Chinese scholar and former political prisoner Yang Jianli debunks the myth that Han China was a “stable” and”homogenous” society, a position upheld by the current Chinese Government, which glorifies this oppressive society of the past. Han China was not the peaceful and productive land the Communist Party claims it was; inreality, it was deeply troubled. Yang reveals that, in order to legitimize its policies, the current government attempts to recreate history and cast HanChina as a society worthy of replication. Yang warns that the myth of a prosperous Han China is nothing more than “a self-serving life of a government in fear of its people and in dread of the truth that its rule has been an unmitigated disaster.”
