Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.
EGG ON MAO: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced An Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship
Counterpoint
ISBN 978 1 58243 547 3
249 pages
$26
Reviewed by Justin Moyer
Andy Warhol would have appreciated the gesture: On May 23, 1989, as student protests raged, Lu Decheng and two other men hurled 30 paint-filled eggs at the immense portrait of Mao Zedong that dominates Beijing's Tiananmen Square. But in Deng Xiaopeng's China, poli-art stunts weren't mere blog-fodder: The gag stranded Lu in prison for almost a decade, cost him his wife and daughter, and led to his eventual defection to Canada.
In "Egg on Mao" Denise Chong, author of "The Girl in the Picture," a biography of the burned villager in Nick Ut's iconic Vietnam War photo, focuses on another small character in a big story, to unearth startling truths about Chinese democracy. A radicalized auto mechanic from Hunan who flouted China's marriage laws and one-child policy, Lu traveled over 600 miles to Tiananmen only to be spurned by insular student demonstrators, then trumped their ineffective sit-ins and hunger strikes by hurling eggs. Lu's action changed nothing -- other nations' on-again, off-again interest in Chinese human rights has allowed Mao's authoritarian political culture to survive three decades after his death. Still, in a world of compromise and half-measures, it's refreshing to read about Lu's ill-conceived but thoroughly punk-rock gesture of defiance.
Justin Moyer can be reached at moyerj(at)washpost.com.
Copyright 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
This news arrived on: 10/23/2009
Printer Friendly Version | Send this page to a friend | Post Comment
Rate This Story:
Great - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Bad
Posted Comments:
Comment archive | Comment FAQ's
 |
 |
View Washington Post Book Reviews ezine stories by date or visit the complete archive |
The ArcaMax Politics channel is one of 70 content categories offered by ArcaMax Publishing on this ... |
VideoSquares.com
