Indeed, reading through Forest in a single sitting, one cannot help noticing the contrast between the timelessness of the articles on art and culture and the outdatedness of those on politics...

...So it is no surprise to find that unlike most observers, Leys doesnotholdZhou Enlai in high esteem...

...Mao Zedong...

...Leys also is unable to get over Jimmy Carter's formal recognition of the People's Republic...

...Acknowledging that The Burning Forest will not stay topical long, Leys advises "readers who are merely looking for the latest information on...

...Evidently time has not much changed his stand: He sees no future for China under its present leadership, Deng Xiao-ping's modernizing efforts notwithstanding...

...Leys the art historian is clearly at home when in the realm of poetry and painting— Ricci and Pere Hue, Orientalism and Sinology...

...An "update" note follows, reaffirming Leys' pessimistic outlook for a China that remains "subordinated to the supreme guidance of...

...Two of the most interesting entries in the volume, coming toward the end, are demolitions of fellow writers...

...With a single exception, one looks in vain for anything new or revealing...

...Some of these essays are brilliantly executed...

...One wishes the author had elaborated further on this particularly sensational scheme of Mao's...

...Rushing to a nearby stream, they dipped their wings in the water and flew back to scatter a few drops on the fire...

...He asterisks the declaration with a footnote: "I mean it literally...