Anchor Books, 2008
The Long March has long since achieved mythic proportions. It was Mao's idea; Mao who led the way; Mao who encouraged the Marchers; Mao who... you fill in the blank. The mythic Mao did it all. Or, so goes the myth.
The sub-title, "The True History of China's Founding Myth," suggests that all is not as it seems. In point of fact, some level of revisionism must have begun soon after Mao's death September 9, 1976. On our first trip to China in 1985, for example, we remarked on the absence of the little red book, the collection of Mao's sayings. We were told, more than once, its pages were now being used for toilet paper.
Sun Shuyun is the daughter of a Marcher, one of about 40,000 who survived the actual journey. Well over 100,000 were part of the March at one time or another. Most were later purged by Mao during the Cultural Revolution. The one constant, of course, were the purges which characterized Mao's regime and continued until Mao was near death. Shuyun interviewed 40 of the few remaining survivors. Now in their 80s and 90s, their memories were still sharp, and they wanted to talk. This, then, is the "Long March without the embroidery of adulation, and in all its humanity."
The Long March has long since achieved mythic proportions. It was Mao's idea; Mao who led the way; Mao who encouraged the Marchers; Mao who... you fill in the blank. The mythic Mao did it all. Or, so goes the myth.
The sub-title, "The True History of China's Founding Myth," suggests that all is not as it seems. In point of fact, some level of revisionism must have begun soon after Mao's death September 9, 1976. On our first trip to China in 1985, for example, we remarked on the absence of the little red book, the collection of Mao's sayings. We were told, more than once, its pages were now being used for toilet paper.
Sun Shuyun is the daughter of a Marcher, one of about 40,000 who survived the actual journey. Well over 100,000 were part of the March at one time or another. Most were later purged by Mao during the Cultural Revolution. The one constant, of course, were the purges which characterized Mao's regime and continued until Mao was near death. Shuyun interviewed 40 of the few remaining survivors. Now in their 80s and 90s, their memories were still sharp, and they wanted to talk. This, then, is the "Long March without the embroidery of adulation, and in all its humanity."
Despite the promise of the sub-title, this account does not completely debunk the myth that so thoroughly permeates China. It simply removes the aura of invincibility and couches it in the faces and lives of the real people who suffered through the experience. The interviews and the pictures of those interviewed succeed in bringing the difficulties and duplicities into focus. Many of the survivors, if they were not killed later, were denied recognition and pensions for their efforts.
Shuyun puts the March in perspective. It began in October 1934 in Jiangxi Province and ended in October 1935 in Yan'an. (Note: Shuyun indicates the March ended October 10, 1936; one official Chinese site says it ended October 22, 1936; yet another says October 1935. Different definitions lead to different conclusions apparently.) Initial leadership was unskilled and poorly focused as the fledgling Communists began what was essentially a retreat from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops. The warlords formed a powerful third element of warfare, sometimes on one side then the other.
The largely unseen enemy at the time was the Japanese, who were beginning to encroach on Northeastern China. It was this factor which most observers feel was the key to supporting the March. The major unifying idea was hatred of the Japanese in order to, while trying to overthrown Chiang, form a coalition of Nationalist, Communist, and warlord forces against the common enemy. Because the propaganda by Mao was so successful, a brief rapprochement did occur shortly after the end of the March.
Shuyun puts the March in perspective. It began in October 1934 in Jiangxi Province and ended in October 1935 in Yan'an. (Note: Shuyun indicates the March ended October 10, 1936; one official Chinese site says it ended October 22, 1936; yet another says October 1935. Different definitions lead to different conclusions apparently.) Initial leadership was unskilled and poorly focused as the fledgling Communists began what was essentially a retreat from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops. The warlords formed a powerful third element of warfare, sometimes on one side then the other.
The largely unseen enemy at the time was the Japanese, who were beginning to encroach on Northeastern China. It was this factor which most observers feel was the key to supporting the March. The major unifying idea was hatred of the Japanese in order to, while trying to overthrown Chiang, form a coalition of Nationalist, Communist, and warlord forces against the common enemy. Because the propaganda by Mao was so successful, a brief rapprochement did occur shortly after the end of the March.
The Red Army was hardly prepared for a long strategic march. Poor training led to fifty percent casualties. A battle in November-December 1933 saw the Red Army begin with 60,000 troops; some 28,000 deserted. Soldier Huang, one of the Marchers interviewed, said he was given 5 bullets and one grenade for his first battle. This continued to be a problem. The joke was that Chiang was the Army's major supplier; Nationalist weapons were picked up from the battlefields and used by the Communists. Their route took them west and north through some of the most forbidding terrain China has to offer. Most of the Marchers wore straw sandals, and carried ancient rifles, when they could even get one. Soldiers were so ignorant of the world they did not even understand light bulbs, thinking they would go dark in the morning when the sun came up, just as the moon did.
As one reads various biographies of Mao, it becomes clear that the first chapter of this book brilliantly captures his leadership style, "Drain the Pond to Catch the Fish." The peasants were taxed unto death. Their grain, pork, and opium production was encumbered for years into the future, often to the point that they died of starvation in a vain attempt to provide for the Communists. This emphasis on short-term goals to the detriment of long-term gains was the bane of China for decades.
As one reads various biographies of Mao, it becomes clear that the first chapter of this book brilliantly captures his leadership style, "Drain the Pond to Catch the Fish." The peasants were taxed unto death. Their grain, pork, and opium production was encumbered for years into the future, often to the point that they died of starvation in a vain attempt to provide for the Communists. This emphasis on short-term goals to the detriment of long-term gains was the bane of China for decades.
Mao was not even in charge when the March began. He was so out of the loop that he was not told about the retreat from Jiangxi Province until a couple of months before the event, and he was never part of the planning. He had been afflicted with malaria and was out of power for nearly two years after the Futian Village purge of December 1930. A prescient commentator noted that Mao was "extremely devious and sly...full of megalomania... (He) invents some trumped up charges to make life absolutely dreadful for you... He is not a Bolshevik." Mao left a young son behind and never saw the boy again. His pregnant wife joined him on the March. The daughter born during the March was abandoned to an old village woman who was given some silver dollars and a supply of opium.
