What do you think?
Rate this book
Two Innocents in Red China
In the spirit of his father, Alexandre Trudeau revisits China to put a ground-breaking journey into a fresh, contemporary context. In 1960, Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hébert, a labour lawyer and a journalist from Montréal, travelled to China in the midst of the Great Leap Forward. In 1968, when "Two Innocents in Red China", Trudeau and Hébert’s sardonic look at a third world country’s first steps into the rest world, was released in English, Trudeau had become prime minister of Canada. “It seemed to us imperative that the citizens of our democracy should know more about China,” Trudeau wrote in the foreword. Four decades later, China’s emergence as an economic and military heavyweight beckoned Trudeau’s journalist son Alexandre to retrace his father’s footsteps and add additional material to the book. The result is a thought-provoking new perspective on the Canadian classic that helped open China to the world.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
3 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Pierre Elliott Trudeau
39 books12 followersLe plus célèbre diplômé de l’Université de Montréal. Outre des études de droit à l’UdeM, Pierre Elliott Trudeau a étudié à l’Université Harvard, à l'École des Sciences Politiques de Paris et à la London School of Economics. Farouche opposant du gouvernement de Maurice Duplessis dans les années 50, il fonde, de concert avec d’autres intellectuels, la revue Cité libre et défend fermement les droits des travailleurs québécois. En 1961, il revient à l’Université de Montréal en devenant l’un des quatre premiers chercheurs du Centre de recherche en droit public (CRDP). Il enseignera à la Faculté de droit jusqu’à son entrée en politique en 1965.
Premier ministre du Canada de 1968 à 1979 et de 1980 à 1984, Pierre Elliott Trudeau a marqué la vie politique canadienne de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. On lui doit entre autres l’adoption de la Loi sur les langues officielles, la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, et la Loi constitutionnelle de 1982 qui confirmait l’indépendance légale du Canada.
Libre penseur et ardent défenseur des droits de la personne, Pierre Elliott Trudeau a signé de nombreux articles qui témoignent d’une grande rigueur de pensée. En 1987, l’Université de Montréal le faisait docteur honoris causa pour son exceptionnelle contribution à la vie intellectuelle et politique canadienne. Cet honneur s’ajoutait à l’Ordre du mérite des diplômés de l’UdeM, qui lui a été décerné en 1974. Depuis 2000, le prix Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau est décerné à un étudiant de maîtrise ou de doctorat de l’UdeM qui se distingue par la qualité de ses travaux sur la justice sociale, le fédéralisme canadien ou les droits et libertés.
Premier ministre du Canada de 1968 à 1979 et de 1980 à 1984, Pierre Elliott Trudeau a marqué la vie politique canadienne de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. On lui doit entre autres l’adoption de la Loi sur les langues officielles, la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés, et la Loi constitutionnelle de 1982 qui confirmait l’indépendance légale du Canada.
Libre penseur et ardent défenseur des droits de la personne, Pierre Elliott Trudeau a signé de nombreux articles qui témoignent d’une grande rigueur de pensée. En 1987, l’Université de Montréal le faisait docteur honoris causa pour son exceptionnelle contribution à la vie intellectuelle et politique canadienne. Cet honneur s’ajoutait à l’Ordre du mérite des diplômés de l’UdeM, qui lui a été décerné en 1974. Depuis 2000, le prix Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau est décerné à un étudiant de maîtrise ou de doctorat de l’UdeM qui se distingue par la qualité de ses travaux sur la justice sociale, le fédéralisme canadien ou les droits et libertés.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 14, 2016
Absolutely the companion to Steinbeck's Russian travels in 1948, and fascinatingly these travels are in 1960, in the middle of the Great Leap Forward but before the devastating effects of it were obvious (other than to those who were, you know, having them) and before the Cultural Revolution. Of course Trudeau is not Steinbeck, by any measure, but they share an attitude, the tolerance and openness of the friendly lefty towards the new communist juggernaut economies of the time, if not a tone. Where Steinbeck was warm and lyrical, and clearly (perhaps deliberately) naive about the contradictions in what he sees, Trudeau is characteristically mocking, even snide at times (no surprise to those who remember him), though still urbane and intelligent. In any case, he can't help but be impressed by aspects of the juggernaut economy, and sharp about the obvious misrepresentation and obfuscation the minders are engaging in. It was a short official visit, Trudeau's second, the first having been a private one in 1948, while the third was the historic one as PM in 1973, and despite the fairly predictable nature of the factory visits and banquets required by this one, it is rather fascinating.
