- ISBN13: 9780802150936
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The first Westerner to meet Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist leaders in 1936, Edgar Snow came away with the first authorized account of Mao’s life, as well as a history of the famous Long March and the men and women who were responsible for the Chinese revolution. Out of that experience came Red Star Over China, a classic work that remains one of the most important books ever written about the birth of the Communist movement in China. This edition includes extensive notes on military and political developments in China, further interviews with Mao Tse-tung, a chronology covering 125 years of Chinese revolution, and nearly a hundred detailed biographies of the men and women who were instrumental in making China what it is today.
Red Star over China: The Classic Account of the Birth of Chinese Communism
Written before the Communist Revolution ['49] but after the Long March, this book offers a first-hand biography on Mao Zedong, and tells an engaging story of the Communist advance. Edgar Snow got in behind Communist lines to interview Mao Zedong himself, and so he is as much part of the history as he is a witness to it. His opinions of Mao Zedong are positive and his hopes for the Communist Party are optimistic. I found it a compulsive read until I got perhaps 3/4 the way through, at which point it became a kind of chore to complete. Snow is famous for often being completely wrong about China – travelling through China during the abortive ‘Great Leap Forward’, where between 30 and 60 million people starved to death, Snow never caught on to a thing – but still this book makes for utterly fascinating reading, if only for its personal insights into Mao Zedong. Still a good read, but not a useful historical source unless one has an understanding of how things eventually progressed. Put simply, it’s a marvellous perspective of China at this time, but it’s neither a retrospect nor a history.
Rating: 3 / 5
Snow truly did Sinology a tremendous favor when he ventured into the soviet area years ago. Red Star Over China stands as an archetypical example of “pre-TV” journalism at its finest. Snow’s captivating writing style allows the reader to truly feel as if they are riding along with the “red bandits” as they move through the hills of China conducting guerilla warfare. What Snow has to tell us about Mao, is as fascinating as anything that has been brought up about him in the post-Mao era. I would recommend this book to anyone, it is not just a history book, it, in itself is a part of history, truly a classic.
Rating: 5 / 5
With most Americans sadly ignorant of China and its past, this book provides an incredible inside look at the Chinese revolution and the beginning of communism. Snow’s trip through rural provinces and villages during the country’s civil war is an adventure in itself. The interviews he does with China’s up and coming rulers are purely fasinating, allowing the western public its first chance to get to know such giants as Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai on a more personal level.
Rating: 5 / 5
Edgar Snow writes a compelling account of the birth of Chinese Communism in his book Red Star Over China. His book is largely unprecedented because of the fact that China was only just parting from isolationism and had not previously allowed citizens of Western countries to enter into China. Snow moved near Yenching University in Shanghai, China to become a correspondent journalist there. The proximity to the university allowed Snow to meet many Chinese intellectuals and writers whom he would befriend. One of his most important friendships was with the Western-educated Madame Sun, the wife of Sun Yat-sen.
In the first part of Red Star Over China Snow begins by addressing some of the previously unanswered questions regarding Communist China. He uses a brigade of commonly asked questions to show just how uninformed many people were on topics such as the Red Army and the Communist Movement. He explains that in June of 1936, he received the opportunity to possibly answer some of these questions and that this is how Red Star Over China came into existence.
Edgar Snow describes his travels through China in first person. His details of the landscape of China, especially those of Sianfu, are very descriptive. As he took in the scenery, he expressed its beauty at length. Opium poppy fields and The Great Wall are among his most familiar sightings (page 54). This section of the book was important to international readers at the time it was written because, as previously discussed, many people knew nothing of China seeing as how its isolation had kept its landscape a mystery to many travelers. This narrative continues on through Snow’s journey to the Red Capital.
Snow’s account of his first night in “Red territory,” meaning the Northern part of China en route to An Tsai, was full of fear. The “White Bandits” were said to be close and this created much uneasiness. Snow explains that White Bandits were the Kuomingtang’s answer to peasant uprisings. An Tsai would be protected by the Red Army, and Snow and his traveling party would be safe there. Upon reaching An Tsai, a member of the Red Army met Snow and they sat down to what was described as a pleasant dinner.
