1976 – The Year Mao Died Remembered

Ragnar Baldursson’s memoir of Beijing in the tumultuous year of 1976 now out as a Penguin China Special…

Reviewed in the Asian Review of Books here

The events of 1976 convulsed China: Mao died, the Gang of Four fell, hundreds of thousands perished in the Tangshan earthquake. Ragnar Baldursson, an idealistic true believer in the Chinese socialist experiment, was one of the few foreigners present to witness these events. Forty years on, living in a very different China, Ragnar revisits his experiences as a student in Beijing, offering rare glimpses of life during this turbulent and decisive year.