Red Star Over China Analysis

Edgar Snow’s novel Red Star over China and Fangchun Li’s article Mass Democracy, Class Struggle, and Remolding the Party and Government during the Land Reform Movement in North China both chronicle the revolutionary movements that encapsulated much of China’s twentieth century. Snow’s work reads like a well put together journalistic piece rather than a novel. However, his interaction with Mao Zedong -a real face of the revolution- provides great insight of the mindset of the major members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Li’s article highlights the immediate domestic situations the CCP faced after their victory over the nationalists especially land reform. Based on synopsis of both texts, this paper focuses on the genesis of Mao Zedong’s communist mindset, the CCP’s defeat in the fifth circulation and the long march, and the issue of land reform after communist victory. After the May fourth movement of 1919 that protested the Treaty of Versailles which granted Shandong territories to Japan, young Mao Zedong became heavily involved in student political activities. He helped found the Wen-hua Shu Hui that joined the Hsin Min Hsueh Hui to violently oppose Chang Ching-yao, the military governor of Hunan. The movement resulted in Chang Ching-yao’s overthrow by T’an Yen-k’ai and Mao notes
The people were denied their constitutional right to assemble, organize and speak on orders by the governor Chao Heng-t’i. Mao marks this event as a turning point and notes that “from this time on I became more and more convinced that only mass political power, secured through mass action, could guarantee the realization of dynamic reforms.” In the winter of that year, for the first time, he organized workers guided politically by Marxist theory influences and Russian Revolution