Wenge: Destroy The Old!

by Mark Morey

Wenge – Destroy the Old! is larger than life and crazier than imagination, but incredibly this novel is based on actual events! Wonderful characters, fantastic story-telling; literally impossible to put down – Alice Pickard, author


I was totally blown-away by Wenge – Destroy the Old! – Mary Parks, author


Amazing! – Ryan Gray, author


May 25, 1966 and Peking University is abuzz. First year student Yang Fan follows the crowd to see a big-character poster denouncing those not supporting the Cultural Revolution. Fan, the daughter of a revolutionary hero, gets swept up in Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution as she struggles counterrevolutionaries, targets revisionists in their homes, and attacks Confucianism as the worst of the four olds. But like all Red Guards, protagonist becomes victim as the tables are turned on Fan; leaving her to ponder what she did and what might have been.

ebook

Published July 3, 2019

About the author

Writing a novel didn’t cross my mind until after a visit to the local library where I couldn’t find a book that interested me. That led me consider a new pastime - write a book. That book may never be published, but I felt my follow-up cross-cultural romance-crime hybrid set in Russia had more potential. So much so that I wrote a sequel that took those characters on a journey to a very dark place.

The opening of the Red Sun Will Come came to me in a dream, and to this day I have no idea why Moscow. I had never been there before, but during the course of developing this novel we did visit Russia, and my wife and I both fell in love with Moscow. It is a world city: exciting, dynamic, visually beautiful and more What better setting for a romance with many difficulties?

Beyond part-time work and part-time writing I particularly enjoy travel.

But writing is my favourite pastime and I have many more tales that I would like to tell. Keep in touch to see where my next journey will take you.

Reviews

[Alice Pickard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wenge – Destroy The Old! is larger than life and crazier than imagination, but incredibly this novel is based on actual events! Wonderful characters, fantastic story-telling; literally impossible to put down. Wenge is told through two sisters, one a student at Peking University where the Cultural Revolution is launched, and the other is a mistress of Chairman Mao. Although these sisters are in very different places in their lives, cleverly they are more alike than first appears. Fan the student falls in love, and together they make revolution with Fan very much in her element. Fan is a logical and practical young woman which enables her to excel as a Red Guard, like cream rising to the top. The other sister Huimin gives us a window to the bigger picture of the Cultural Revolution, while Huimin's slow transformation is an interesting sub-plot in this story.

One interesting aspect of Wenge is the dark, sardonic humour which gradually abates as the Cultural Revolution becomes ever more intense. A clever way of showing the slow, steady decline to ultimate tragedy. No characters come out their trials unscarred, but none more than Yawen, Fan's lover. While Yawen plays a supporting role in revolution her ultimate outcome is extremely important to this story.

The other strong woman in Wenge, which is set in a place and time of strong women, is Tan Houlan, a charismatic Red Guard leader. Tan is written with great subtlety, just glimpses to make her truly interesting. Tan's dialogue is particularly well-constructed, from what I expect are a mixture of her actual speeches carried through to fictional dialogue written to her unique style of speaking.

Wenge is like no other book I've ever read before. Wenge – Destroy The Old! should be on everyone's must-read list of 2019. Read it, you will not be disappointed!

[Allan Challis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story tells the story of China's Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, through the eyes of a university student turned Red Guard, Yang Fan, and her sister Yang Huimin, who happens to be a mistress of Chairman Mao Zedong. The story steps through a number of scenes showing aspects of the Cultural Revolution. Some of these aspects are banal, some are focussed, and some are quite troubling. Huimin brings a different perspective to this story, which is less about Fan and Huimin and more about the last revolution of Mao Zedong, and how it damaged the nation of China and the 700 million who lived there. Was this a revolution for the sake of a revolution? It appears to be. The story finishes with Mao Zedong near death, while Fan, Huimin and the other key characters have been harmed to a greater or lesser extent by the Cultural Revolution. China has been harmed, which is what this story is really about.

Read Wenge – Destroy the Old!, you will not be disappointed. It is a spectacular story like no other!

[Mary Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was totally blown-away by Wenge – Destroy the Old! Yes it is fiction and many characters are fictional, but what they go through is clearly based of fact. A leader deliberately unleased chaos on his nation, and virtually stood back to watch what happened. Some of what happens is good, some is bad, some is tragic, some is painful, and some is extremely destructive. Wenge goes through all these things in a way that almost unputdownable! Great characters make this story extra special, especially Fan but also her sister Huimin, whose flippant facade conceals a really interesting young woman beneath the surface. Great story, great characters; what more could a reader want?

[Joey Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up having read other books by this author, and always finding them interesting and about little known times of history and this one was no different. Linked to a previous book, it told the story of a revolution in China in the 1960’s. I adored the characters, loved reading about the little known facts, (at least for me) and learning more about that time in history. Overall it was an engaging read that I breezed through in almost one sitting. I would recommend his work to anyone who loves a good historical fiction heavy on the facts.

[C.A. King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't my normal go-to genre . I picked it up out of sheer interest from the blurb and it held my attention. I didn't expect a lot of things in the book - especially the sex. Overall I applaud the author for a job well done.