Mao's America: A Survivor's Warning

by Xi Van Fleet

An inspiring survivor of Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China makes a passionate case that history is eerily repeating itself as the Woke Revolution spreads across America.  Xi Van Fleet lived through the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution as a schoolgirl. Forced to the countryside with other young Chinese for re-education after high school, she later escaped communism and found freedom and new a life in America. But more than 30 years later, Xi disturbingly sees signs of the same Cultural Marxism that ravaged her birth country of China threatening to destroy the America she now calls home.

​This is her dire warning to the United States.

Xi compellingly tells the story of two Cultural one driven by Mao during her childhood and the one unfolding in today’s America from the progressive left. With captivating personal stories and extensive historic research, Xi reveals the stunning similarities of these two revolutions. This fascinating book shows readers that both
 
Readers will be captivated by the riveting personal story of a Chinese immigrant to the United States who overcame fear and reluctance to get involved in the movement to save America. Her political activism begins with a school board speech in 2021 against Critical Race Theory in Loudoun County, Virginia that unexpectedly goes viral and ignites national media attention. Xi now devotes her life to educating the American public on the shocking parallels between these two revolutions.

Because only when Americans understand what is really happening will they rise up and resist the communist takeover of America. 

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, China, Memoir, Biography, Asia

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2023

About the author

Xi Van Fleet describes herself as “Chinese by birth; American by choice, survivor of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, defender of liberty.” She was born in China, lived through the Cultural Revolution, and was sent to work in the countryside at the age of 16. After Mao’s death she was able to go to college to study English and has lived in the United States since 1986. In 2021, she delivered a school board speech in Loudoun County, Virginia against Critical Race Theory that went viral and ignited national conservative media attention. She now devotes her time and energy full time to warning about the parallels between Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China and what’s unfolding in America today. Since going public with her message, Xi Van Fleet has appeared on Fox News, Newsmax and radio shows and podcasts across the country.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that every incoming college freshman should read.

[Michael Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Xi Van Fleet writes a first-person account of her experiences growing up in China during its cultural revolution, argues a repeat of this history is presently occurring within the United States, and closes with a warning that it will suffer similar outcomes. The descriptions parallel, with harrowing similarity, the epoch (and epic) recounting of Solzhenitsyn in Gulag Archipelago, the no less horrifying descriptions by Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning, or banal barbarity observed by Vaclav Havel in The Power of the Powerless. In all these, we are shown the worst of humanity augured on by those whose demand all others kowtow under the guise of “the people’s” good. Van Fleet suggests the cultural interface between the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization of Antifascists, and government entities (federal- and state-level) shows little difference from the People’s Republic of China and its paramilitary social movement, the Red Guard. She further shares personal vignettes with the express aim of giving the reader insight into how these experiences have shaped her thinking. Apropos of nothing, I was unaware that W.E.B. DuBois had visited Mao Tse-tung in 1959 (this during a time when US-China relations were deteriorating) prior to reading this book.

I find first-person accounts compelling as is in this book. As the author’s express purpose of this book was to serve as a warning to its readers, I took its “preachiness” in that spirit. The book is broadly accessible across the political spectrum in the US though, I imagine, the most extreme partisans will argue it goes too far or not far enough.

[Susan Ouellette · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Mao's America" is an authentic and disturbing analysis of the similarities between Mao's Cultural Revolution and the the "long march" of cultural Marxism through western societies. Few Americans under the age of 40 have been taught anything about the horrors of communism, much less the specifics of life in China under Mao. This explains why they've fallen so easily for political correctness, which morphed into diversity & inclusion, which evolved into diversity, equity and inclusion, and which has snowballed into militant efforts to quash all dissent and force the acceptance and celebration of ideologically pure thoughts, policies, and identities. The cultural Marxists are doing everything in their power to destroy the family and make children and young adults turn to the State for all their needs. "Mao's America" is a must read for those who care about individual liberty, freedom in all its forms, and the future of our increasingly fragile representative republic.

[Fanchen Bao · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: I have NOT read the book, just the introduction. Below are my opinions based on an educated guess of what the book MAY be about.

That said, the introduction itself is enough to put the book in the bull-crap basket. If there is one, ONLY ONE, defining characteristic of the Cultural Revolution under Mao, it is the cult of personality (个人崇拜), in which one person (Mao in this case) could do no wrong, commit no crime, and all his idiosyncratic sayings are words of God to be followed (i.e., 红宝书, The Red Book).

If we have to make a comparison between today's American society and the Cultural Revolution, the stark resemblance is the cult of Trump. Among the far-right voters (not necessarily Republican voters, because some of them do genuinely care about the wellbeing of the country), Trump can do no wrong, commit no crime (despite all the evidence), and his words, no matter how unhinged and irresponsible, are almost akin to the rule of law (build the wall, "I just want to find 11,780 votes", etc.).

Another similarity, if we may, is between the Trump-wannabes (De Santas, Greene, Pence, etc.) and Mao-wannabes (Lin Biao 林彪, the Gang of Four 四人帮, etc.), who spared no effort to promote the cult leader via their own policies or their interpretation of what the leader wants, while secretly wishing to replace him instead.

If we dig deeper into the policies on education, civil rights, and human rights, the similarities between Trump's America (or a far-right America with whatever cult on its pedestal) and Mao's China are even more uncanny.

Although the progressives have their own share of shenanigans, the general direction they march towards (diversity, equality, tolerance) is the complete opposite of what the Cultural Revolution represents (uniformity, hierarchy, punishment). Given the far-right's well-known adjacency to authoritarian regimes, it is ignorant at best and disingenuous at worst for the author to equate progressive policies with the Cultural Revolution, while ignoring the actual connection between a far-right's America and Mao's China.

You know what, I think Trump secretly wants to be Mao (he already hinted at it by showing admiration to both Xi and Putin), if, of course, he were literate enough to know who Mao is.

[Chet · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't hate this book because the author is a conservative. Many great books have been written about Marxism by right-wingers. No I hate it because it's sloppy and just plain wrong over and over again. I'm sorry the author, like many, had a rough time during the Cultural Revolution, and I'm glad she seems happy to have resettled in the US. Many other Chinese , as scholar Dongping Han has covered extensively, benefited greatly from the Cultural Revolution (including Han himself). No amount of sensationalism can change that fact.

Here's the main problem: right-wingers love condemning individuals in rough circumstances who blame outside forces for their troubles and claim a "victim status" instead of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, taking responsibility for their lives, and making something of themselves. But ironically right-wing books like this encourage Americans to engage in this behavior on a global scale. All this divisiveness and culture war nonsense they’re upset about couldn't possibly be the fault of our own American hyper-individualism. No no you see it's scary and foreign MARXISM that is to blame. China bad. China scary. The author claims sans any evidence at all that Communist China plans to "take over the world." Pay no attention to your leaders at home who are actually responsible for the state of the Union (or if you do please be so kind as to only blame Democrats).