February 19, 2017
This book describes a six week tour in 1960 of Communinst China that Pierre Trudeau, Jacques Hébert and three other prominent intellectuals from the province Quebec made as guests of the Chinese government. The Chinese were anxious to promote the idea that they were opening up to the west and were a progressive society. Hébert and Trudeau's book was a very left-handed thank-you. It has a sympathetic but condescending attitude towards their hosts. At the same time it is filled with gripes about how closely they were supervised and stories of how they at times eluded their hosts in an effort to see things that were not on the agenda.
Ultimately the book tells the reader a great deal about Trudeau and Hébert but virtually nothing about China. Micheline Legendre who was one of the five on the tour wrote a scathing review that appeared in Liberté late in 1961. She begins by noting that the title itself is indicative of the problem. "Two innocents in China! Are they not simply admitting that they knew nothing about China and were not up to the subject that they were writing about. They would have been better to remain silent and not write this book."
Next she attacks their arrogant tone saying that her one great wish is that no one either in China or Canada consider Trudeau and Hebert as speaking on their behalf: "Je n'accepte pas ce ton badin. ... je ne veux pas qu'ils soient considérés comme mes porte-paroles."
She then criticizes Trudeau and Hébert for essentially writing about nothing except themselves and their school-boy pranks: "Il vont en Chine pour nous raconter quoi? Leurs escapades de collégiens. ... Ils accaparent trop le premier plan." Effectively Trudeau and Hébert were practicing what a later generation would call "Gonzo" journalism in which the reporter's actions become the news.
Two innocents in China is a ghastly bookwritten by two outstanding intelllectuals . Both would do great things as cabinet ministers. Trudeau of course would become Prime Minister. However, in this dismal little book we do indeed as Legendre asserts seeing only two grown men acting like naughty secondary school students.
Ultimately the book tells the reader a great deal about Trudeau and Hébert but virtually nothing about China. Micheline Legendre who was one of the five on the tour wrote a scathing review that appeared in Liberté late in 1961. She begins by noting that the title itself is indicative of the problem. "Two innocents in China! Are they not simply admitting that they knew nothing about China and were not up to the subject that they were writing about. They would have been better to remain silent and not write this book."
Next she attacks their arrogant tone saying that her one great wish is that no one either in China or Canada consider Trudeau and Hebert as speaking on their behalf: "Je n'accepte pas ce ton badin. ... je ne veux pas qu'ils soient considérés comme mes porte-paroles."
She then criticizes Trudeau and Hébert for essentially writing about nothing except themselves and their school-boy pranks: "Il vont en Chine pour nous raconter quoi? Leurs escapades de collégiens. ... Ils accaparent trop le premier plan." Effectively Trudeau and Hébert were practicing what a later generation would call "Gonzo" journalism in which the reporter's actions become the news.
Two innocents in China is a ghastly bookwritten by two outstanding intelllectuals . Both would do great things as cabinet ministers. Trudeau of course would become Prime Minister. However, in this dismal little book we do indeed as Legendre asserts seeing only two grown men acting like naughty secondary school students.
July 2, 2025
Worth reading today, even after all this time and all these changes.
Trudeau and Hebert were astute observers, and quite correct in their predictions regarding industrialization and indoctrination, and the readiness of the Chinese population to trade off some freedoms in exchange for a government that delivers a steady food supply and increased standard of living.
