1 A number of other books in the series have come under a cloud, and Hong Kong journals carried reports in late 1990 and early 1991 that other semi-fictionalised accounts of pre-1949 Party and army history have been banned or named during the purge of army publications.

2 In one comment on the seige Zhang writes, 'Changchun and Hiroshima: roughly the same number of people died. What took only 9 seconds in Hiroshima took 5 months in Changchun'. Zhang White Snow, Red Blood, p493.

3 'The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China', adopted by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 27 June 1981.

4 Some of the most popular writers of this genre of 'history' are the 'entrepreneur writers' Ye Yonglie, Quan Yanchi and Liu Yazhou.

5 Zhang Weiguo, 'Cohesion and Confidence are more Crucial than the Economic Situation: Wen Yuankai's Analysis of the Current Situation' (Ningjuli he xinxin wenti be jingji xingshi geng yanjum: Wen Yuankai dui dang qian xing xingshide fenxi), World Economic Herald (Shijie jingji daobao), 9 January 1989. This translation is from New Ghosts, Old Dreams, edited by G Barmé and Linda Jaivin, New York, Times Books [in press].

6 In gathering material on Wang, Dai Qing profited greatly from the work of Song Jinshou, an independent historian at the Peking Iron Institute, who had been privately collecting information on the subject for some years.

7 From an interview with the writer at Tongyu Village, northeast of Peking, 20 August 1990. These comments on Dai Qing are from the author's study of her historical writing entitled 'Using the Past to Save the Present: Dai Qing's historiographical dissent', East Asian History, No 1, 1991, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, Canberra [in press].

8 The fourth issue of the magazine Dongfang jishi, produced in Nanking, was listed in the Index of Books and Periodicals Banned from Sale (Jinzhi xiaoshoude shukan mulu) compiled by the national News and Publishing Authority and published in Peking by the Municipal News and Publishing Bureau in August 1989, p11.

9 Su's book is entitled 'Wutuobang' ji, that of Yan and Gao is Wenmhua dageming shinian shi, and the last is Tamen shi zenyang fendoude — cong Makesi dao Xitele.

10 From an unpublished circular. This translation is from New Ghosts, Old Dreams.

11 This Party history writing group is nominally headed by state president Yang Shangkun, but Hu is the driving force behind it. See Yang Shangkun, 'Hoping to see a Complete Party History Produced as Soon as Possible' (Xiwang jinkuai xiechu yibu wanzhengde Zhonggong dangshi), People's Daily, 1 July 1990.

12 Although the Yan'an spirit is generally summed up in the slogan 'self-reliance and hard struggle' (zili gengsheng, jianku fendou), it encompasses the entire political, economic and cultural world of Yan'an.

China: the Party has its way with history

Abstract