Never mind that by every one of the author's silly culture war metrics China (and every other communist government) is far more traditional and conservative than the most far right American politician she can name (this "conservative" designation includes foreign policy btw, more on that below).

The author claims that the "cultural revolution" we are witnessing now in the US (the oft discussed woke sjw campus radicals) is a replay of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-76). She builds this argument through context-free examples pasted together via her own free association (students tore down statues in the GPCR, students tear down statues in America today; they both "cancel" people they disagree with, using threats and violence; families are torn asunder as children snitch on parents; etc).

It's funny because journalist Ramin Mazaheri used his thorough studies of the Cultural Revolution and America's current culture wars to make the opposite argument, that Trump is a Mao-type figure and it’s in fact MAGA that represents an American version of the Cultural Revolution. I'll explain Mazaheri's argument further because while I don't buy into it completely I find it far more interesting, grounded and persuasive than Van Fleet's therapeutic stream-of-consciousness.

The GPCR, Mazaheri argues, was a populist subversion by Mao and the masses against middle manager bureaucrats. The latter wanted to liberalize China and make it more Western. MAGA on the other hand was a populist subversion by Trump and the masses against middle manager bureaucrats. The latter want to destroy America and turn it into a globalist neofeudal hellscape. In both cases too such populist subversions require not only disgruntled masses, but also a strongman leader extremely popular with said masses to mobilize them against that middle manager strata (Trump and Mao). In both cases, MAGA and GPCR, these middle managers looked down on and abuse the masses; usually they think they do so on behalf of their masters at the top, but what if one of those top-of-the pyramid masters decides to go rogue, circumvent the middle of the pyramid (the bureaucrats/managers), and rely on the giant base of the pyramid to solidify his power and (ideally) benefit both himself and that lowly stratum? Well, argues Mazaheri, that's exactly what both Trump and Mao did. Trump and Mao also share similar constituencies: farmers, blue collar workers, small business entrepreneurs (Mao famously pointed out this latter group was patriotic and opposed Japanese occupation， so they shouldn't be simplistically condemned as capitalist enemies), “flyover country” people struggling with poverty, etc. And in the Trump scenario, we all know who that middle stratum is. See the problem? It's those over-educated woke university and non-profit sector types Van Fleet condemns, who are appalled at the "backwardness" and "racism" of Trump and his supporters. China’s middle managers likewise saw Mao’s loyal followers as backward and unsophisticated. Mao thought and acted otherwise, and they loved him for it. The main difference, pace Mazaheri, is that Mao's cultural revolution was more successful in avenging itself against these abusive bureaucrats. And was it excessive at times? Absolutely, tragically so. Trump's movement was extremely mild in comparison (we all know that the proverbial swamp never did get drained). So of course the GPCR is more open to criticism than MAGA, because the former successfully (violently) carried out its aims, while the latter remained almost completely peaceful.

Again, I don't buy 100% into Mazaheri's argument but it's miles and miles above Van Fleet's in its ability to weave in historical context and actually explain the two phenomena on their own terms.

But we're not done yet. Van Fleet has more wild claims about Marxism.

"Communism is globalism" she claims early on. Really? Has she looked at those countries' immigration policies? Probably not, she was too busy hypocritically praising how open the US borders are! After all, as she points out, she was able to benefit from those border policies, coming from China to Kentucky in the 80s.

Xi Van Fleet goes on to accuse China of commiting genocide against the Uyghurs, a neocon claim so false and absurd it makes Bush-era "weapons of mass destruction" sound like Plato's loftiest wisdom.

I mentioned earlier that many conservatives have written great books about Marxism. One such author is Paul Gottfried. He understands Marxism, and he understands neocons, like the ones who cobbled together this excuse for a book. Marxism in practice, Gottfried correctly argues, has always been culturally conservative, far moreso than liberal capitalist states. Our destabilization has been completely engineered from within. Neoconservative authors erroneously blame Marxist states for America's shabby condition in order to continue justifying their radical cold war interventionist agenda, i.e. empire building, which itself historically has led to a neglect of the people at home and a rotting and degradation of that interior, eventually causing empire collapse. True conservatives like Gottfried (paleocons if you will), are not interested in foreign adventurism, not interested in the US playing world policeman. Xi Van Fleet and James Lindsay have far more in common with radical leftist interventionists than they would like to admit. AOC and this author completely agree about China, they just use different vocabularies to express the same argument. The sad kicker here is that Van Fleet mentions halfway through the book that she almost became a follower of Ron Paul (another principled anti-interventionist conservative). Oh what could have been.

Two alternative recommendations:

I'll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China
By Ramin Mazaheri

The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium
By Paul Gottfried

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. It's an easy read and easy to understand... It is a warning for all Americans that the system of totalitarian dictatorship she knew under Mao's Communist China is Coming to America... if you want to understand her recommendations, flip directly to the epilog where she recommends We put Communism on trial (at least here in America). Please read this book and her advice and take it to heart and recommend we extinguish Communism in America... And believe her and me, it is here alive and well and growing in a social institution near you!

[Daniel Céspedes Daza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I may not agree with all the warnings the authors is denouncing here, I believe this is a very important reading if you want to know what happened in China when Mao took the helm of the country and how the communist ideology is a poison that poses a real risk for America.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book by Xi Van Fleet who lived through Mao’s Cultural revolution. Now living in the US, she issues a warning to Americans regarding the parallels between China’s Marxism and the cultural Marxism that is being spread in our institutions. She discusses her upbringing, including information on the Red Guards as well as how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) indoctrinated millions leading to famine, starvation, death. She discusses how the woke revolution (which begin in the 1960s) is destabilizing our society through cancel culture, destruction of religion, and destruction of the family. American Marxism is replacing old concepts with new concepts: collectivism vs individualism, equity vs equal opportunity, identity politics vs character, censorship vs freedom of expression, socialism vs free market, children of the state vs parental rights, etc. Overall good and easy read.

[Melody Bringe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I appreciated Xi’s thorough look at the effects of the Marxist revolution in China with Chinese characteristics and her comparison with the Marxist push for revolution in the US with American characteristics. She chronicles the devastation of the Chinese family, culture, tradition and their replacement with Mao-worship. All familial loyalties were transferred to the state, the 4 olds (ideas, culture, customs, habits) systematically destroyed and Chinese thought was transformed and molded to create the revolutionary man. For further reading on the Chinese communist revolution I highly recommend “A Mother’s Ordeal” by Steven Mosher.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Van Fleet’s firsthand accounts of the Cultural Revolution—an important topic that is not taught nearly enough in the west—are both fascinating and horrifying, and certainly add new insights to the lexicon of work on this subject. Her analysis of modern America, however, though logically sound, is too anecdotal and unfocused. The book is good, but would have benefited from more research about her “second” revolution.

