People's History of Ideas Podcast - Sedan Chairs, Tired Intellectuals, and Indifferent Masses: The Denouement of the Nanchang Uprising/Southern Expedition (August to October 1927)

Sedan Chairs, Tired Intellectuals, and Indifferent Masses: The Denouement of the Nanchang Uprising/Southern Expedition (August to October 1927)

08/05/21 • 24 min

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We follow the Southern Expeditionary force from Ruijin in Jiangxi province to Shantou in Guangdong.
Further reading:
Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928
Agnes Smedley, The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh [Zhu De]
Chang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (2 volumes)
C. Martin Wilbur, “The Ashes of Defeat”
Some names from this episode:
Zhang Guotao, Leading Communist
Yun Daiying, Communist Central Committee member
Li Lisan, Leading Communist
Peng Pai, Communist peasant organizer
Zhang Tailei, Member of Communist Politburo
Qu Qiubai, Top leader of Communist Party
Tan Pingshan, One of the leaders of the Nanchang Uprising
Zhou Enlai, Leading Communist
Zhu De, Communist military commander
Lin Biao, Company commander in Communist military

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Previous Episode

Hearts, Minds, and a Head on a Spike: The Unification of People and Forces in the Jinggangshan

How Wang Zuo and Yuan Wencai’s forces were brought into the Red Army, and Mao cemented the loyalty of the locals by marrying the Two-Gunned Girl General.
Further reading:
Stephen Averill, Revolution in the Highlands: China’s Jinggangshan Base AreaPang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji, Mao Zedong: A Biography, vol. 1: 1893-1949Christina Gilmartin, Engendering the Chinese Revolution: Radical Women, Communist Politics, and Mass Movements in the 1920sSome names from this episode:
Yuan Wencai, bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
Wang Zuo, bandit leader who joined with Mao Zedong
He Changgong, cadre sent to advise Wang Zuo and win him over
Yin Daoyi, militia leader
Yin Haomin, Yin Daoyi’s son
Xu Yan’gang, chief-of-staff of the Second Regiment of the First Division of the Red Army
He Zizhen, Communist cadre known as the “Two-Gunned Girl General”
Yang Kaihui, Mao’s wife
Link to a podcast I recently appeared on:
Episode 71 of Cosmopod, discussing the early years of the Chinese Communist movement

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Next Episode

Summing Up Failures, or Playing the Blame Game? The November 1927 Politburo Meeting in Shanghai

The Politburo meets to decide whether the leadership’s overall policy was wrong, or whether all the cadres carrying out the policy are just bad.
Further reading:
Marcia Ristaino, China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928
Tony Saich, The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist PartyChang Kuo-t’ao [Zhang Guotao], The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party (2 volumes)
Some names from this episode:
Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party until summer 1927
Qu Qiubai, Top leader of Communist Party beginning in the summer of 1927
Zhang Guotao, Leading Communist
Li Lisan, Leading Communist
Tan Pingshan, Leading Communist expelled for the failure of the Nanchang Uprising
Zhou Enlai, Leading Communist

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People's History of Ideas Podcast - Sedan Chairs, Tired Intellectuals, and Indifferent Masses: The Denouement of the Nanchang Uprising/Southern Expedition (August to October 1927)

Transcript

Welcome to episode 71 of the People’s History of Ideas Podcast.

For a little while now, we’ve been focusing in this podcast on the development of the Chinese Revolution in the Jinggang mountains, which was Mao Zedong’s first experience with creating a rural base area, and as such was a formative experience for both the Chinese Revolution, and the globalized Maoist movements that later based themselves on the experience of the Chinese Revolution. We’ve now brought our narrative of