Yan'an and The North China Front
In Xi'an Bertram received a radio message from Mao Zedong, inviting him to become the first official 'British' visitor to YenanYan'an. Bertram spent nearly a month in Yan'an during which time he conducted an extensive series of interviews with Mao in his cave-dwelling during which Mao expounded the Japanese objectives and the strategies he believed that the Chinese should adopt to defeat the Japanese. The "Interview with the British Journalist James Bertram" were cited in Mao's Collected Works.
From Yan'an Bertram set out for the Eighth Route Army headquarters in southern Shansi Shanxi and travelled for five months with the army in northern China. On the day that he crossed the Yellow River from ShensiShaanxi back to Shanxi, this time by boat, Taiyuan the Shanxi capital fell to the Japanese. Most of his time was spent with the troops of General Ho Lung (He Long). Based on these experiences behind the front he wrote a book North China Front (1939).
Read more about this topic: James Munro Bertram
Famous quotes containing the words north, china and/or front:
“Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South, come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“Anyone who tries to keep track of what is happening in China is going to end up by wearing all the skin of his left ear from twirling around on it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“In front of that sinner of a husband,
she rattled off
only those words
that her pack of vile-tongued girlfriends
taught her
as fast as she could,
and after,
began to behave
at the Love-god’s beck and call.
It’s indescribable,
this natural, charming
path of love,
paved with the gems
of inexperience.”
—Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)