[Kelly Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give it 4 stars just for her account of growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution (what a bonkers time) and moving to the US as a young adult. But 2 stars for all the conservative hyperbole. I don't mind challenging my views and reading something from "the other side" (I vote mostly Dem but am more of a moderate) but she made me roll my eyes a lot. There are similarities between the Chinese Cultural Revolution and wokeism and far left progressives in America but there are also so many differences, like it wasn't started and mandated by the person running the country (Mao). I can see how people could compare the Revolution and Maoism to Trumpism as well. I think it's important to learn about China and communism and why capitalism is good and how America has a lot of good values we don't want to flush down the toilet, but all the hyperbole in the intro may turn off some people from reading it. I found good criticisms in it- like what is happening on college campuses with canceling conservative voices and not letting them speak- but sometimes she takes something happening in society and acts like it's this pervasive, horrible thing but I only see it as a problem with maybe 2% of the country. For example, she talks about feminists and progressives wanting to dismantle families over the years, but is that really that pervasive? My parents, born in the 50s, agreed with me. Time will tell if I should have been more worried.

I was not familiar with the Cultural Revolution before this book. I suggest reading the New York Times' 1970 article "The Making of the Red Guard" on the Cultural Revolution. She does a good job talking about it but I think supplementing it with other sources helps. What she was describing was so dystopian and absurd sounding, I just had to google it and found it was pretty insane. You can't make that stuff up.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to put this book down a few times and come back to it. I found Van Fleet’s description of her experiences as a child, adolescent and young adult under Mao’s Revolution to be harrowing and give that portion 5 stars! I have to admit that I only finished about 1/3 of the book, as I believe the author’s fears of her past in China became a driving force that fuels her fears for America’s future. I respect that and applaud her love of the US. In all honesty, I needed to escape the news and social media for a bit in order to read more uplifting and “feel good” literature.

Though I am a conservative, my greatest concern for our country’s future is that the far left AND far right constantly swing our citizens’ “fear-o-meter”. The constant mud slinging and name calling stokes both fear and hatred. I believe in our constitution. Our country has historically survived many instances of division, including a civil war. My hope is that we will survive our current situation and that the majority of Americans fall in the middle of the bell curve, rather than within the two tails.

[Gayle Fairless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cultural Revolution both East and West

The author lived through the Chinese Cultural Revolution and recognizes the same Cultural Revolution here in the United States of America 🇺🇸. The words and labels are tailored to the country. China lost much of its history and culture. Their labels were counterrevelutionary and Black Class. The American Cultural REVOLUTION uses racist, xxxx-phonic,and supremacy. And also domestic terrorists. The strategy is "divide and conquer" which was used by the Axis powers. The author documents speaking to the Virginia school board because remaining silent is not effective opposition. Back in China, her father warned her against criticism even in her journal against anybody. The author warns about the future globalist intent to control everyone in thought, morals, and actions.

[Paul L. Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mao's America ought to be a primer on the the very real threat to America's dangerous real plight!

I have long believed and seen Communism as the very real threat to America's very existence. Not hype nor extremist but real. Seventy four years of life has proved that simple statement as truth. Xi Van Fleet has in an easy concise few words shown by her life in Mao's Cultural Revolution a deep pernicious lie , unchallenged will destroy liberty in America as easy attainable reality here in our nation. We are now in our own Cultural Revolution just as dangerous, just as real, just as pernicious as Mao's CCP. No longer in China but in this last hope in the world's great Democratic Republic experiment. Wake up. That is the warning given by Ms. Van Fleet's warning!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read.

[Negin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What this author experienced, many from other totalitarian countries can attest to also. Tucker Carlson interviewed her recently, and that was eye-opening. It saddens me that most people are clueless and don’t study history. Sadly, they have no idea as to what is going on.

Here are some of my favorite quotes.

Clueless
“… most Americans do not know much, if anything at all, about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Communist China, Communism, or cultural Marxism in general. That explains why so few have recognized that the root of today’s ‘woke revolution,’ not to mention its ultimate goal, is Marxism followed by Communism.”

The Six Stages
“In every school in Mao’s China, we were taught that human/social development encompassed six stages that were to occur in chronological order across a spectrum:

1) primitive society (hunter/gatherer society)
2) slavery
3) feudalism
4) capitalism
5) socialism
6) Communism

We were taught that every country goes through the same stages of development while heading toward the same final destiny and ideal stage of human development: Communism. China, we were then told, was a socialist country, but we were well on the way to Communism. Yet we could not achieve Communism until all the countries in the world were liberated and had accepted socialism. We were taught that it was our duty to help other countries in their effort to become socialist. I did not think much about it then, but it’s now obvious to me that Communism is globalism!”

Gramsci, Cultural Marxism, Buttigieg
“Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), a devout Italian Communist, developed a new idea for defeating capitalism. Instead of seizing the means of production and abolishing private ownership through violent revolution, Gramsci figured that capitalism can be defeated by the destruction of its hegemony.”

“Welcome to cultural Marxism. Gramsci would be regarded as the father of cultural Marxism and grandfather of today’s woke-ism. I believe that understanding Gramsci is the key to understanding woke-ism. Gramsci was imprisoned by Mussolini from 1926 until his death in 1937. It was in prison that Gramsci wrote down his political theory in a collection of essays collectively called Prison Notebooks. Interestingly, the man who helped bring Gramsci’s philosophy to America by translating his works into English and promoting them was Joseph Buttigieg, father of Pete Buttigieg, the current US Secretary of Transportation in the Biden administration. After I learned this information, I went to Amazon and searched ‘Joseph Buttigieg.’ Sure enough, Gramsci’s three-volume work, Prison Notebooks, came up. Sharing Gramsci’s ideology was a group of Jewish Marxist scholars belonging to a school of social theory called the ‘Frankfurt School’ in Frankfurt, Germany. As Hitler rose to power, these scholars no longer felt safe. In 1935, they fled to the United States, where they became embedded in academia at Columbia University in New York City—the heart of modern Western culture at the time. These transplanted intellectuals were the forerunners of American Marxists. They grew in dominance and began to exert their influence on American educational institutions. They had a strategic plan to destroy Western culture, through the manipulation of America’s students and academics, weaponizing their published materials and collecting ‘useful idiots’ to read, teach, and popularize their ideology. The first of these publications was Traditional and Critical Theory by Max Horkheimer. The idea behind critical theory, simply put, is to ‘criticize’ every aspect of Western culture—family, Christianity, law, freedom of expression, or the ‘bourgeois hegemony,’ in Gramsci’s terms. ‘Criticize’ was a word that was on the lips of every Chinese person, including me, during the Cultural Revolution. Critical theory produced many wicked offspring like critical race theory (CRT), critical feminist theory (CFT), and critical queer theory (CQT). CRT was developed by Derrick Bell (1930–2011) as a framework for legal analysis. It was made even more potent by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1959–) with her formulation of the term intersectionality.”

