Reporting the Chinese Revolution

Rayna and her husband Bill edited the Kuomintang’s English-language newspaper in Wuhan. Rayna’s account of her intimate involvement in the Chinese Revolution brings to life the eventful Wuhan years of 1926-27, which shaped the revolution’s course. Her letters illuminate from a personal angle the battle for China’s future and include remarkable portraits of some of the people who shaped the Communist and Nationalist movements of the time.

The book consists of letters Prohme wrote to her closest friend and her husband in the period immediately before, during and after the Wuhan interlude. Her reporting brought her into contact with many major political figures including Madam Sun Yat-sen (a prominent figure in the opposition to Chiang Kai-shek) and Mikhail Borodin (a chief Soviet advisor in China).

This book provides an unusual and often moving insight into a fascinating period in modern Chinese history.

Author Biography

Baruch Hirson was a prominent Trotskyist activist in South Africa for many years before his imprisonment in 1964. On his release in 1973 he emigrated to Britain, where he taught at Bradford and Middlesex Universities. He published widely on South African revolutionary politics. Baruch Hirson died in 1999.Arthur J. Knodel was a distinguished scholar at the University of Southern California, best known for his translations and criticism of Nobel Prize-winning poet Saint-John Perse. Knodel died in 2001.Gregor Benton is Professor of Chinese History at Cardiff University.