The first Chinese journalist to enter Yan'an and conduct interviews, this record of events stands alongside Red Star Over China as a landmark work of journalism.
After the Red Army began its Long March of 25,000 li, 26-year-old Fan Changjiang traveled deep into northern Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia to investigate and conduct interviews. He wrote not only about military and political figures and analyzed the social climate, but also witnessed children without clothes to shield them from the bitter nights on the plateau, prostitutes forced to sell their bodies, and farmers beaten for failing to pay the opium tax. Covering everything from history to current affairs, and from politics and economics to religion and ethnic groups, this book offers a comprehensive account of the increasingly acute class oppression and ethnic tensions in China at the time. It was the first truthful report on the Red Army's Long March and a major milestone in the history of Chinese journalism.