Identity Marxism
“Critical race theory (CRT) is nothing more than a modified version of Mao’s class conflict theory to divide the American people. It is no coincidence or quirk of history that CCT and CRT are so similar in purpose. They come from the same source—Marxism.”

“If you want to divide a family, a community, an organization, or even a nation, you need to create a conflict. It is done by manipulation. Conflict through manipulation is what Marxism is all about. Classic Marxism manipulates the class conflict between the rich and poor by labeling them as exploiters and exploited, oppressors and oppressed, or villains and victims. Neo-Marxism, or cultural Marxism, needs more than just class conflict. It also needs identity conflict. With this division in place, Marxist elites can just sit back and watch the two sides fight.”

“We have long known that simply trying to divide Americans by class to bring down America doesn’t work. The progressives have a better tool: identity Marxism. No identity is more potent than the immutable characteristic of race. Marxists have been running with that tactic for a long time because of slavery and America’s troubled history with race relations.”

“Mao’s class conflict theory (CCT). It is a worldview: a lens with which to view the world. When we apply the CCT lens, we see everything in terms of class. When we apply the CRT lens, we see everything in terms of race. Renowned author Dr. Carol Swain refers to it as ‘fundamentally a racist worldview.’”

Femininity and Gender Equality
“Mao denounced femininity, proclaiming it to be too bourgeois and therefore not fit for revolution. He wrote in a poem that Chinese women preferred carrying weapons to wearing makeup. With that, female beauty was canceled. Men and women dressed and acted alike, and thus were indistinguishable from one another. Women were basically regarded as no different from men. Before there was Superwoman, there were Mao’s Iron Girls, who supposedly could do anything men could do and ‘hold up half a sky’” This was Mao’s expression of female power. During an address to the graduating class at the Coast Guard Academy in 2021, Joe Biden used Mao’s remark about gender equality, admittedly borrowing from Mao’s comments by saying, ‘Women hold up half the world.’ Are you catching the drift of what’s going on here? An American president in the twenty-first century invoking the words of one of the most brutal and powerful Communist dictators in the world as if they were his own. During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, Madame Mao maintained a unisex appearance, becoming the role model of what a Chinese female should look like: unisex.”



The Adaptability of Marxism
“Marxism has proven to be highly adaptive. It quickly attaches itself to the host culture and mutates to something more potent and sinister. In China, it is feudalistic totalitarianism. In America, it is Freud and liberalism, which has now mutated into identity ideology and woke-ism. Basically, it is Marxism with Chinese characteristics, and Marxism with American characteristics, respectively.”

The Greatness of America
“America is the first nation in all of human history built on the foundation that acknowledges ALL humans are created equal and free, and that their inalienable rights were bestowed upon them by God—not from kings, emperors, or the government. It is because of this fundamental belief that America fought a bloody civil war to eradicate slavery, an institution as old as recorded history and not exclusive to those with black skin tone. It is also because of this fundamental belief of individual freedom that America has abolished slavery and has been a magnet for freedom-loving people all around the world since its founding.”

Atheism
“We know of no world civilization that was built on atheism.”

Socialism – and how it’s been slowly seeping in
“Socialism is not about tending to the needs of the poor. Nor is it about sharing and caring. Socialism is about government taking wealth by force from one group and redistributing it to others until it runs out. Socialism is about subjugating the populace and making them dependent on the government. Socialism is about creating scarcity and poverty. I’m not just throwing that out there without anything to support it—I lived it firsthand growing up for twenty-six years. Nothing much has changed, except now it’s happening in America.
I quote African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who famously said, ‘It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.’ The reverse is also true. It is easier to build weak children than to break strong men. Political brainwashing in Mao’s China was ubiquitous, especially in schools, media, and entertainment. For children, classroom education was the primary target of indoctrination, which was to be expected. It is much easier to shape young minds by banning old traditional ideas and fairly easily replacing them with competing Marxist ideas that met with little to no resistance.”

Schools
“Educational traditionalists strive to prepare future well-rounded citizens, while progressives seek to groom future activists and future revolutionaries. One truth can’t be denied: all public schools and increasingly more private schools are controlled by progressives. The reason is simple. These progressives come from the pipeline of the progressive teachers colleges—the indoctrination mills that have been in operation since the 1940s. John Dewey (1859–1952), a renowned educator and professor at the Teachers College at Columbia University (1904–1930), was a key figure in helping turn American public schools into progressively run government schools. Dewey also played a key role in making Columbia University the home of the Frankfurt School Marxists and helping them to put down cultural-Marxist roots in America. He is the father of progressive education. This is what he had to say in summing up the purpose of education in America: ‘I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform.’”

[Shane Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who believe that the repeated warnings of communism in America are nothing more than right wing propaganda, please listen to the defectors of communist countries. They ALL say the same thing! Xi Van Fleet warns us that the same language, the same tactics, the same ideology of the oppressed poor fighting back against the wealthy oppressors are being used in America. And our elite leaders work hand in hand with the expert classes in our universities and media to ensure YOU believe that nothing is happening here. They will tell you any concerns are nothing more than tinfoil hat conspiracies. This will continue until they’ve obtained enough power that it’ll be too late to fight back. And she warns that in the end, just like in China, they will subjugate all of us, even if you were on their side the whole time. Please read. Xi Van Fleet gives a great history of just how this happened in China so you will know the signs when you see them in western countries.

[Bill Leach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Van Fleet lived through the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Now living in the U.S., she sees the same processes taking place in America.

For those not familiar with this thesis, the paradoxes between such ideals as freedom, and government policies are remarkable and inexplicable - and lack common sense. Once one recognizes it as a purposeful cultural revolution, it becomes clear why the nonsensical policies are being put in place.

In China, the storm was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong, the Communist dictator who ruled over China from 1949 to 1976. Mao wanted to destroy everything, burn it all down, and build a brand-new world over the “ashes.” (Or fast-forward to today in President Joe Biden’s words, “build back better.”)

