The Tragedy of Liberation Quotes

“But even as every promise was broken, the party kept on gaining followers. Many were idealists, some were opportunists, others thugs. They displayed astonishing faith and almost fanatical conviction, sometimes even after they themselves had ended up being devoured by the party machinery. A”
― Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

“The key to understanding the appeal of communism, despite the grim reality on the ground, lay in the fact that it allowed so many followers to believe that they were participants in an historic process of transformation, contributing to something much bigger than themselves, or anything that had come before.”
― Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

“It was all about the world in the making, not the world as it was. It was a world of plans, blueprints, and models”
― Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

“they attended endless indoctrination classes to learn the new orthodoxy, studying official pamphlets, newspapers and textbooks. And like everyone else, they soon had to write their own confessions, making a clean breast of the past by ‘laying their hearts on the table’. They were asked to re-educate themselves, becoming New People willing to serve the New China.”
― Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

“The campaign also had another visible effect. Many residents, from traffic police and food handlers to street sweepers, started wearing cotton masks, which always surprised foreign visitors. This habit would last for decades. In the words of William Kinmond, it gave ‘even young girls and boys the appearance of being fugitives from operating rooms’.”
― Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

“Farmers were given a plot of land in exchange for overthrowing their leaders. Violence was an indispensable feature of land distribution, implicating a majority in the murder of a carefully designated minority.”
― Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

“from the broader picture, may very well have been invaluable: a dam that worked, a nursery where children fared well, a prison where the inmates were treated humanely. The campaign to eliminate illiteracy in the countryside was laudable, until it was given up. But when seen in the overall context of what happened to the country between 1949 and 1957, these isolated achievements did not amount to a broad trend towards equality, justice and freedom, the proclaimed values of the regime itself.”
― Frank Dikötter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957

“就要煽動多數人起來反對少數人，只有讓人人都牽扯到暴力當中，大家才會永遠跟著黨走，因此在這場鬥爭中，沒有人可以袖手旁觀，人人都得參加群眾集會和批鬥大會，每個人的雙手都得沾上鮮血。”
― Frank Dikötter, 解放的悲劇：中國革命史1945-1957

“我們早知道，在共產主義國家裡，沒有言論的自由；現在我們更知道，連沉默的自由，那裡也沒有。”
― Frank Dikötter, 解放的悲劇：中國革命史1945-1957