Reporting the Chinese Revolution

Arthur J. Knodel, Baruch Hirson

Description

Rayna and her husband Bill edited the Kuomintang's English-language newspaper in Wuhan. Rayna's account of her intimate involvement in the Chinese Revolution brings to life the eventful Wuhan years of 1926-27, which shaped the revolution's course. Her letters illuminate from a personal angle the battle for China's future and include remarkable portraits of some of the people who shaped the Communist and Nationalist movements of the time.



The book consists of letters Prohme wrote to her closest friend and her husband in the period immediately before, during and after the Wuhan interlude. Her reporting brought her into contact with many major political figures including Madam Sun Yat-sen (a prominent figure in the opposition to Chiang Kai-shek) and Mikhail Borodin (a chief Soviet advisor in China).



This book provides an unusual and often moving insight into a fascinating period in modern Chinese history.
Acknowledgements

Note on Transliteration

Dramatis Personae

Introduction by Gregor Benton

1. Rayna's Wake

2. The Road to China

3. Peking and Canton

4. Hankow

5. Shanghai

6. Vladivostok to Moscow

7. Moscow

8. Afterword

9. Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Sujets

• Disciplines
• Language Arts
• News
• General officer
• Journalism
• General
• Reportage
• China

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 août 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9781849643566
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Reporting the Chinese Revolution

The Letters of Rayna Prohme

Baruch Hirson and Arthur J. Knodel

Edited and with an introduction by Gregor Benton

P Pluto Press LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI

First published 2007 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright © the Estates of Baruch Hirson and Arthur J. Knodel 2007

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN13 ISBN10

978 0 7453 2642 9 0 7453 2642 0

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin

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Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton Printed and bound in India

Contents

Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Dramatis Personae

Introduction by Gregor Benton 1. Rayna Prohme: A Retrospect 2. The Road to China 3. Peking and Canton 4. Hankow 5. Shanghai 6. Vladivostok to Moscow 7. Moscow 8. Afterword  Appendices

Notes Bibliography Illustrations Index

vii viii x

1 10 18 29 58 79 91 103 158 168

178 183 185 190

Acknowledgments

Baruch Hirson and Arthur J. Knodel wish to thank:

Alexander Buchman, without whose assistance the documents used in this book would have remained incomplete. It was also due to Alex’s persistence that the two authors were brought together and were able to assemble this work. Finally, it is thanks to Alex that we have been able to include many of the photographs printed in this book. And Marian Parry, who so generously gave Rayna’s letters to Helen Freeland to AJK. It was this collection that made it possible to commence work on the life of Rayna Prohme. Marian did not live to see the publication of this work, but it will stand as a tribute to her love of Rayna. Among those that provided assistance when writing was under way was Professor Tom Grunfeld, SUNY/Empire State College, New York who sent BH a copy of the draft manuscript on American Friends of the Chinese Revolution. This work provided details that were not otherwise available.

vii

Note on Transliteration Gregor Benton

Today, most writers use Pinyin to transliterate Chinese names. Pinyin, developed in the 1950s, has official standing in China and the merits of simplicity and consistency – it lacks the apostrophes, hyphens, and diacritics that clutter up Wade Giles spelling. This latter system, devised in the nineteenth century, was used worldwide until recently (including by Rayna). However, it lacks Pinyin’s consistency – some Chinese romanized their names idiosyncratically and placenames followed nonsystematic forms used by the Chinese Post Office. Many users of WadeGiles, including Rayna, did not wholly master its conventions and sometimes misspelt words (Rayna’s misspellings have been corrected without indication). NonPinyin transcriptions are therefore a liability, yet I have used WadeGiles and Post Office spelling in the introduction and footnotes so as not to create a disparity with Rayna’s letters. Readers more familiar with Pinyin can consult the following list of conversions.

Wade-Giles or Post Office spelling Canton Changchow Chang Tsolin Chang Tsungchang Chengchow Chiang Kaishek Chili Ch’ing Chungking

viii

Pinyin Guangzhou Changzhou Zhang Zuolin Zhang Zongchang Zhengzhou Jiang Jieshi Zhili Qing Chongqing

NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION

Wade-Giles or Post Office spelling Chu Teh Feng Yühsiang Hankow Hu Hanmin Kinhan Kiukiang Kuling Kuominchün Kuomintang Kwangsi Kwangtung [Kuangtung] Liao Chungkai Li Hungchang Mao Tsetung Nanking Paotingfu Peking Shameen Soong Ch’ingling Soong Eling Soong Mayling Sun Yatsen Teng Yenta Tientsin Ts’ao K’un Wang Chingwei Wang Fanhsi Whampoa Woosung Yangtze Yenching Yüan Shihk’ai

Pinyin Zhu De Feng Yuxiang Hankou Hu Hanmin Jinghan Jiujiang Guling Guominjun Guomindang Guangxi Guangdong Liao Zhongkai Li Hongzhang Mao Zedong Nanjing Baoding Beijing Shamian Song Qingling Song Ailing Song Meiling Sun Zhongshan Deng Yanda Tianjin Cao Kun Wang Jingwei Wang Fanxi Huangpu Wusong Chang Jiang Yanjing Yuan Shikai

ix

Dramatis Personae Gregor Benton

In this biographical list, Chinese names are given first in WadeGiles or a related transcription and then, in brackets, in Pinyin.