The author notes that on Chinese social media, many people are laughing at what was going on in the U.S., calling it the “American cultural revolution.”

In the first three chapters, the author describes her past, growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, then moving to the U.S.. She was shocked to find the same processes that marked the Chinese revolution, taking shape in the U.S.


Ch 4 - Two Revolutions

The author argues that Marxism is behind the early developments leading to the American cultural revolution - the 1960s counterculture movement, BLM, antifa, etc.

"In every school in Mao’s China, we were taught that human/social development encompassed six stages that were to occur in chronological order across a spectrum: 1) primitive society (hunter/gatherer society), 2) slavery, 3) feudalism, 4) capitalism, 5) socialism, 6) Communism. ... we were then told, [China] was a socialist country, but we were well on the way to Communism." and "Where Communism comes into play is that the ruling political party in these socialist countries is the Communist Party."

The author sees socialism as where citizens "peacefully share wealth and resources". In contrast, "What the progressives are actually pushing is government control of all wealth and resource distribution — a kind of totalitarian socialism just like China, where only the dominant class benefits and the rest suffer."

It was in the 1960's that cultural Marxist ideology promoted by the Frankfurt School made its way out of the university libraries and classrooms and into the streets. Since then, Van Fleet believes there has been a steady growth of Marxism in western institutions.


Chapter 5 - Born Guilty: How an Ideology Divides

The author sees the current efforts to divide people along racial and religious lines, as an intentional movement to promote tension among the citizens. She notes that when Mao’s class conflict theory (CCT)is applied, we see everything in terms of class. When we apply the critical race theory (CRT) lens, we see everything in terms of race.

Van Fleet has noted: “Nazism divides people along ethnic, racial, and religious lines. Communism divides people by class. Woke-ism divides people by both and more!”

"Almost all of the progressive elites in America are white themselves. It’s not an attempt on the part of white leftists to be simply traitorous or remorseful of their class or race. They are simply using divisive Marxist tactics to gain power for themselves."


Chapter 6 - Red Guards: Stormtroopers of the Revolution

The author describes the role of the Red Guards in breaking down old ways. In twenty-first century America, the “Red Guards” of our place and time are alive and they are multiplying. America’s version of China’s Red Guards is a combination of radical activists, BLM, and Antifa.

One of the most important things to understand is that, while Mao’s intention was to create chaos among the people, which would provide him with a ripe environment in which to build a new world order exactly according to his own design, that very same chaos became a monster that eventually destroyed everything on its path, including the CCP itself.

In today’s woke world, free speech is allowed as long you are aligned with the woke-sters. Otherwise, it is hate speech and needs to be banned.


Chapter 7 - Cancel Culture: War on the Old World

Cancel culture has "become a powerful force, a force aiming at transforming the traditional Western culture to a Marxist or woke culture."

Mao carried out his “cancel culture,” although it is called by another name: Destroy the Four Olds - old ideas, old traditions, old customs, and old habits. This extended to rewriting history and destroying relics and statues; a process now taking place in the West.

The old world the progressives want to destroy is the so-called “white world,” because white is synonymous with Western. Whiteness is at the root of American founding.

Mao stated in his 1940 published work On New Democracy that Confucianism was an obstacle to the new culture and new ideas. “There is no construction without destruction, no flowing without damming and no motion without rest; the two are locked in a life-and-death struggle

Cancel culture is fundamental to the need to destroy before building back up.


Chapters 8 and 9 - Destruction of Family and Religion

Several decades of relentless attacks on American families by the Marxist radicals have left us with an American family landscape that has been radically changed.

The author states "The fact is that we know of no world civilization that was built on atheism."

During the COVID pandemic, the state went even further by forcefully closing churches.

John McWhorter argues that the new woke religion has all the characteristics of a religion, including original sin — “white privilege.”

"Communism is not against religion. Rather, it wants to replace religion."


Chapter 10 - Making of the New Man: Ideological Indoctrination

Van Fleet notes "If you want to capture the minds of the students, you need to control those of the teachers first." "The abandoning of academic education and research reverted China back to the stone age."

"If you can orchestrate the words people use and how they use them, you can control their speech and therefore their thoughts."

Traditionalists believe schools are academic institutions with a purely academic purpose - to develop the mental ability of students and more generally to pass on the Western cultural heritage to the next generation. Progressives, by contrast, regard schools as social service agencies, whose purpose is to prepare students for the social, political, and economic realities of modern life.

Traditionalists typically are parents and older teachers, while progressives are comprised mostly of educational professionals trained by progressive teachers colleges. Summing up the difference is easy: educational traditionalists strive to prepare future well-rounded citizens, while progressives seek to groom future activists and future revolutionaries.

Asians have become a problem for the progressive DEI narrative. To overcome this predicament, the progressives conveniently classify Asians as “white adjacent” with white privilege.

Founding Father James Madison wrote that our Constitution requires “sufficient virtue among men for self-government. To each new generation the virtues without which free societies cannot survive: basic honesty, integrity, self-restraint, concern for others and respect for their dignity and rights, civic-mindedness, and the like.”

"Where does the new generation learn these virtues? The answer should be exactly like it used to be at one time, but sadly is no longer. It should be found in the traditions of family, church, and school. These are mind-shaping institutions that define future generations. The progressives have successfully assaulted and undermined all three institutions of family, church, and school, as outlined in these three last chapters, and they will continue to do so unabated unless citizens and public officials of sound mind stop them."


Epilogue

China’s unprecedented economic growth under former President Jiang Zemin inevitably brought about unprecedented corruption.

Xi Jinping stated the following in a speech at a political meeting for newly selected CCP officials: "Belief in Marxism, socialism and Communism is the political soul of and the spiritual pillar for Communists."

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was challenged by someone to read this book. While I don't dispute the author's experiences growing up in China saying that America is in danger of being taken over by Communists from within is a stretch. The author misinterprets definitions, generalizes and only tells half of the story. For example her definition of people who I are, "...woke believing all existing institutes, traditions, traditions, and social norms - in other words, the entire Western civilization and free market system - need to be destroyed and burned to the ground, upon which a brand- new world over the ashes will be built, just like Mao did to China." p 81. That is not what "woke" means. It means to be sensitive and have empathy to someone who is different than you be it race, gender, gender identity, religion, or national origin. She complains that books she read as a child, Dr. Seuss and Tom Sawyer are being banned. First not all 9nly a small number of Dr. Seuss books were pulled, by the Geisel (Dr. Seuss) family because they felt they were xenophobic and inappropriate because they negatively stereotyped Asians. You would think the author being Chinese would appreciate that but no it doesn't fit into her agenda. Lastly the author complains that in 1989 America stood by and did nothing as the Chinese government did nothing while the Chinese government massacred students in Tianamien Square. Who was the American President in 1989? GWB. Just as in the 1930's just before WWII the real threat to Democracy isn't American Communism, it's American Fascism.

