What emerges from Suns research, her interviews, and her own memories of growing up in China is a moving portrait of China past and present. Many who survived the March report that their suffering continued long after the triumph of the revolution, recounting tales of persecution and ostracism that culminated in the horrific years of the Cultural Revolution. She uncovers shocking stories of starvation, disease, and desertion, of ruthless purges ordered by party leaders, of the mistreatment of women, and of thousands of futile deaths. Only one in five Marchers reached their destination, where, the legend goes, they gathered strength and returned to launch the new China in the heat of revolution.Īs Sun Shuyun journeys to remote villages along the Marchers route, she interviews the aged survivors and visits little-known local archives. After that, truth and legend begin to blur: led by Mao Zedong, the Communists set off on a strategic retreat to the distant barren north of China, thousands of miles away. The facts are these: in 1934, in the midst of a brutal civil war, the Communist party and its 200,000 soldiers were forced from their bases by Chiang Kaishek and his Nationalist troops.

The Long March is the stunning narrative of her extraordinary expedition.

Seventy years after the historical march took place, Sun Shuyun set out to retrace the Marchers steps and unexpectedly discovered the true history behind the legend.

The Long March is Communist Chinas founding myth, the heroic tale that every Chinese child learns in school.

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