Bombard the Headquarters!: China’s Cultural Revolution
2025
A riveting account of a turbulent period in Chinese history.
Bombard the Headquarters!: China’s Cultural Revolution
Bombard the Headquarters!: China’s Cultural Revolution copyright © 2025
Non-fiction
First published in 2025
A riveting account of a turbulent period in Chinese history.
Coming soon! 29 April 2025 in the UK and 2 June in Australia
In 1966, with the words ‘Bombard the Headquarters!’ Mao Zedong unleashed the full,violent force of a movement that he called the Great Proletarian CulturalRevolution. By the time he died ten years later, millions had perished, China’scultural heritage was in ruins, its economic state was perilous, itsinstitutions of government were damaged and its society was bitterly divided.
The shadow of these terrible years lies heavily over the twenty-first-century nation. Thehistory of this period is so toxic that China’s rulers have gone to greatlengths to bury it – while a few brave men and women risk their freedom touncover the truth. For as both they and the Party know, to grasp the history ofthe Cultural Revolution is to understand much about China today.
Bombard the Headquarters! is not just Mao’s story. It’s the unforgettablestories of countless individuals, mass manias, sacred mangos and spectacularfalls from grace. At once rigorous and readable, brief yet teeming withcolourful detail, this is a marvel of historical storytelling.
Praise for Bombard the Headquarters!: China’s Cultural Revolution
'Excellent . . . a powerful account of a truly extraordinary period in recent Chinese history, surefooted and perceptive, enlivened by a wealth of vignettes and anecdotes which bring to life the dramatic and frequently horrific events that have played a seminal role in forming Chinese society as it exists today.'― Philip Short, author of Mao: A Life
'Deftly narrated in precise, pellucid prose, Jaivin wears her meticulous research lightly to provide a lively and essential reading on the maddeningly complex politics of the Cultural Revolution. With insightful commentary and vivid sketches of some of its operatic protagonists, this brilliant short history is a great start for anyone who wants to understand a central decade in the Maoist epoch whose catastrophic legacy endures to this day. A tour de force.'― Jianying Zha, author of Tide Players, cultural commentator and writer for publications including The New Yorker
'A beautifully concise account that makes sense of a hugely complex event in modern Chinese history. Linda Jaivin puts her formidable, deep experience both of Chinese history and language to excellent use, conveying in 100 pages what most would struggle to achieve in a thousand.'― Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London
'To upend an entire society, to pitch a country into a decade of chaos – Linda Jaivin expertly and concisely dissects the origins and the gruesome trajectory of China’s Cultural Revolution. Mao’s ego, the Party’s compliance and the ideological mass hysteria that left perhaps 1-2mn ordinary Chinese citizens dead and drove many of its intellectuals and brightest talents to kill themselves rather than suffer torture and suffering.'― Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking and Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties, and the Making of Wallis Simpson.
'Bombard the Headquarters! is a gripping and accessible account of the Cultural Revolution and a timely reminder of the dangers of authoritarian power … it offers a sobering reflection on how culture wars and divisive leaders continue to shape global unrest.'― Books+Publishing