China's Urban Revolutionaries

by Gregor Benton

Chinese Trotskyism was the most creative and influential opposition to emerge within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) between its founding and its taking power in 1949. It included Chen Duxiu, founder and early leader of the CCP, whose ideas have inspire

Genres: China

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Gregor Benton is emeritus professor of Chinese history at Cardiff University and research associate in diaspora studies, NTU, Singapore.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent scholarly, yet sympathetic introduction to the history of Chinese Trotskyism, with a particular focus on its heyday from the late 1920s till its demise in 1952. However, Trotskyism still exists in Hong Kong, seeing a particular revival in the late 1970s, and now one of Hong Kong's representatives in the city council is one of the Trotskyists from the 1970s generation. While I do not subscribe to Trotskyism specifically myself, I have to say that the story of China's Trotskyists is rife with dramatic irony and historical tragedy. It is a story that must be told for studying Chinese Communism. The first chairman of the CCP was offered up as a sacrificial lamb after the Shanghai massacre and then he went on to become a Trotskyist leader so important to the movement that Trotsky himself expressed an interest in learning Chinese just so he could read Chen Duxiu's writings. Benton is a serious historian with personal connections to the last surviving members of the first generation of Chinese Trotskyists. He covers some important issues in the scholarship and is engaged with the Chinese-language sources and scholarship. This is a great read for anyone interested in the history of Chinese communism.