Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival

This is an unbelievable true story of the long march as it is called, & that was over mountains in winter on goat trails scaling 14000 feet! Carrying huge X-ray machines, with slippers on, little food, in the Red Army narrated by some of the women who were there. Mao, who I consider was a tyrannical nutcase, dodging & running from Chang kai shek back & forth over these enormous, treacherous mountain ranges subjecting his devoted followers to unimaginable hardships. This book is engaging and poignant, extremely well written, what a story! A must read!

Reviewed by Daniel A. Métraux Chinese women enjoy considerable liberties today. They are educated, are free to embark on their own careers, and can marry anyone they wish -- or choose not to marry at all. Although there is evidence that many Chinese men receive preferential treatment in hiring and education, women in China have come a great distance over the past several generations. Gone are the days when the old custom of foot binding would condemn a woman, especially those from good families, to a painful life of hobbling around. A woman's status and beauty were often measured by the small size of her feet and only peasant girls who labored in the fields had normal-sized feet. The practice was outlawed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over six decades ago when they defeated the Nationalists and created the People's Republic of China. The abolition of foot binding was one of several measures adopted by the new regime to greatly enhance the status of Chinese women. "Liberation" for most Chinese women only occurred after the success of the Revolution, but women played a major role within the CCP from its inception in the early 1920s. Their enhanced status is evident in the role that thirty women, chosen by the party, played in the historic Long March of 1934 and 1935. Their stories are portrayed in author Dean King's recent book, Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival. King portrays not only the struggle of these women to support the desperate attempt of the Chinese "Red" Army to escape Nationalist and other enemy forces, but also their former lives of servitude, poverty, arranged marriage, and bound feet. The story of these women is also the story of those women who joined the Communist crusade in the late 1920s and 1930s and who dedicated their lives to the early Communist revolution. The story of the Long March is well known. At this time the 86,000 man Red Army, surrounded in southeastern China by perhaps as many as a million Nationalist troops, broke through enemy lines and began a 4,000 heroic march to the safety of northwestern China. Only a few thousand marchers survived the ordeal through treacherous terrain, constant attacks by Nationalist and other forces, and terrible weather. King's more focused account sees the march through the eyes of these women--a diverse group that included Ma Yixang, 11, a peasant girl sold by her family; Jin "Ah Jin" Weiying, 30, a college-educated teacher who became active in the Chinese labor movement; and Zhou "Young Orchid" Shaolan, 17, a nurse who refused to be left behind when the army tried to send her home. We see the march from their perspective-- their heroic work to nurse injured men back to health, their romantic attachments, their pregnancies and the several babies born on the march that they had to leave behind, and their later involvement in CCP politics. The women recall romantic attachments, political awakenings, and service in the army and late

In 1934, Mao Zedong set on his grueling 4,000 mile trek. With him were 65,000 dedicated men and 30 indomitable women. Not camp followers nor companions, these women warriors fought alongside the men and just like the men, suffered from starvation, vermin, disease and lack of proper clothing, equipment and and basic necessities. They left behind families and children, and if they became pregnant, were forced to abandon their babies to die by the roadside. This was the kind of strength, determination and sheer guts it took to break the chains that, for millenia, kept Chinese women at the level of slaves. Women, even of the upper classes,had no value beyond the ability to bear sons and walk gracefully on feet crippled by binding. In impoverished families, a talent for outworking the family ox was an added requirement. These 30 women rebels were there not just to do battle with Chiang Kai Shek's armies and win the hearts and minds of the peasantry. They were also going to change the role of women in China forever. And they were willing to pay any price to succeed. So they marched alongside the men, fought alongside the men, starved with them and watched their loved ones die. That this ragtag, shirttail army was successful is a testimony to Mao's leadership and brilliance, his military strategy and his remarkable knack for public relations and propoganda in reaching China's vast sea of ignorant, suspicious and unsular peasants. Mao was, without doubt, a charismatic genius who outmaneuvered, out-thought and outfought Chaing Kau Shek and his well-equipped, sophisticated U.S. backed and bankrolled army. How in hell did he morph into the demented, ego-crazed Mao of later years? What transformed Mao from that brilliant young leader into a demented old man who single-handedly orchestrated famines, cultural genocide, and the death of millions of his own people. Mao became obsessed with harebrained schemes...he diverted the entire country to a lunatic smelting project, purportedly to boost steel production. Since the raw materials were never supplied, and because failing to meet quotas was punishable by exile, farmers and factory workers melted down cooking pots to refabricate into more cooking pots. Mao conjured up the down the rabbit hole insanity of the Cultural Revolution, where up became down, surgeons were sent to the countryside to raise onions and peasants were sent to hospitals to perform surgery. Intellectuals were imprisoned and factory workers were making economic policy. Still, the Cult of Mao persisted. He engendered such loyalty that his followers would literally have stepped through the gates of hell for him. And as it turned out, for the 30 women who accompanied Mao, that's pretty much were they ended up...disgraced, imprisoned, exiled, executed. After Mao took control, many of these women became powerful political leaders in their own right, some married men of power. But the victory and glory didn't last. Some were vic

