"Nowadays, Yang asserts, 'rulers and ordinary citizens alike know in their hearts that the totalitarian system has reached its end.' He hopes 'Tombstone' will help banish the 'historical amnesia imposed by those in power' and spur his countrymen to 'renounce man-made calamity, darkness and evil.' While guardedly hopeful about the rise of democracy, Yang is ultimately a realist. Despite China’s economic and social transformation, this courageous man concludes, 'the political system remains unchanged.' 'Tombstone' doesn’t directly challenge China’s current regime, nor is its author part of an organized movement. And so, unlike the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, Yang Jisheng is not serving a long prison sentence. But he has driven a stake through the hearts of Mao Zedong and the party he helped found."
In The New York Times, Jonathan Mirsky reviews a new English-language translation of Yang Jisheng's Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962.
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