[grllopez ~ with freedom and books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mao's America:
A Survivor's Warning
Xi Van Fleet
Published 2023
Political Non-fiction, History, Memoir
⭐⭐⭐⭐

It all began with the courage to stand up for the truth.

It was June 2021, at the infamous Loudoun County School Board Meeting. Xi Van Fleet presented her one-minute condensed admonition on the perils of Marxism disguised as Critical Race Theory (CRT), being propagated in Loudoun schools (and schools across America).

In her speech she laid out the accusations: "[The schools] taught students to be social justice warriors, to loathe America and its history, and to use race to divide. During the Chinese Revolution, the Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide, using class instead of race. They also denounced their heritage, destroyed statues and books, and also reported on each other, similar to the reporting system in Loudoun schools." Van Fleet ended with, "This is the American version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. CRT has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our schools."

Van Fleet was born and raised in China. She was six-years old when the Cultural Revolution began in 1966. In her book Mao's America, A Survivor's Warning, she described what it was like growing up under the yoke of a communist regime. Now she was witnessing the results of those same or similar tactics right here in America, her current home since she left China in the 1980s.

Earlier this year I read Red Scarf Girl, and much of Ji-Li Jiang's story is the same as Xi Van Fleet's. During the Cultural Revolution, young people (called Red Guards) were manipulated into acting out chaos, rebelling against authority, destroying property, committing violence against targeted individuals, and even committing "grotesque violence." Disrespect of heritage, traditions, and history were encouraged. Of course, books were destroyed, too. Also, hard work was no longer rewarded. Please tell me you see these things, too, in America.

Eventually factions occurred within the Red Guards, schools were closed, and the young people were sent to labor camps. Van Fleet spent three-years away at camp when she could have been learning. What education she did receive was subpar.

When Mao Zedong died in 1976, the Cultural Revolution was over. Colleges were reopened, and Van Fleet was able to attend and graduate college. Through her employment she made a connection to an English teacher who suggested Xi pursue a postgraduate education in America, and in 1986, she was on her way.

One new thing she had to learn was how to make choices. Under communism, one does not have choices. Yeonmi Park, in her memoir In Order to Live, said, too, that she had to learn to make choices after she had fled communism in North Korea. In addition, Van Fleet said that in college, "learning required thinking," and she had to "learn to think and form [her] own opinions."

Soon Van Fleet became an American citizen, and she also married and started a family.

I never entertained the idea that Marxism could take such a prominent place in America.

Her first red flag was language manipulation, called political correctness back in the 90s.

The real intention is not about respect. This was just an early form of language manipulation to control people. If you can orchestrate the words people use and how they use them, you can control their speech and therefore their thoughts.

In 2012, she was invited to become a member of the "newly formed Diversity and Inclusion Council." Next, "they introduced CRT - without using the terminology - it did not make sense. The company was multiethnic and multicultural, more than half women, including in leadership, whose CEO was black. Obviously, this was not good enough." Before long, they were having conferences on systemic racism and microaggressions. Articles were internally distributed on racial issues. Therefore, because of the political pressure, Van Fleet decided to exit the Council.

A few other incidents occurred, which raised the alarm: her son was being taught white privilege and intersectionality in college, and finally, the George Floyd event -- that was her limit!

The culture at work changed. The D & I Council updated its true identity to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council; personal pronouns became a thing; and all white people are inherently racist just because they are white instantly was a reality. Hence, she spoke up at work and questioned if she should be concerned that she was suddenly surrounded by racist whites? After that, she received her first poor review and was relegated to be remolded...I mean re-educated in learning programming language or be fired, even though she was doing that same job the same way for over twenty years. She understood they were on to her as a truth warrior (my words) and decided to quit her job.

She...escaped communism, but now was in the midst of the battlefield, fighting against communism to keep America free.

That was just the first few chapters of Mao's America. The rest of the book provides:

an excellent comparative history of Marxism in the United States and China, including a history of Mao Zedong;
a history about Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci;
a history of feminism and black Marxism in America, including BLM;
America's Olds and their replacements.
There is a chapter on how implementation of an ideology divides people in China, and how it is working in America;
a chapter on the Red Guards of China compared to the new Stormtroopers in America, like Antifa, BLM, (and today's Pro-Palestinian Mob);
a chapter on the War on traditions, or the Old World and America's Cancel Culture;
chapters on destruction of the family, religion;
and finally, a chapter on all the ideological goodies that go into the re-making of the New Man;
and there is even a bit about how Xi Jinping works into all of this.
There is also a thorough book list throughout for anyone who wants to dig deeper.

Often books like this offer a glimmer of hope on how to solve the problem, but Van Fleet is honest: "Marxism and communism infiltration in America is complete." (Have you seen our military?) The only hope she can offer is an appeal to PUT COMMUNISM ON TRIAL! This ideology kills.

Van Fleet's Epilogue is a warning:

It's all about gaining power by first destabilizing a society through cultural subversion and upheaval. It is also about maintaining power by stabilizing the Marxist hegemony to complete control over its people. The Woke cultural revolution in America is the elites' pathway to their ultimate destination, the so-called China model, a ruthless totalitarian regime armed with surveillance and AI technology that will control every move of individuals 24/7. Once power is established, the elites will redefine morality and social norms -- which will have nothing to do with the Woke ideology today. It's only a means to an end. Freedom will be taken away and we will be brought under total subjugation by the state no matter whether you are on the left or the right.

[Tralala Tralala · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I agree very much with the thesis of the book, this simply isn't a good book. It's not well written, well researched, well documented, well argued.
It's very biased in the sense that there is so much bi partisan rhetoric in it that it half defeats the purpose of the undertaking.
Given how little "meat" there is on the actual subject (the parallels between Mao's China and today's woke mind virus), I found it very tedious to even finish.
I guess it's very hard to write a good book; would definitely have benefited from a better editor to at least trim it down extensively and tone down the counter productive rhetoric and name calling.

[Yash Arya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, because they fail to detect the language, methods, and goals of totalitarian movements.

Having lived through Chairman Mao's Great Cultural Revolution in China, this is Xi Van Fleet's warning on the similarities she sees between the goals and methods of Maoist Communism and American Leftism today. I may add that similar goals and methods are employed by radical leftist intellectuals and activists in India as well.

I highly recommend reading this book in order to better equip yourself to look beyond the self-assigned good labels and good-sounding goals of the so-called "progressives."

Here are a few quotes from the book.

