My Mother: The Youngest Female Red Army Member of the Long March: The Youngest Female Red Army Member of the Long March

Author: Xiao Yun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The book "My Mother—The Youngest Female Red Army Member during the Long March," published and distributed by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, has now been released. Like many others, I picked up the book with a sense of curiosity. There are three reasons for my curiosity: First, I am curious about the protagonist of the book, Wang Xinlan, a young lady from a wealthy family, who joined the Red Army at the age of nine and embarked on the Long March at ten. Second, I am curious about her fifty-year love story with General Xiao Huai. Third, I am curious about the author of the book, Xiao Yun, the biological son of the protagonist, and how he views his mother's life.
Upon opening the book, I could no longer put it down. Vivid characters came to life, historical events were clearly delineated, the plot was engaging, and the language was fluent—both believable and readable. Its value is indeed extraordinary. It fully deserves the author's ten years of effort like a sword tempered over a decade.
First, it holds substantial historical value. The charm of history lies in its irrecoverability. In the first half of the 20th century, the revolutionary struggles led by the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people were vast and tumultuous, producing outstanding figures and becoming the most vividly colored stroke in Chinese history. At the same time, they left behind many mysteries for later generations to ponder and examine. As a witness to that era, Wang Xinlan's experiences and observations provide evidence for our research into that period. Through the mists of history, I seem to see a young girl of nine, emerging from a grand mansion in northeastern Sichuan, her face bearing maturity and dignity far beyond her years, walking into the Red Army and thus beginning her perilous revolutionary life.
Tracing my mother's life, it was truly heart-stirring. I couldn't help but recall what Nimrod Wells wrote in "The Journey Continues" about the female Red Army members he admired: "They endured long and arduous struggles, earning their rightful place under the red star." However, for a very long time afterward, they lived in the shadows of their husbands, and history had not been entirely fair to them.