Chairman Mao, spinmeister extraordinaire

Now that many people expect the 21st century to be the “Chinese century,” in the way that the 20th is seen as the “American Century,” we must confess to a profound ignorance of many things Chinese, including the cuisine, which a good friend who hails from Beijing assures us is 90 percent inauthentic here in America. Anyhow, we plan to become more Sino-aware in the coming years, which is why a new book about Chairman