IT took grit and gumption to spend 12 years of their lives researching the lesser-known facts about Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong. But the struggles of Chinese author Jung Chang and her British husband Jon Halliday did not end when they published Mao: The Unknown Story (2005).

The book attracted heavy criticism from the Chinese because it did not recount the "official" version of Mao's life story. It showed Mao in less than favourable light - in fact, as a tyrannical leader concerned only with gaining power for himself.

"After the Mao book was published, there was a book titled Was Mao Really A Monster? published in response to ours. It collected various book reviews attacking us for showing Mao to be a monster, even though we didn't actually use the word. But what can I do? I'm not going to reply to these ill-informed people who are just making assertions," Chang says.