The Long March
The True History of Communist China's Founding Myth
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In The Long March, Sun Shuyun uncovers the true story behind the mythic march of Mao's soldiers across China, exposing the famine, disease, and desertion behind the legend.In 1934, in the midst of civil war, the Communist party and its 200,000 soldiers were forced from their bases by Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist troops. Led by Mao Tse Tung, they set off on a strategic retreat to the barren north of China, thousands of miles away. As Sun Shuyun travels along the march route, her interviews with survivors and villagers show that the forces at work during the days of the revolution – poverty, sickness, and Mao's use of terror, propaganda, and ruthless purges – have shaped modern China irrevocably. Uncovering the forced recruitment, political infighting, and futile deaths behind the myth, Shuyun creates a compelling narrative of a turning point in modern Chinese history, and a fascinating journey that spans China, old and new.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Long March the 8,000-mile trek by 200,000 Communist soldiers in 1934 while fleeing the Nationalists is still legendary in Chinese Communist Party lore, but there are a lot of myths surrounding it, as the Chinese-born author discovers when she retraces the march's steps. Meeting wizened march veterans, the author, raised on the heroism of the march, is shocked to discover the reality: stories of starvation and desertion, violence against women and unnecessary deaths. For years afterward, some of the veterans didn't receive full pensions. A filmmaker and television producer who divides her time between London and Beijing, she also finds that Mao made strategic mistakes attributed to others, and used the march ruthlessly to defeat his rivals and cement his hold on Communist power. Her interviews with veterans are among the book's highlights, but just as fascinating as the interviews and archival research is her travel through China. She colorfully describes the countryside, which in her eyes maintains its ancient beauty even amid creeping 21st-century modernity. Some readers may need to do a little background reading on 20th-century Chinese history, but the rewards make it worthwhile. Map.
Customer Reviews
This book is a must read.
The Long March: A True History of Communist China's Founding Myth by Sun Shuyun is an incredibly impressive work of revisionist reporting, which calls into question nearly every aspect of the Chinese Communist Party's "official" account of what really occurred during this epic, horrific journey.
The author follows the path taken by those 200,000 plus soldiers who embarked on a grueling journey west and then north from Ruijin in 1934 interviewing the last remaining survivors of the March along the way. The stories told by these survivors of what really happened during the Long March brings into question not only China's "official" account of what occurred, but also causes one to question any country's "official" historical account of war campaigns waged. What really occurred during the long marches of Alexander the Great and his army; of George Washington's campaigns against the British; of the horrors, trials, and tribulations encountered by those who fought and marched during the Seven Years' War; of the Thirty Years' War; of Napoleon's march into Russia, etc.
This book gives the reader a very real, graphic, gruesome understanding of what is involved in the mass movement of tens to hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and their devastating affect on the villages, towns, and areas they pass through.
It has been years since I have read a historical work that was so precise yet raw in its reporting. This book is a must read.
Honest and Accurate, but Incomplete
The “Long March” is compelling and provides an honest telling of what actually happened. The book allows readers to begin to understand the Long March from the perspective of survivors.
The book is incomplete in that it fails to explain communist governance to those outside China who have only a superficial understanding of communism. “Politburo,” “Central Committee,” “Soviet,” and even the term “Party.” What are these things? Why are they important? What am I supposed to understand about how these bodies affected those on the Long March?
Otherwise, the book is a very, very good objective telling of what happened during this period of Chinese history.