China's Lonely Revolution

Presents a new view of the Chinese revolution through the lens of the local Communist movement in Hainan between 1926 and 1956.

Presents a new view of the Chinese revolution through the lens of the local Communist movement in Hainan between 1926 and 1956.

Jeremy A. Murray's study of local Communist revolutionaries in Hainan between 1926 and 1956 provides a window into the diversity and complexity of the Chinese revolution. Long at the margins of the Chinese state, Hainan was once known by mainlanders only for its malarial climate and fierce indigenous people. In spite of efforts by the Chinese Nationalists and the Japanese to exterminate Hainan's Communists, the movement survived because of an alliance with the indigenous Li. For years it persevered, though in complete isolation from Communist headquarters on the mainland. Using Chinese-language sources, archival materials, and interviews, Murray draws a vivid picture of this movement from the Hainanese perspective, and broadens our understanding of how patriotism, Party loyalty, and Chinese identity have been experienced and interpreted in modern China.

Jeremy A. Murray is Assistant Professor of History at California State University, San Bernardino.

Jeremy A. Murray is Assistant Professor of History at California State University, San Bernardino.

"This is an ambitious work … The strength of this book is the skillful tracing of the development of the party in relation to the broader currents shaping the political environment of these years such as the united front, the Japanese invasion, or the tensions with the central party authorities … the book is an impressively researched study that provides many valuable insights that hopefully will stimulate more work on this little-known part of the story of the Communist revolution in China." — Pacific Affairs