# The Private Life of Chairman Mao by Dr. Li Zhisui

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-private-life-of-chairman-mao-by-dr-li-zhisui/362291>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 27, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-private-life-of-chairman-mao-by-dr-li-zhisui/362291 "2006-06-27T01:05:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-private-life-of-chairman-mao-by-dr-li-zhisui/362291/1 "2006-06-27T01:05:58Z")

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Does anyone have a link by someone that has critically analyzed this book (as opposed to standard book reviews).

My own gut feeling is that the book is carefully crafted fiction. Fiction based on a complete set of the classified “neibu” internal documents, complete set of People’s Daily’s, and ancedotal 2nd or 3rd hand accounts of Mao. Maybe written by a low level “princeling”.

Just curious what’s out there and a quick search didn’t turn up anything beyond book reviews.