I find that there's a third genre I enjoy reading, but I've not exploited it enough - autobiographies. I enjoy getting into the heads of people who've impacted history in some way or the other, and seeing it happening through their eyes.
I managed to pick up a real gem of a book 2 weeks ago - The Dragon's Pearl. Written by the daughter of a prominent Thai politician who lived with her brother in China under the ward of Zhou Enlai during the period of the Cold War.
Reading the book made me realise one thing; I really don't know much. It made me feel naive, sheltered and quite unchallenged.
And quite frankly, I never really knew what China was about. I grew up knowing it existed, and there once lived a person called Mao Zedong, and China's history is one so extensive and so complicated, I never tried to know it because I would be too confused to remember anyway. It made me realise how much I take history for granted, and maybe if people appreciated it a little more, we would not keep repeating the same mistakes.
But one thing is for sure, our history books are rubbish. Its only a glossary of the events and history, unfortunately, is too easily subjected to interpretation. And Malaysian history textbooks are so obviously skewed, it doesn't just set the eyes rolling, it sets the eye socket spinning as well.
After finishing the book today, I was so intrigued by China's history, I spent an hour over the Internet learning more about it. Then during dinner, when I went out with a friend...
Me: How much do you know about China?
KK: China? Hmmm... China...
Me: Ok, let me make it easier. How well do you know about Mao Zedong?
KK: Mao? Oklarh... he united China with its many provinces... a lot of people died... Eh wait!! Wrong person!! I was thinking of Genghis Khan!!!
Me: Eh?!!? Hello! Genghis Khan didn't unite China larh!!
KK: Err... oh yarrhh... it's that Huang something guy! Ya ya... I have a book on the 100 most prominent people in history and he's in it. Mao ah? He's quite recent right? Only died quite recently?
Me: If you call the 1970s recent. Looks like you don't know much about China either. Hehe.
Anyway, this book really set my head spinning a little. It invoked so much in me to mull over. It makes me feel a bit of regret, that I had not known more about China's history earlier. I would have seen my friends from China in a different light had I known the context of their history. I wonder now, what is it like for my contemporaries to have grown up in China and how their history shapes their perspective.
But humans have too fickle a mind and we forget all too easily. An excerpt I particularly liked from the book as Zhou talked of people losing perspective:
"A man was on a long journey," Zhou said, "and after a time he ran out of food. He struggled on, but there was nothing to eat, and he was becoming desperate. Finally he met a family on the road, and he asked them for some bread. The old lady in the family gave him three mantou, which was all she had. The man was still hungry, though, and barely paused to give thanks. Then he passed by another house along the road and went in and asked for food. The people there gave him half of a bun. Now he was full and felt satisfied for the first time in a long while. That half bun saved his life, he said, thanking the family profusely."
Zhou never forgot his history. He knew how much the latest policies built on the contributions of the past. He remembered those who had sacrificed to build the revolution.
Like I said, the book gave me a lot to mull about, though the thoughts are still unformed.
Labels: Musings