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Review
'…an impressive job of on-the-ground reporting, interweaving the memories of survivors to build up the narrative… ' Observer
'Sun Shuyun provides a sympathetic account, and …all the more refreshing because of the grit of her own travails.' The Times
'[Sun Shuyun's] is a lively and very human account.' Sunday Telegraph
'…a testament to Shuyun's old-fashioned journalistic values. She has gone to places where something has happened and asked questions.' Telegraph
'…from the ocean of lies about the Long March she has salvaged much truth. I hope…Shuyun writes more books…' Literary Review
‘There is a warmth to Sun Shuyun’s account that makes it much more readable [than Jung Chang’s Mao biography]…her own personal voyage of discovery adds poignancy to her vividly descriptive book.’ Metro
‘Her compassion for her subjects and the true grit of her own journey paradoxically prove the achievement of the march to be so much greater than the official version.’ Guardian
Praise for ‘Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud’:
‘Sun Shuyun gives us the best of many worlds…exploring remote and tantalising places, she unearths fresh and fascinating material from life in the Cultural Revolution to the extraordinary story of the spread and survival of Buddhism. Ten Thousand Miles Without A Cloud is not just a treat for travellers but for anyone with a sense of curiosity.’ Michael Palin
'Packed with erudition and perception…it is also honest, sensitive, entirely without ego…ultimately, a meditation on the human condition.' Evening Standard
'Sun Shuyun records her feelings and those of others with spontaneous simplicity, almost innocence, as if she were still the child seeking her grandmother's solution.' Sunday Telegraph
The Times
'Sun Shuyun provides a sympathetic account, and...all the more refreshing because of the grit of her own travails.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book after I had read the book with the same title by Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen. I gave the Jocelyn and McEwen book five stars because I thought it was excellent. I dont think that assessment was wrong, but in my opinion this book is even better. Like Jocelyn and McEwen, Sun Shuyun set out to retrace the route of the Long March and find veterans along the way who had witnessed or taken part in it, before it is too late and they are all gone. Unlike Jocelyn and McEwen, Shuyun didn't walk the march herself but took public transport. Also unlike Jocelyn and McEwen, Shuyun is a Chinese national brought up on the myth of the Long March from an early age. Her book therefore, with the same aims and the same subject, is completely different. First, because she isn't walking the march, and isn't a westerner, the book is less about her, and the minor day to day problems that beset anyone trying to travel as a foreigner in China, but much more about the original marchers themselves. It is clear that Shuyun has spent lots of time with them, gained their trust, sung the marching songs of her childhood education with them, and drawn out from them the most amazing stories of what being on the march really meant for the participants. Not the party elite, but the poor everyday foot soldiers who made up the red armies. Jocelyn and McEwen attempt a similar job, but reflecting back on their book in the light of this one, the insights they attain are relatively shallow. Shuyun's book primarily follows the experiences of about ten of the original marchers including several women, and follows up the sometimes tragic stories of how, despite the unbelievable hardships they endured, the communist party abandoned them for decades after the march until they were eventually rehabilitated. The result is a much more profound and deep insight into the haphazard and random events that moulded the path of the march and the sheer dogged determination that got them through it. It exposes some overpowering tragedies like the story of the western legion, and concludes with an explanation of the ultimate propaganda coup that the march became. I guess my only question is whether I would have enjoyed this book as much if I hadn't read the Jocelyn and McEwen book first. That I'll never know. If you are interested in the Long March however you would do well to buy them both. You won't be disappointed with either.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I just finished reading this and found it to be an interesting read - and it makes me want to learn more about Communist China. I have read other books by journalists and it is always clear what the journalist's agenda is. The author, brought up in China and taught a specific Chinese Communist history, follows the path of the long march to find out for herself what happened. Although there are many instances where her discoveries are at odds with the history she was taught, she is clearly not on a mission to intentionally discredit the government. Her observations are objective and you can understand her surprise when she uncovers the way things really transpired. She is also quite good at helping the reader understand how politics work through stories and not through lectures. I would be interested to know what the Chinese government thought of this book and I would read more by the author.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
the start of Chinese communism
8 Dec 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book on the Long March by the first organized Chinese communist in 1934-36 will explain a lot about why China is today what it is. The book is not one person's understanding as to what happened. The author actually retraced the paths of the 3 armys and personally interview more that a dozen survivors as to what really took place (as distinct from Hollywood-like recreations). The book is capivating and reads easily - the author is a professional writer, Oxford trained. Being born in China, Bejing University graduate, a woman and a jounalist, it would be hard to find a more qualified to personally interview and discuss the March face-to-face with men and women survivors with the ease and thouroughness presented in this book.
She was told that she was the first woman to retrace the March.
She was told that she was the first woman to retrace the March.
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