Through Snow’s writing, readers can see that the Reds treated him very well. “I have a report that you are a reliable journalist,” says Chou En-lai to Edgar Snow, “friendly to the Chinese people, and that you can be trusted to tell the truth” (page 70). Chou went on to explain that the Reds did not care that Snow wasn’t a member of their party, instead they embraced his presence and agreed to give him help to “investigate soviet districts” in Red China. This was particularly interesting because Communist China was known for its anti-foreign, almost xenophobic, attitude. To an extent, this documentation of trust between Snow and the Red leaders almost seems to be fictional. Perhaps, in this day and age, it can be said that Mao and his comrades may have been creating this friendship out of a quest for personal gains.
Continuously through Red Star Over China this “trust” is used to establish relationships with elite Red leaders. It is not entirely impossible that Snow was being used to convey a positive image of China to the Western world. It was, after all, Mao’s regime that was concentrated on exceeding the state of the West to become a powerful global entity. Snow, in his chapter on basic Communist policies, documented this will to become a great power. He quotes Mao as saying, “When China really wins her independence, then legitimate foreign trading interests will enjoy more opportunities than ever before” (page 104). Mao seems to use Snow as a catalyst to invite other nations to establish friendly nations status with China. He is also quoted as saying that any country that chose to side with Japan would not be a friendly nation to China.
Mao spoke freely to Snow about his own life. In part four of Red Star Over China Snow discusses Mao’s narrative at length. It is practically an autobiographical section of the book. If this is, in fact, the complete truth from Mao’s perspective, then this section is most enlightening because it is written using Mao’s taped narratives. As previously discussed, Mao had not spoken to any Western writers before Snow. Therefore, this section of the book provides readers with a new perspective of the Communist leader.
In addition to private conversations with Mao Tse-tung, Snow spoke with the Commander of the First Front Red Army, P’eng The-huai and also Lin Piao. Lin was Mao’s closest cohort. He helped get Mao elected in 1935. Lin spoke to Snow and in section four, Lin’s early life was revealed to readers. Lin proved to be a key player in China’s Cultural Revolution. The background provided by Snow’s personal discussions allow the reader to understand more about the personal aspects of the leaders of Communist China.
In Red Star Over China, Edgar Snow traces Mao’s rise to power. He writes of the situation of China from a first-hand point of view. Snow’s book, regardless of whether or not it was being used-unbeknownst to Snow-as a means of impressing the West, contributes a wealth of information about the changing times in China. Because Snow was a pioneer of sorts, the book is a great documentation to be used when researching the historical background of the current Communist China. Although it creates doubt as to whether Mao was completely truthful, Red Star Over China remains a great work regarding the history of the Chinese Communist Party.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have been dabbling in Chinese history over the past few years and was intrigued by many of the topics in this book.
Understand before you read this book that the author is an unabashed fan of Communist movement in China–all good things come from the Red Army and all bad things come from the KMT and Chiang Kai-shek. I was reading this book to get a closer look at the men who would lead China in years to come, so Snow’s cheerleading was only a minor distraction. The book was published in the late 1930s, long before the war was won. I found it very interesting to read about Peng Dehuai’s background and his stature in the Red Army knowing the fate that would meet him years later during the Great Leap Forward.
He sets the stage nicely with the conditions that made successful revolution and civil war possible. He does a pretty good job in describing the main players, although I would have liked much more on Zhou Enlai.
In some passages, the book moves along nicely, especially around the Long March. In other sections, he can get a little bogged down in details that don’t seem to add up to much.
Also note that the book uses the Yale system of transliteration, not Pinyin. “Zhu De” will appear as “Chu Teh”, for instance.
I learned quite a few things, and got a new perspective on one of the most important events in the 20th Century — the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
Rating: 4 / 5