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.

Some history books are important because there are simply no other firsthand accounts to compare them with. Regardless of how well the author did their job, these books remain in print primarily because they contain first-person information unavailable elsewhere. By being first, they end up as the landmark determining the boundaries of all subsequent historical debate.

Red Star over China is such a book.

Long before Mao became a household name, Edgar Snow, a young American journalist, traveled by train to northwest China to meet and interview the leaders who were the head and spine of Chinese communism. Red Star over China chronicles this journey, while also describing much of the turbulent history of China during a period of revolution and turmoil. By telling this story before everyone else, and after lengthy interviews with Mao, Chou En Lai, and the like, Snow put himself in the front rank of modern Chinese historians.

Much of the book is great; Snow shows how conditions in China's countryside (high rents absentee landlords, etc.) contributed to China's turmoil, and he effectively describes how Red China's armies won friends among the populace by, for instance, teaching the illiterate to read using books that were the communist propaganda equivalent of "See Spot Run." Snow also describes scenes well when it suits him; for instance, in an early vignette about a political conversation he had on the train, Snow deftly shows the divisions and factionalism that had permeated Chinese Society.

What's missing, then? For one, Snow often seems to be merely regurgitating his interviewees' propaganda. To hear him describe it, the soldiers of the Red Army are, to a man, reliable soldiers and good people, brave lads who slogged through miles of countryside during the Long March without needing so much as a smoke or drink to cheer them up. And there's a reason for such glowing descriptions--in the book's notes one can see that Snow committed the cardinal sin of journalism and let his sources review the stories he'd written about them. It's no wonder Mao, Chao En-Lai and the like appear so noble in this book--they got to give it the once-over before Snow submitted it for publication. And considering Mao's later track record, that's shocking--it's as if you're reading a hagiography of Hitler.

Aside from the narrative, there are other things that dampen the reader's enthusiasm for this book. For one, Snow's introductions of characters require the reader to frequently flip back to the biographical notes at the end of the book. Also (and more annoyingly,) this book has no maps. Snow throws a lot of location names at the reader, but unless the reader's traveled very extensively, or unless they have some extra maps of 1930s-China lying around the house, Snow's details will be useless.

All in all, it's worth reading--but this reviewer, for one, will be looking to supplant it by reading Philip Short's "Mao: A Life," or by reading any other history of China written with the benefit of distance, hindsight and perspective.

As the first Western book to report on Chinese Communism and its leaders, this is no doubt a valuable masterpiece. But the reader must bear in mind that the Chinese people (even today) are experts in putting up a good face to impress people from the West. There was definitely some bias on the part of the author to paint Mao and his comrades as great and infallible. So a sensible reader should read this book with these in mind , observe what has happened in China since 1949 and reach his/her conclusions.

For the last few decades, we Americans have had an extremely negative view of the Chinese Communist Party, and especially such now-mythical forefathers as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, whose drastic excesses and failures have led to their demonisation in Western society as mere liars, thugs, and brutish dictators. But yet, in the '30s and '40s, such men managed to overcome both the tanks and rifles of powerful Japanese war machine and the propaganda and armies of the Western-financed Nanjing government with primarily the support of the Chinease peasantry; certainly such mass support would not be easily handed to one of the dime-a-dozen bandit-kings that infested pre-1949 China. What would have driven the rural laobaixing to throw in their lot against all the power of the Kuomintang?

Snow's excellent Red Star Over China is not, as many critics seem to think, glowing puff praise of Communists. Rather, it is an in-depth, powerful explanation of the reasons for their support among both the starving poor and ethnic minorities, and an examination of how less than 200 men managed to turn this support into a mass movement powerful enough to wash both the overextended Japanese and unpopular Nationalists out of the mainland.

When Snow waxes about the moral rigor of the Red soldier and the zealous dedication of the "Little Red Devil" youth, he is not merely praising moral men, but is showing how the fanaticism of Red soldiers gave them advantages in morale and tactics the hesitant-but-well-financed KMT army could not attain. When he shows the propaganda-writing classes, it is not because Snow believes "the Red army is the fist of the poor" but because of the great importance of the Red literacy programs: the gratitude formerly-illiterate peasants felt to their teachers translated into a great respect and willingness to assist men they had once believed were "Red bandits."

Yes, under Mao great tragedies were unleashed, as his Communist zeal began to outweigh his common sense. But this book is not the story of the famines of the Great Leap Forward twenty years after Red Star Over China was writeen, nor could Snow have predicted the anarchy of the Cultural Revolution thirty years after he finished his book. This is a book about revolutionaries, not a book about the government they would later establish. And its importance as a book about revolutionaries is incredible. This is an explanation of how the world's most populous nation would fall to revolution--written by a neutral observer among the revolutionaries.

If you are of the belief that Communists are intrinsically evil and that any book finding good in them--even if to explain why they enjoyed overwhelming local popularity--you will find Red Star Over China difficult to digest. If you would prefer to think of Mao as a raving psychopathic lunatic who blundered his way into power, there are certainly other books for you to read. But if you want to see the Chinese Communist Party as it was seen by those who carried into power, you can't do any better than this, the book written by the man who watched it happen.

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.

This is undoubtedly one of the most important works covering this critical period in China's 20th century history. It explains the conditions that led to the evolution of the movement and the incredible sacrifices made along the way. The key figures are brought to life based on the real experiences of Mr Snow during his time with the Communist forces before they came to power. Since he was the only westerner to have such close direct experience, this work is an important contribution to our understanding of how the regime change came about. It is not the easiest book to read since there is a significant amount of factual information which I found difficult to follow at times. Perseverance is rewarded however so I'd recommend it to anyone interested in this era of Chinese history.

Much as the correspondent Walter Duranty sent glowing reports about Josef Stalin from Moscow in the 1930s, Edgar Snow labored in Yan'an to gild the far from sterling early image of Mao Zedong and his Chinese Communist Party as "red bandits." Snow did not engage in this public relations offensive from the standpoint of a true believer in an authoritarian Marxist-Leninist dictatorship of the proletariat, but rather out of his disillusionment with the shortcomings of the existing Chinese Nationalist regime, as well as due to a romantic bent for the rustic appeal of Mao's CCP insurgents. In retrospect, Snow comes across as naïve and credulous, often content to uncritically parrot most of what Mao and his lieutenants had to say to him. The lack of a critical perspective on Snow's part thus reduces the credibility and scholarly value of this book.
Readers who want a better informed and more balanced perspective on the early Mao Zedong would do much better to read one of the better biographies of Mao, such as by Ross Terrill, or to read Anthony Saich's book on the Yan'an period. A critical and informed Soviet Russian perspective on Mao's Yan'an years may be found in the Vladimirtsov diaries, which have been translated into English.

No map, no photo, no illustration. That's somehow disappointing. I guess the hard cover by Hesperides Press might be a better choice.

This is an excellent historical account of how China went from being a country controlled by a Monarch to a collectivist, Communist society, though it seems that China has always been somewhat collective.
The problem with this book is the pinyin Wade-Giles system. Based upon modern Chinese pinyin adopted by the Chinese govt, which is still different from Tongyon Pinyin in Taiwan, the book's author makes some of the town names unintelligible. It is not Snow's fault, rather a reflection of westerner's struggle to have some sort of phonetic speech that would help one pronounce certain words.
It would appear that the author made no attempt to learn much Chinese.
Nevertheless, the book is still worthwhile. especially for students of Chinese history.

For leftists the defense of October 1917 Russian Revolution was the touchstone issue of international politics for most of the 20th century. In the end the demise of the Soviet Union and the other non-capitalists states of East Europe in the early 1990's formally, at least, put an end to that question in those areas. However, the issue of the fate of China in the first half of the 21st century is in an important sense the touchstone Russian question of international politics today. The question, forward to socialism or back to some neo-capitalist formation like those in Russia and East Europe to this reviewer is an open question today. With that perspective in mind, and not unmindful of the publicity given China recently as the host of the 2008 Olympics, it is high time that this reviewer spent more time on this issue than he has thus far in this space. As preparation, it is always best to get some historical background, especially so for that new generation of militants who are unfamiliar with the last hundred years of leftist history.

The Communist International and Russian Communist Pary fights over strategy for the Chinese revolution between the Stalinists and the Trotsky-led Left Opposition in the mid-1920's are must reading. As is the history of the defeat of the Second Chinese revolution in the cities. However, for a view of the Chinese Revolution in the period after its defeat no better place to start for a quick early overview of the heroic days of the Chinese revolution and the besieged Chinese Communist Party before the seizure of power, is journalist Edgar Snow's reportage on the military fight to shape China's future between the Maoist-led Red Army and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Army in the mid-1930s.

Snow's journalistic endeavors have come in for more than their fair share of criticism, especially in the post-1949 period when the debate over who `lost' China raged in the West, especially the United States. That criticism is somewhat irrelevant (and antiqued) now. The value of his work for us is that he was the first Western journalist to actually go to the outer regions of China where the Red Army was holed up in Yenan after the heroic and historic Long March. The Long March itself represented an understanding that the pro-Communist forces which held so much promise of seizing power in the 1920's were fighting a rearguard action in the mid-1930s. Snow's first-hand interviews with Mao, Chu Teh, Lin Piao, Ho Lung or, in their absence, those close to them provided that critical "first draft of history" that is always being touted by newspaper people. Moreover, his analysis and description of life in the Chinese soviet areas, the kind of issues that were on the top of people's minds and the critical 1930s issue of the struggle against the furiously encroaching Japanese holds up fairly well.

The first question that any working class militant today has to ask, at least one who has imbibed the Russian Revolution as the touchstone event of the 20th century, is how a communist party assumed to represent the historic interests of the urban working class came out of the boondocks building a peasant army which at its height was fighting for land distribution and a national independence struggle against the Japanese. Part of that answer is the afore-mentioned defeat in the cities in the 1920s due to disastrous strategic problems concerning the nature of the "third-word" national bourgeoisie in the age of imperialism (a question that still stymies the international working class movement). Part was the overwhelming peasant nature of early 20th century Chinese society and the practical difficulties of creating any military force outside the peasantry. However, the biggest part is a conception on the part of the Chinese Communist leadership that guerilla warfare was the only practical way to defeat the Japanese, Chiang Kai-shek, American imperialism or who ever decided to take aim at China. This distortion led to serious problems later, not only in practical matter of organizing a rural society for the tasks of industrialization but by making a virtue out of, perhaps, necessity. The so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) that convulsed China for a decade from the mid-1960s emblazoned on its banner the notion of the countryside (on a world scale) defeating the cities (on a world scale). That is the Chinese struggle writ large. But so much for that now.

The true value of Snow's book lies for its detailing of the following accounts. First, a rather vivid description of the various hardships of his getting to Yenan as an individual that reflected the communist difficulties in trying to bring a whole army north. Secondly, a vivid description of the set up of the soviets and the social, political and cultural arrangements of life in the soviet areas. Thirdly, in Snow's random interviews of the rank and file soldiers of the Red Army, the peasants whose co-operation was critical to the defense of the soviet areas and of the cultural/educational/administrative workers who kept the apparatus working through thick and thin. Lastly, Snow has painstakingly provided a plethora of end notes and biographical sketches concerning the fates of the various characters from all factions that people his journals, a wealth of data about various events up until 1937 and, perhaps, most importantly, much updated information including material on the GPCR from subsequent trips to China. This later material at a time when very little was known about what was going on in China, especially around the intra-brureaucratic struggle behind the scenes of the GPCR. Retroactive kudos to Edgar Snow.