Ch. 6: Red Guards: Stormtroopers of the Revolution

“We should ask ourselves how China’s Red Guards of the past are similar to America’s Red Guards of today. For one thing, the Chinese Red Guards were targeting the Black Class and the CCP bureaucrats. The American Red Guards were (and are) targeting the new American Black Class, the conservatives. The Chinese Red Guards started with verbal attacks, using big-character posters, but ended up physically beating and eventually killing their targets. American Red Guards started with verbal attacks and are now advocating for physical coercion and violence. A 2021 survey of the top 150 colleges in the US found that nearly 25 percent of students said it is acceptable to use violence to shut down a controversial speaker. The number jumps to nearly 50 percent at several elite women’s colleges.”

“Both Chinese and American Red Guards have one thing in common: intolerance—they demand tolerance of others, but not of themselves. The Chinese Red Guards went after those Mao could not tolerate. The American Red Guards have gone after those the progressives can’t tolerate. To many of today’s college students, “speech is violence.” Not their speech; only the speech of those with different viewpoints.”

“BLM is a Marxist organization. We know this to be true because you can hear it directly from cofounder Patrisse Cullors when she called herself and other BLM founders “trained Marxists” in a surfaced clip from a Real News Network interview.41 Cullors addresses the question of whether she is a Marxist on her own YouTube channel.42 In that video, she manages to avoid repeating her claim that she is a trained Marxist. Instead, she said she believes in Marxism because it is an ideology that criticizes capitalism. She made it clear that BLM’s target is capitalism.”

Also see: BLM Co-Founder Is Excited Her Book Is Like Mao’s Red Book

“Did you know that BLM started most of the riots in 2020? As reported by the Federalist, a study has shown that up to 95 percent of the 2020 US riots were linked to BLM. [..] “in a five-month span in 2020, we watched BLM-influenced rioters burn and vandalize our cities; people died. Many of the victims are the very people the BLM movement claims to be fighting for. In addition to the loss of lives, BLM may have caused up to $2 billion worth of damage.”

“the Red Guards [had a] slogan: “Stealing is justified. Robbery is no crime. Long, long live the revolutionary bandit spirit.” In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Osterweil said that looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society. The Chinese Red Guards would agree with her!”

“Ngo traced Antifa back to Antifaschistische Aktion, a group founded by the German Communist Party in 1932. The American Antifa not only took its name, but also its logo, with two flags that represent anarchism and Communism. BLM also used symbolism with Communist roots, such as their raised fist. Ngo describes American Antifa as a “unique crosspollination of several radical ideologies: Marxism, anarchism, and critical theory.”
Antifa and BLM share the same goal of ending capitalism and America. They share the same belief in violence and lawlessness, and by any means necessary.”

Look up the logo of Antifa and Antifaschistische Aktion to see for yourself.
Also look up the logo of Communist Fist, BLM Fist, Palestine Solidarity Fist, and Intersectionality Fist.

Wherever Communism is tried, it leads to a) deaths of millions and b) deflection of the blame to the Western (semi) Capitalist world.

Wherever a Middle-of-the-Road compromise is chosen between Capitalism and Communism (due to a lack of precise understanding of what each system refers to, and due to a fallacious tendency to assume that the optimal system is always somewhere in the middle an not at the extremes), society continues to "progressively" slip towards Communism.

Politics is downstream from mass Economic (and Philosophical) Literacy.

"Public policy in democratic societies will always reflect the economic understanding of the general public. If the general public believes that imports hurt the domestic economy, a policy of free trade has no hope of being realized. If the general public does not understand the dangers of discretionary monetary policy, discretionary monetary policy will persist. If members of the general public do not understand that the well-being of the poor and the middle class improves as entrepreneurs and businesses are more free to innovate and compete, public policy will be a nest of obstacles to innovation and barriers to competition." - Economist Donald J. Boudreaux

[Jack · Rating 1 out of 5]

My grandmother who gets all her news from Hannity and Tucker gave this to me. It didn’t take long to realize this is nothing more than fear-mongering conspiracy theories that are never explored beyond the surface level and relies entirely on false equivalencies and straw men arguments.

[Melodeamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read that if you want to get out of the matrix

[Cheryl Newey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting memoir from a person who survived communism and whose calling now is to educate and raise awareness in America of its dangers.
Van Fleet succinctly and deliberately draws parallels to Maoism in communist China and the rise of American cultural Marxism in Western society.

Van Fleet describes stages of human development taught in Chinese schools: 1) primitive society (hunter/gatherer), 2) slavery, 3) feudalism, 4) capitalism, 5) socialism, and 6) communism.

Van Fleet states that progressives today are pushing for a totalitarian socialism --government control of all wealth and resources.

The goal of Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was to 'burn it all down' and mobilize the masses, especially the youth as well as disenfranchised youths with the goal to overthrow the sitting government.

Reality and facts do not dissuade Communists from their plan.
Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) sought to defeat capitalism by destroying its hegemony (i.e. common sense of the age). Van Fleet postulates that in order to understand woke-ism one must understand Gramsci.

Van Fleet writes that Pete Buttigieg's father, Joseph Buttigieg, translated Gramsci's three-volume work "Prison Notebooks" into English. Jewish Marxist scholars created the "Frankfurt School" in Frankfurt, Germany. Once Hitler came into power, these intellectuals fled to the U.S. and became embedded in Columbia University. They are the forerunners of American Marxism today. Their goal? To destroy Western culture through the manipulation of America's students and academics. And, how would they go about their plan? Critical theory. DEF: "criticize" every aspect of Western culture -- family, law, Christianity, freedom of expression or the "bourgeois hegemony" in Gramsci's terms.

Van Fleet argues that woke-ism is a critical characteristic of today's American cultural Marxism.
She credits scholar James Lindsey, anti-Marxism intellectual and author, as giving everyday Americans the insight to understanding Neo-Marxist theories through his books and podcast.

DEF: Woke-ism => an ideology that believes that a more equitable society can be created by the destruction of capitalism.
Van Fleet states the Chinese word for woke is "juewa" which means awareness or consciousness. Maoism encouraged "juewa" to abandon any independent thinking and letting one be guided unconditionally by Mao Zedong Thought.

Mao used his class conflict theory (CCT) to divide the Chinese people. CRT is nothing more than a modified version of CCT to divide the American people. CCT and CRT come from the same source: Marxism.

Intersectionality -> setting minority groups vs majority by 'victimhood'
Red Guard. Van Fleet compares Mao's green shirts with Hitler's brown shirts. Today, the "Red Guards" are Antifa, radical activists, and BLM supporters.
"The American Red Guards were (are) targeting the New American Black Class, conservatives. The Chinese Red Guard started with verbal attacks, but ended up physically beating and eventually killing their targets."
"Both Chinese and American Red Guards have one thing in common: intolerance."

