A Foreign Missionary on The Long March: The Unpublished Memoirs of Arnolis Hayman of the China Inland Mission

A previously unpublished eyewitness account of the Chinese Communist Party s epoch Long March, this book makes a significant contribution to the literature on the history of the CCP. The author, a New Zealand-born missionary for the China Inland Mission from 1913 to 1945 was captured and held hostage for 413 days by the CCP s Sixth Army from 1934 to 1935. Hayman s grim account of the Red Army in retreat gives a new angle on the historic Long March, as well as a glimpse of the CCP in the time before Mao came to prominence. It also blurs the line between the Communists and common bandits. CCP historiography has turned the Long March into the founding myth of the PRC. Hayman s memoirs offer a fresh perspective on this crucial period of CCP history and implicitly, on the role it plays in the CCP s current hold on power.