Review
The founding myth of Communist China
is The Long March. Just as Moses led his people to
the Promised Land, Mao led his into a new China -
but how much of the myth as passed down through
official records is actually true? Sun Shuyun
retraces the route of the Long March across a little
changed landscape, relating the first hand accounts
of some of the few remaining survivors who tell
their version of the March unembellished by
political propaganda. The result is a stunning
rewrite of the history that she and about a billion
other Chinese have learned as fact from their
earliest days in school. In place of heroic battles
are ruthless purges, in place of honorable death are
countless desertions and futile loss of life; in
place of honored veterans are...
Beyond the Book
The Long
March
The 1934-35 massive military
retreat of the Red Armies from
the opposing Nationalist Party
army was not one march but
several, as various different
Communist armies escaped from
the south to the north and west.
The best known of these is the
journey taken by the 86,000
members of the First Army who
started out from Jiangxi
province in October 1934 and
traveled approximately 6,000
miles (9,500 kilometers) over
about 370 days (about 16
miles a day) through some of the
most difficult of Chinese...
