I've been watching some modern Chinese "Red" shows and they mention Edgar Snows's Red Star over China multiple times, and I've heard it mentioned before, so I decided it's time to read it. Overall very informative and enjoyable account of China's revolutionary years and Mao's personal development from a run of the mill liberal to the Mao we all know and love.

As a teaser here's Snow talking to some random Chinese on a train when he was about to reach the Communist controlled territories:

“But in Szechuan don’t people fear the Reds as much as the bandits?”

“Well, that depends. The rich men fear them, and the landlords, and the officials and tax-collectors, yes. But the peasants do not fear them. Sometimes they welcome them.” Then he glanced apprehensively at the old man, who sat listening intently, and yet seeming not to listen. “You see,” he continued, “the peasants are too ignorant to understand that the Reds only want to use them. They think the Reds really mean what they say.”

“But they don’t mean it?”

“My father wrote to me that they did abolish usury and opium in the Sungpan [Szechuan], and that they redistributed the land there. So you see they are not exactly bandits. They have principles all right. But they are wicked men. They kill too many people.”

Then surprisingly the greybeard lifted his gentle face and with perfect composure he made an astonishing remark. “Sha pu kou!” he said. “They don’t kill enough!” We both looked at him flabbergasted.