Antifa emerged in 2017 during Charlottesville, VA during Unite the Right and counterprotests. In 2019, journalist Andy Ngo was beaten in Portland. Ngo traced roots of Antifa back to Antifaschistische Aktion, a group formed by the German Communist Party in 1932.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm old and have seen how true Xi Van Fleet's comparisons are. Because I have been alive and have observed (Chicago was a good seat- then and now) to the very crucial techniques used in these cultural revolutions. Be they named THE Cultural Revolution, or something far less indictive- like revolution for "rights" of historic victims or BLM or ANTIFA any other names it gets along the way.

Her young life's experiences in China and in the USA makes her see clearly. Very clearly. But now instead of going to the countryside to plant and harvest rice when 10 years old- you get "collective" lessons of "needed perceptions" from your own school teacher at the same time in which your elders suffer assault, fentanyl & homicide deaths in 1000's of their youth and various other "just because" negatives of "oh well" to teach the same base lessons. Property equity eracing and invasions against individual ownership criteria being just the least of it. Accompanied by tax property rates for which most average will lose their homes they never own because the tax system will finish their assumption in not so many years after the mortgage was paid. Old, middle or young- taught and with the stick that "the government knows best". No tolerance for disagreement either. None.

Spot on and brave, brave author here. It takes living it to know how much this- her personal tale is reality. And her path of open eyes along the ways is superbly and bravely exact to reality of top down "trends" for the last 25 years in the USA. The long march to Marxism is using identical techniques.

All you need to finish the lesson is to observe the Obama "library" monument etc. in Jackson Park. Shape and no obscurity to what it contains/ displays for question of "power"- it tells it all, just as well as the Soviet Moscow headquarters do. Really- it's incredible the similarity in the architecture as well.

[Patrick Duran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Van Fleet is a warrior. She lived through the Cultural Revolution in China that started in 1966 and continued until Mao's death in 1976. August 1966 in Beijing will forever be known as Red August because it was so bloody. It was the beginning of the widespread violence that persevered throughout China. Xi issues a clarion call to all Americans: DO NOT let the Marxist actions we have witnessed the past few years take over the United States and become commonplace.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is meant to do one thing: divide all citizens just as in communist China. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao divided people into two groups: the oppressors and the oppressed, a Marxist concept based upon the "sin" of our birth. Mao used class conflict theory (CCT) as opposed to CRT, but both methods are essentially the same. His strategy was to annihilate the 1% (which included land owners and employers) by designating them the enemy and the 99%, some 395 million people, as "allies." The wealthy oppressors were the Black Class, and the lowly workers were the Red Class. The ultimate goal was to turn suffering into anger into action. People who stepped out of line quickly became the Black Class. Xi mentions the "struggle sessions" that people were forced to endure, but does not go into detail which may be a relief to some readers. I've read other accounts of these sessions that are truly horrific. People were basically tortured to death in front of loved ones. One tactic the Marxists use is to turn family against each other, which is one of the most despicable elements of the movement.

Cancel culture is one of the core positions of the Marxist Cultural Revolution and cancelling whiteness is a euphemism for cancelling Western civilization. The Marxist movement has been progressing in America for the past 100 years. The fact that it has not taken hold to a great degree during that time shows that the majority reject this outlandish belief. Let us hope and pray that the younger generation continues to defy this demoralizing and evil "religion." Van Fleet's account is a powerful warning to us all to defeat these toxic ideas before they consume us.

[Natali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lady prefaces her story by warning that English is not her first language so asks for your patience and then she brings the absolute heat better than most native speakers ever could. She gets a "You go girl!" for that! I really enjoyed reading this.

This author lived through the communist revolution under Mao in China. In this book, she dissects the dangers and ills of communism from personal experience and then lays out with painstaking detail how the same thing is happening in the United States by Neo-Marxists. As painful as it is to read, a lot of it is quite undeniable. Public shaming, the breakdown of the family, attack on religion, destroying history and historical artifacts, class warfare, removing the concept of gender, virtue signaling to the party. It's all there for us to see if we care to see it!

I still have questions about how this relates to modern day China but that is not the crux of this book. This book is the perspective from someone who patriated as an American for certain values that are slipping away before our very eyes. So now it's for us to decide what happens next. Do we live in a place of cleanliness? Healthfulness? Lawfulness? A place full of hard workers with loving families? Or do we throw all of that away and hand ourselves over to the state under the guise of progressive values? She is very clear in her warning that when you adopt communism because you think it will help everyone, you will be sorry because in the end, it helps no one and those who champion it get rich off the spoils of those who lose everything.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never learned much about China or its complex history in high school or college. Growing up in the 80s, the story I remember was "Communism is Bad" and we should fight against it in the world and certainly at home. As an adult I gradually learned more about it through novels and movies, but still didn't really understand what the Cultural Revolution was all about or why it was significant.

Xi Van Fleet tells a remarkable story about her experiences growing up in China during that time, how the lives of her family and friends were upended when Mao came into power. Her writing is clear and precise, the narrative isn't chronological, but she is able to show how the government policies affected real citizens in a way that perhaps an academic textbook would not. After moving to the US, going to school, working, raising a child, she became alarmed at the changes happening in her county schools. A video of her speaking at a Louden County school board meeting went viral, when she compared the policies she was seeing to the same ones that changed her world in Mao's China.

Whether you call the current cultural shift many Americans have noticed over the past 8 years Woke-ism, Socialism, or just progress, it is worth reading her story and thinking about the changes going on in our local communities and the country at large. I highly recommend this book for parents of school age kids and curious readers who aren't afraid to question their world view.

[B. Cheng · Rating 1 out of 5]

As someone whose lived in China for a long time, the title and cover is what pulled me in having known nothing about Mrs. Van Fleet's background, I wish I would have. She should be embarrassed for comparing her "suffering" during the Cultural Revolution to the current situation in the United States. She ignores that the Cultural Revolution was organized by the government to promote a cult of personality because it destroys her whole premise that the "American Cultural Revolution" is very much identical to what China went through. She regularly plays with facts like this to fit her story, something anybody whose listened to the right the last few years is used to like not differentiating "black lives matter" the hashtag and general movement from the organization with that name, talking about antifa as if it is an organized group, and playing up "threats" like critical race theory into boogeymen that are out to destroy America.

There is nothing worth reading unless you are a Fox News watcher and love the right's narrative, in which case this book has all your talking points. If you have any understanding of Chinese history and/or read/watch things other than Fox News, you will quickly see how pointless the author's arguments are.