The communists in rural Guangdong, 1928–1936

Abstract

Research on the subject of Chinese communism has long been marred by the “spotlight approach”, which, as Kathleen Hartford rightly criticises, “illuminates key actors and events, but leaves in the shadow the action transpiring in the corners of the historical stage”. Assuming that only a few great names and signal events bear relevance to its development, such an approach often produces simplified pictures of the Chinese communist revolution. During the last decade or so, however, an increasing number of historians have begun to take seriously the great complexities and diversities involved in this revolutionary movement. Using newly available communist Party sources, they have ventured to excavate forgotten or even deliberately ignored episodes in the history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In so doing, they have not only expanded the scope of enquiry in Chinese communism but also provided new evidence for testing old interpretive structures. This article joins that trend by presenting the little-known story of the Communist struggle in rural areas of the Guangdong province from 1928 to 1936.