Except for his summary of the history of modern China - which I could have done without - I enjoyed Sacha's reflections of his father and his spirit of exploration - which I believe the younger Trudeau may have absorbed himself!
Trudeau and Hebert were astute observers, and quite correct in their predictions regarding industrialization and indoctrination, and the readiness of the Chinese population to trade off some freedoms in exchange for a government that delivers a steady food supply and increased standard of living.
Except for his summary of the history of modern China - which I could have done without - I enjoyed Sacha's reflections of his father and his spirit of exploration - which I believe the younger Trudeau may have absorbed himself!
October 2, 2023
Enjoyed it more than I thought I would…even funny at times.
November 22, 2012
Two Innocents in Red China
Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hebert; Douglas and McIntyre, 2007 (first published in 1961)
Canada recognized China 2 years before Nixon’s trip to China in 1972. For years China had been issuing invitations to Westerners to come and see China. Most Western nations still regarded Formosa/Taiwan and the Kuomintang Nationalists as the legitimate government of China. This trip in 1960, was not Trudeau’s first time in China. He had been there in 1949 just before Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists were pushed out of Shanghai.
Alexander Trudeau, Pierre’s eldest son, writes a lengthy introduction to the re-published book, describing it as a work of ‘innocence’ in the sense of staying open to something in order to learn more about it. What Trudeau and Hebert describe in 1960 is different from today’s China. Like Ming China or Han China before it, Red China of the 1960’s is part of the new China. This book first appeared in that time period just after the anti-Communist hysteria of Joseph McCarthy in the US. Canadians, too, were affected by this thinking. One example is the disappearance of the National Film Board’s film of the Canadian surgeon, Norman Bethune. Americans objected to Bethune being celebrated as a hero, as he was and still is in China. Only remnants of the film exist now and can be viewed on the CBC digital archives http://archives.cbc.ca/
Written in slightly ‘tongue-in-cheek’ style, Trudeau and Hebert go first to Beijing, travelling with documents from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. They have a personal guide assigned to them and visit what are now the usual sites such as the Forbidden City and Tiennanmen Square, but they also get to visit more exclusive sites like a prison, because of their privileged diplomatic documentation from the Secretary of State! Tours of communes and factories follow with Trudeau and Hebert’s descriptions and commentary on all things. The authors ask questions of their hosts wherever they go and it is these passages that are the most interesting to the latter-day readers of this book, having now so much more knowledge of how the ‘story’ is turning out. This is the time of the Great Leap Forward and the Hundred Flowers campaign. The Cultural Revolution has not yet taken place; neither has the Reform and Opening that characterizes the present period.
In a truck factory the authors keep count of the number of trucks per hour being produced. “The director was not exaggerating when he told us that the factory produced fifteen to twenty an hour.” They muse about how the supply of automobiles to China from other states is denied to the Canadian auto industry. “Could it be that some American companies are doing indirectly what they forbid their Canadian subsidiaries to do?”
When the authors see piles of engine parts not being integrated into the production line they ask about bottlenecks but get a disingenuous answer about ‘over production’. They conclude that they must “take with reservation any information whose accuracy we cannot verify”. When visiting a hospital they learn that even doctors do one day per week in political classes. Students do eight weeks a year manual labour. The authors describe ‘Work’ as a kind of ideal state. Through work the Chinese recover their dignity and pride.
The second part of the tour takes them south by train, first to Shanghai. They cross the ‘Blue River’ (Yangtze R.) at Nanjing and arrive in Shanghai after 26 hours of train travel. They stay at the famous Peace Hotel (on the Bund, but apparently not called that at the time). The fantastic architecture of Pudong does not yet exist and the ‘skyscrapers’ they comment on are from the turn of the century (that is 1900). The population of Shanghai is 10 million (now 23 million), and all of China is 650 million (now 1.3 billion).
