THE LONG REVOLUTION

by Edgar Snow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 1972

Edgar Snow was perhaps the most favored westerner in the eyes of the Red Chinese leaders. He was the first western journalist to visit and interview Mao at length in 1936 at the Communist civil war headquarters in Yenan. During his last trip in 1970 Snow toured the country and had a lengthy private audience with Mao. The result is disappointing both for those who might have expected some illumination of the politics or character of Mao and some greater insight into the Cultural Revolution and Chinese society than provided by the recent spate of ""inside reports."" Snow's view, at times bordering on idolatry, is colored by his long personal attachment to the Chinese leadership. Standing next to Mao on the reviewing stand at T'ien An Men Square watching the flowing masses of paraders chanting hosannas to him, Snow asks the Chairman, ""How does it feel?"" Mao later expresses disapproval of lying and maltreatment of captives during the Cultural Revolution, professes his interest in receiving Nixon, and describes himself as ""a lonely monk walking the world with a leaky umbrella."" Snow repeats, sans propagandistic garnish, the gospel of the Cultural Revolution: urban living corrupts the revolutionary soul and Liu Shao-ch'i, an urban organizer, was following the capitalist road. A visit to a ""May Seventh School"" where urban intellectuals are working on a farm to learn ""reality"" finds one student who claims he's learned much by ""shoveling shit"" in a pigsty. Snow finds the army ubiquitous in China; ""All China is a great school of Mao Tse-tung Thought and the army is its headmaster."" Snow's discussion of the communes is brief, as is his commentary on the industrial recovery after the Cultural Revolution. Despite entree into the leadership, Snow fails to go beyond the typical China reports we've been receiving lately.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972

Categories: NONFICTION