Eric's Beijing Diary

Well, Ed Joyclyn had this day this evening at the Bookworm. He has just completed the second long march, following the route of the second and sixth regiments in 1935, who followed the first long march of 1934 using a slightly more westward route. Evaluating the significance of the Long March is difficult, because China at that time (as always) was such an enormously complicated situation. When Ed posed this question, I said that the Long March had inherent significance, because the Chinese Communist Party would not exist without it. The KMT would surely have overwhelmed them. Ed countered that the thing that really defeated the KMT was the Japanese. That's actually a good point. The Long March enabled the Communists to escape the grasp of the KMT, but they still would have been wiped out sooner or later if it had not been for the Japanese. This is why Mao responded to a Japanese apology with an expression of gratitude. Still, the Japanese invasion of Chna could not have accrued to the benefit of the Communists if they had not managed to survive long enough to benefit from it. It was the Long March that enabled them to do that. Ed and Andy (his partner on the first Long March retrace in 2003) benefitted immensely from the fact that there are still a few old timers along the routes who remember the old days. In this sense, the retracing of the Long March was completed just in time. I am still reading Ed and Andy's first book, and it is certain that this latest march will produce a lot more interesting history, enhancing understanding of these incredible retreats, and just how they influenced the events that followed.