Next, the tour goes to Hangzhou by train. They visit West Lake and Tiger Spring and drink “the best tea in China” (Dragon Well or Longjing cha) and visit a silk factory. Finally they go to Canton before returning north to Beijing. Trudeau had wanted to visit the “Isle of Sha-mun, the erstwhile strictly exclusive retreat of the consular corps and of wealthy foreigners”. Could this be Xiamen? The trip back to Beijing takes 2 days and 2 nights by train.
Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hebert; Douglas and McIntyre, 2007 (first published in 1961)
Canada recognized China 2 years before Nixon’s trip to China in 1972. For years China had been issuing invitations to Westerners to come and see China. Most Western nations still regarded Formosa/Taiwan and the Kuomintang Nationalists as the legitimate government of China. This trip in 1960, was not Trudeau’s first time in China. He had been there in 1949 just before Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists were pushed out of Shanghai.
Alexander Trudeau, Pierre’s eldest son, writes a lengthy introduction to the re-published book, describing it as a work of ‘innocence’ in the sense of staying open to something in order to learn more about it. What Trudeau and Hebert describe in 1960 is different from today’s China. Like Ming China or Han China before it, Red China of the 1960’s is part of the new China. This book first appeared in that time period just after the anti-Communist hysteria of Joseph McCarthy in the US. Canadians, too, were affected by this thinking. One example is the disappearance of the National Film Board’s film of the Canadian surgeon, Norman Bethune. Americans objected to Bethune being celebrated as a hero, as he was and still is in China. Only remnants of the film exist now and can be viewed on the CBC digital archives http://archives.cbc.ca/
Written in slightly ‘tongue-in-cheek’ style, Trudeau and Hebert go first to Beijing, travelling with documents from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. They have a personal guide assigned to them and visit what are now the usual sites such as the Forbidden City and Tiennanmen Square, but they also get to visit more exclusive sites like a prison, because of their privileged diplomatic documentation from the Secretary of State! Tours of communes and factories follow with Trudeau and Hebert’s descriptions and commentary on all things. The authors ask questions of their hosts wherever they go and it is these passages that are the most interesting to the latter-day readers of this book, having now so much more knowledge of how the ‘story’ is turning out. This is the time of the Great Leap Forward and the Hundred Flowers campaign. The Cultural Revolution has not yet taken place; neither has the Reform and Opening that characterizes the present period.
In a truck factory the authors keep count of the number of trucks per hour being produced. “The director was not exaggerating when he told us that the factory produced fifteen to twenty an hour.” They muse about how the supply of automobiles to China from other states is denied to the Canadian auto industry. “Could it be that some American companies are doing indirectly what they forbid their Canadian subsidiaries to do?”
When the authors see piles of engine parts not being integrated into the production line they ask about bottlenecks but get a disingenuous answer about ‘over production’. They conclude that they must “take with reservation any information whose accuracy we cannot verify”. When visiting a hospital they learn that even doctors do one day per week in political classes. Students do eight weeks a year manual labour. The authors describe ‘Work’ as a kind of ideal state. Through work the Chinese recover their dignity and pride.
The second part of the tour takes them south by train, first to Shanghai. They cross the ‘Blue River’ (Yangtze R.) at Nanjing and arrive in Shanghai after 26 hours of train travel. They stay at the famous Peace Hotel (on the Bund, but apparently not called that at the time). The fantastic architecture of Pudong does not yet exist and the ‘skyscrapers’ they comment on are from the turn of the century (that is 1900). The population of Shanghai is 10 million (now 23 million), and all of China is 650 million (now 1.3 billion).
Next, the tour goes to Hangzhou by train. They visit West Lake and Tiger Spring and drink “the best tea in China” (Dragon Well or Longjing cha) and visit a silk factory. Finally they go to Canton before returning north to Beijing. Trudeau had wanted to visit the “Isle of Sha-mun, the erstwhile strictly exclusive retreat of the consular corps and of wealthy foreigners”. Could this be Xiamen? The trip back to Beijing takes 2 days and 2 nights by train.
Read
January 26, 2022I found the content interesting but wasn't super into the writing style.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews