The Long March: The True History of China's Founding Myth

by: Sun Shuyun

Published by: Anchor Books

Reviewed by Andrea Sisco

I’ve long been fascinated by the Chinese and their history, so the opportunity to read Sun Shuyun’s account of the 1934 Long March was intriguing. The author graduated from Beijing University, and is a filmmaker and television producer.

When one thinks of the Long March of 1934, there are scenes that immediately come to mind. But thinking about an event and reading about it are, however, two different things. It’s especially jarring because there is the myth that has been offered to the world and then there is the reality. The reality is horrific and one can understand the Chinese desire to soften that reality.

In 1934, 200,000 Chinese soldiers were fighting a civil war. Chiang Kai-skek and his Nationalist troops forced the soldiers to flee. The soldiers were led by Mao Tse Tung, and the plan was a retreat to northern China, thousands of arduous miles to the north.

The author tells the story of the march vividly through interviews with men and women who survived the experience. These people are now old and often live lives of abject poverty. The stark contrast of then and now is that the survivors were once young idealists who wanted freedom. The march gave them sickness, death, hunger, torture, captivity and finally–the ultimate abandonment by the very ideal they believed in.

It’s the human story that makes Shuyun’s book brilliant. The human suffering, the strength and spirit, the conviction and determination for a cause believed in. The harsh time was life changing for everyone.

Armchair Interviews says: The Long March: The True History of China’s Founding Myth is a must read.