Borodin, Mikhail Markovichwas a Soviet (1884–1951), diplomat sent to China in 1923 to help Sun Yatsen reorganize the Kuomintang. He was the architect of the First United Front between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (1923–27). He was forced to return to Russia in July 1927, after the communists were thrown out of the Kuomintang.

Chang TsungchangZongchang) (1881–1932), (Zhang nicknamed the ‘Dogmeat General’, was a Shantung warlord, defeated by the Kuomintang in 1928.

Chen, Eugene (1878–1944), was a Trinidadborn Chinese who became China’s Foreign Minister in the 1920s. He moved in his mid thirties to London, where he was at the center of a circle of Chinese nationalists and radical students from Africa and the Americas. In 1912, he went to China. He became Sun’s close associate and represented him at the Paris Peace Conference in 1918.

Chen, Jack(1908–1996), an artist and son of Eugene Chen, grew up in Trinidad; publishedInside the Cultural Revolution in 1975. He lived and worked in the People’s Republic from 1950 to 1971.

x

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

xi

Chen, Percy(1901–1986), son of Eugene Chen, grew up in Trinidad; published his memoirsChina Called Me: My Life Inside the Chinese Revolutionin 1979.

Feng Yühsiang (Feng Yuxiang) (1882–1948), the socalled ‘Christian General’, took control of Peking in 1924 and proposed an alliance with Sun Yatsen. In 1925 he went to Moscow. Later he entered into an alliance with Chiang Kai shek, while preserving his independence.

Fischer, Louis(1896–1970), was an American journalist who worked forThe Nationand wrote a biography of Mahatma Gandhi. He later taught about the Soviet Union at Princeton University.

Joffe, Adolf A.(1883–1927), was the Comintern representative sent to China in 1922 to negotiate with Sun Yatsen on the cooperation between the Soviet Union, the Kuomintang, and the CCP. The Joffe–Sun Agreement, announced in January 1923, accepted that China was not yet ready for a Soviet government and relinquished Russian rights and privileges in China. A Trotskyist, Joffe committed suicide in 1927.

Ku MengyüMengyu) (1888–1972), Director of the (Gu Kuomintang’s Central Department of Propaganda, joined an oppositionist faction inside the Kuomintang in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Li Tachao(L Dazhao) (1889–1927), a founder of the CCP, who died for the cause.

Reed, John (1887–1920), was a radical American reporter who was in Russia in 1917. He wrote about his experiences inTen Days That Shook the World. He helped found the American Communist Party, and later died of typhus in Russia.

xii

REPORTING THE CHINESE REVOLUTION

Sheean, Vincent(1899–1975), was an American (‘Jimmy’) foreign correspondent and writer. He covered the revolution in China in 1927 and the Spanish Civil War.

Soong Ch’inglingSun Yatsen) (Song Qingling) (Madam (1892–1981) was a member of the State Council of the Wuhan government. She continued to favor collaboration with the CCP even after the left wing of the Kuomintang split with the communists. She was a sister of T. V. Soong.

Soong Eling(Song Ailing) (1890–1973), sister of T. V. Soong, married the industrialist and politician H. H. Kung (Kong Xiangxi) (1881–1967), a close associate of Sun Yatsen and Chiang Kaishek.

Soong Mayling(Song Meiling) (1897–2003) was the wife of Chiang Kaishek and the younger sister of Soong Ch’ingling and Soong Eling.

Soong, T. V. (Song Ziwen) (1894–1971), was a Harvard educated financier and politician who helped underwrite Chiang Kaishek’s Northern Expedition and became Finance Minister in the Kuomintang government in Nanking.

Strong, Anna Louisewas an American (18851970), communist journalist best known for her support for communist movements in Russia and China.

Sun Ch’uanfangChuanfang) (1885–1935) was a (Sun warlord of the Chihli Clique.

T’ang ShengchihShengzhi) (1889–1970) was a (Tang Kuomintang general in the left Kuomintang in Wuhan who backed the suppression of the communist rising in Changsha in May 1927. He commanded the Nanking garrison on the eve of the Japanese attack in December 1937.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

xiii

Teng Yenta (Deng Yanda) (1895–1931) was dean of the Whampoa (Huangpu) Military College under Chiang Kai shek and a Kuomintang leftist subsequently executed in Shanghai.

Ts’ao K’un (Cao Kun) (1862–1938) was a warlord of the Chihli Clique.

Tuan Chijui(Duan Qirui) (1865–1936) rose to prominence in the early Republic under its President, Yüan Shihk’ai (Yuan Shikai). He became increasingly dependent on the Japanese and helped plunge China into warlordism.

Wu Peifu(Wu Peifu) (1874–1939), a military leader under Yüan Shihk’ai, became a warlord after Yüan’s death in 1916.