I haven't read the article but what does Mao have to do with the 'Opium Wars'? He wasn't even born until 1893, 33 years after they ended!

Mao also got prominent mention in those old Soviet documents showing that North Korea started the Korean War. See my old postings!

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That magazine ( back to that) is stated to be so politically correct it is inaccurate historically!

@mechajutaro said:

@Benton12 said:

The actor playing Mao looks like James Shigeta, an American actor who used to do shows like Outer Limits.

A recent. totally Lousy article in National Geographic History showed the subject of tbis movie. as a liberator/ hero to China. What a sick joke that is!!!!!! Mao killed around 50 million Chinese!

PS The article was titled 'The Opium Wars' in the Jan. 2021 magazine edition!

The folks over at Rifftrax must read Jung Chang's biography of Mao, then do a takedown of this movie, each time it screws the pooch on historical facts

I felt Jung Chang let themselves down in that biography by being overly partisan. Everything was, without any exception I can remember, negative about Mao in almost fanatical terms. Almost no questions were raised about the dictatorship that he sought to usurp.

Repeatedly labelling Mao cowardly might have made Chang feel better about themselves (and their historic support of Mao) but it isn't based in reality. The various anti-establishment lunatics that punctuate the histories of the 20th century are many things. Self serving, megalomaniacal, intellectually limited, deluded and evil being just a few of the words that can be suggested. But cowardly is not one. To dedicate your life to overthrowing a dictatorship (albeit replacing it with another) risked exile, imprisonment and (if it reached the stage of armed insurrection) death. How many times did Jung Chang do that before she slipped away to a comfortable life in the UK?

Anyway, if this is a powderpuff pro-Mao film then it is reprehensible and is a sign of the times under 'great leader' Xi who is utterly destroying the comparatively moderate foundations he inherited from his predecessors.