This historical retelling of the Long March is so fascinating that I found it hard to put down. I'm not much of a history buff, but the readability of Unbound makes it a must read even for fiction lovers. Dean King has clearly done his research and brings you right alongside these determined women as they persevere and endure unbelievable hardships. The pronunciation key and definitions are a big help if you are not very knowledgeable about Chinese culture. I enjoyed curling up with this book and escaping to a world so unfamiliar to me and so full of intrigue.

Dean King's Unbound is a fascinating story of one of the most grueling examples of human commitment and resilience in the last 100 years. The challenges faced by Mao's group of followers were varied, deadly and emotionally draining - particularly for the women followed throughout the book. I enjoyed learning of these early Communist experiences which ultimately galvanized their followers and provided a struggle of mythic proportions that would aid their rise to power later in the century. The stories of the treachery within the party's power elite were almost as interesting as the various battles with the outside elements - the Nationalists, the local and regional warlords, the horse swallowing bogs, disease, the altitude, etc. A great read for anyone who is interested in Chinese history, military conflict, the feminist movement and outdoor adventure.

An argument that I have heard from several sources justifying continued American involvement in Afghanistan is to emphasize the negative things that would happen to the women if the Taliban were to regain power. Ironically, the best status that women have had in Afghanistan was when the communists were in power, a regime that the United States fought hard to topple. A similar situation occurred in the communist government of China that was so reviled in the United States. For centuries and continuing under the American darling Chiang Kai Chek, women in China were persecuted, had no rights and were abused and forcibly deformed. Extremely small feet were considered a beautiful female trait so the feet of infant girls were tightly and painfully bound to keep them small. Newborn girls were drowned as undesirable and women were often married early and not allowed to choose their husbands. The communists changed all that and it started with the fabled Long March that began in 1934 when the Chinese Communist Army traveled over 4,000 miles on foot in slightly more than a year. Virtually unknown is the fact that some women also made the journey, walking side by side with the men. These women worked and often fought right alongside the men and were not prostitutes or camp followers. Their tenacity was incredible; some of them had babies and then got right up and continued to march. The communist army was also under almost constant attack from the Nationalist troops as well as locally hostile forces such as the Tibetans. This book is their story and it is one that should be part of every historical study of modern China. It is a demonstration of how determined the communist forces were, tenacity is too weak a term to describe them. Against the longest possible odds, the Chinese Communist army was able to retreat, survive in and traverse some of the most hostile territory on Earth, fight well against the Japanese invader and then eventually take control of the country. It was an American political weakness during the Cold War that when something was labeled as communist, it was reviled, degraded and criticized. If their political positioning could have been placed aside, there would have been great deal to admire about the Chinese Communists, for much of what they did was the stuff of heroes. I consider this book to be the best and most revealing history book that I have read in some time. It is hard and maybe impossible to overstate the role the Long March had on the history of the world, for it tempered the Chinese Communists into a relentless force. Therefore, this book should be required reading in courses about modern China.