Villages of the Long March
INTRODUCTION: THE LEGACY OF THE LONG MARCH
When Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang captured the Communist base on the Jiangxi-Fujian border in 1934 they thought they had defeated the Chinese Communists. But Mao Zedong, the eventual Chairman of the New Republic of China did not allow the Communists to disappear.
They broke through the Nationalist’s encirclement and began their historic retreat on what has come to be known as “The Long March.” Almost 100,000 men and woman began the trip that would last over a year until October 19, 1935 in Yan’an in Sha’anxi Province.
Professor Howard L. Boorman best sums up the Long March by saying:
“When Mao Tse-tung and his threadbare band arrived in the loesslands of Sha’anxi, they represented a force, which, even on an optimistic estimate, was only a marginal element in Chinese political life viewed on a national basis. Sustained principally by discipline, hope and political formulae, Mao’s group had, however, fortuitously garnered several hidden assets which were later to prove of major significance.”
The commitment and sheer determination that enabled the remaining troops to survive (less than 10,000 survived) the Long March helped the Chinese Communists establish themselves as the future leaders of China. Had the Long March never occurred, it is quite possible that China would be today under Japanese rule.
Mao Zedong’s strategic genius helped establish the Chinese Communist Party as indestructible. Because of his guerrilla warfare tactics during the encirclement campaigns and his innate ability to know what the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek were going to do, he brought a sixth sense and power to his Party.
When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Chiang Kai-shek realized that he needed the assistance of the Soviet Union in order to survive. In order to gain the assistance of the Soviet Union, he needed the Chinese Communist Party. On September 15, 1937 the two parties came to a tenuous agreement of unification.
The Sino-Japanese War took place from 1937 until 1945. During these years, the Chinese Communist Party honed its ability to persevere. The Red Army was extremely disciplined and organized, allowing it to strengthen its influence during this time. Had the two parties not been aligned with one another, it is doubtful that the invasion of Japan could have been ended. Mao Zedong and his troops were underestimated not only by the Nationalists but also by the Japanese. The Japanese never ‘‘expected that the Communist guerrillas could become their most potent enemy and that all the territory they took over from the hostile Nationalists in North China would become the kingdom of the even more hostile Communists.’’
Although the Communists and Mao Zedong did not come into power until 1949, it is clear that the Long March galvanized commitment to the Communist cause and was thus the precursor to the eventual victory of the Communist Party in China. Mao’s ability to negotiate and make decisions enabled him to take over China in 1949. Mao knew that in order for the Chinese Communist Party to survive he needed to stress the continued involvement of “all the people.” Mao’s determination during the Long March solidified his eventual position as Chairman of the New Republic of China.
The Long March traversed some of China’s most rugged and magnificent terrain from Jinggangshan Mountain, Loushanguan, Chishuihe, Jinshajiang and Daduhe Rivers to the Great Snow Mountain and the high grassland prairie of the Songpan Plateau and culminating in Yan’an. This is the Natural terrain so wonderfully depicted in Zhao Zhunwang’s scroll “Ten Thousand Crags and Torrents.” Nestled in this terrain, enmeshed in its thousand crags amongst its raging torrents are the villages where the people of the country live.
These villages are an integral part of this magnificent terrain each taking on the characteristics of the local environment and their unique cultural traditions. These villages are where many of the minorities live. Each bringing its own wealth of unique traditions and customs to the intercultural tapestry that is rural China.
Many of these villages haven’t changed much since the Long March passed. While much of industrial China has taken great strides in becoming a World economic power, most of these villages with their unique presence endure unchanged.
That the people in these villages love and revere the Red Army is undeniable. Everyplace we went there were stories of how the Red Army had helped the village and vice a versa. This is understandable, these basic, hard-working subsistence living people were and still are the backbone and massive body of the Communist Party. The head may be in the officialdom of the provinces and Beijing, but the people in the country are and will always be the Communist Party.
This ‘love affair’ was established with the Long March. Mao understood early that a ‘‘major force’’ in China was discontentment of the peasants and he wrote a report ‘‘which constituted one of his major contributions to Chinese Communism.’’ Mao believed that the peasants should own their own land and not be responsible for land that is not theirs. He thought that millions of peasants would ‘‘rise like a tornado or tempest — a force so extraordinarily swift and violent that no power, however great, will be able to suppress it.’’
Some villages have remained very much the same, while others have accepted the role of “historical icon” in the ever-growing industry of Historical/Cultural Tourism. “Red Tourism” as it has come to be called has been steadily growing as more and more common people are able to get away for a small time and experience their glorious past. What used to be farming villages have become primary tourist visiting sites by virtue of the happy historical circumstance that the Red Army came through on its historic retreat.
These are the villages we that we will be showing you in this present volume. They are gems honed by a glorious and prideful history that live on to remind us of the wonderful diversity that is China.