Official Chinese narratives recounting the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tend to minimize the movement's international associations. Conducting careful readings and translations of recently released documents in Russian, Japanese, and Chinese, Ishikawa Yoshihiro builds a portrait of the party's multifaceted character, revealing the provocative influences that shaped the movement and the ideologies of its competitors.
Making use of public and private documents and research, Ishikawa begins the story in 1919 with Chinese intellectuals who wrote extensively under pen names and, in fact, plagiarized or translated many iconic texts of early Chinese Marxism. Chinese Marxists initially drew intellectual sustenance from their Japanese counterparts, until Japan clamped down on leftist activities. The Chinese then turned to American and British sources.
Ishikawa traces these networks through an exhaustive survey of journals, newspapers, and other intellectual and popular publications. He reports on numerous early meetings involving a range of groups, only some of which were later funneled into CCP membership, and he follows the developments at Soviet Russian gatherings attended by a number of Chinese representatives who claimed to speak for a nascent CCP. Concluding his narrative in 1922, one year after the party's official founding, Ishikawa clarifies a traditionally opaque period in Chinese history and sheds new light on the subsequent behavior and attitude of the party.
- [ Contents ]
- Figures and Tables
- Introduction to the English Edition
- Introduction ( 2001 )
- 1. The Reception of Marxism in China
- NEW THOUGHT TRENDS IN CHINA AT THE TIME OF THE MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT
- THE PROPAGATION OF MARXISM IN BEIJING
- THE PROPAGATION OF MARXISM IN SHANGHAI
- THE PROPAGATION OF BOLSHEVIK TEXTS AND THE EMERGENCE OF NEW IDEAS FROM WITHOUT
- 2. Soviet Russia, the Comintern, and the Chinese Communist Movement
- UNKNOWN “SECRET EMISSARIES”
- VOITINSKY’S ACTIVITIES
- THE “BOGUS” CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY
- 3. Toward the Formation of the Chinese Communist Party
- MOVEMENT LEADING TOWARD THE FORMATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY IN SHANGHAI
- COMMUNIST GROUPS IN OTHER CHINESE CITIES
- THE FORMATION OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY: “CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY MANIFESTO” AND “REPORT TO THE COMINTERN”
- 4. The First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party
- PREPARATIONS FOR CONVENING A NATIONAL PARTY CONGRESS
- THE OPENING OF THE PARTY’S NATIONAL CONGRESS
- YOUNG PARTY MEMBERS: SHI CUNTONG AS A STUDENT IN JAPAN
- Afterword
- Appendix 1: Chinese Translations from Japanese of Works
- Appendix 2: Explanation of Chinese Books Concerning Socialism, 1919–1923
- Appendix 3: Shi Cuntong’s Deposition
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index