China's 'Gino'??A Friendly Portrait:
CALDWELL, JOHN C.
China's 'Gimo'????A Friendly Portrait Chiang Kai-shek: An Unauthorized Biography. By Emily Hahn. Doubleday. 382 pp. $5.00. Reviewed by John C. Caldwell Author, "China Coast Family." "The Korea...
...Miss Halm tells the story of party growth and struggle with particular emphasis upon the Communist effort to seize control of the party...
...Chiang Kai-shek led his people to within sight of the promised land...
...She does not...
...Chiang won—as he was to win many other disputes...
...The nation was hopelessly divided: the leaders of the revolution included visionaries and crooks, self seeking and selfless men...
...Chiang's battle with the Communists had to be fitted in with the ever present chore of leading, cajoling, threatening and fighting war lords...
...To this already heavy burden was soon added the responsibility of holding off the Japanese and keeping Chinese hotheads in check until China was capable of fighting...
...Miss Hahn has done a good job in portraying the growth of the nation and the man...
...In this family dispute...
...Chiang spent four months in Russia in 1923...
...Chiang Kai-shek has never received proper credit for the miracle he did accomplish—nor for the methods he used...
...In spite of enormous problems and personal deficiencies...
...It is to the author's credit that, in spite of a complete lack of cooperation on Chiang's part, she has written a friendly and balanced biography—one of the best books yet to appear on China's President...
...would have been sharper had she not obviously confined herself to source material in English...
...Who can say today where China might have been, what might have been accomplished had Japan not attacked...
...Chiang, the man, was stubborn and intolerant, given to sharp criticisms of his fellow revolutionists...
...It is impossible to work together with them...
...Writing to a friend, he stated, "From my observation the Russian party is lacking in sincerity...
...Only 30 per cent of what the Russians said was believable...
...Sometimes he used diplomacy: other times he was ruthless...
...And her picture of Chiang, the man...
...But until a biography making wide use of these materials comes along...
...What they call 'internationalism' and 'world revolution' are nothing but Kaiser Imperialism...
...Little wonder then that the austere Methodist Chiang Kai-shek, always uncooperative with biographers, refused even to grant Miss Halm an interview during her sojourn in Formosa...
...Emily Hahn's story of how the young general from Chekiang worked his way through the maze of conflicting personalities to become modern China's first leader should add greatly to our understanding...
...Miss Halm quotes from letters and diary to give us his impressions...
...It is also a story of modern China and a history of the Kuomintang party, for the story of Chiang is inextricably woven into the story of his nation...
...They return deceit...
...China also emerged from the Middle Ages to gain some semblance of a twentieth centry nation...
...Later, he noted in his diary, "I offer them (the Communists) sincerity...
...Chiang's struggle with the Communists spans three decades...
...for instance, even touch upon the last five years on Formosa, a period in which Chiang and his government have grown considerably...
...There are deficiencies in Emily Hahn's treatment...
...Emily Hahn's Chiang Kai-shek is the best this reviewer has read...
...The Korea Story," "Still the Rice Grows Green" EMILY HAHN is a lady of unorthodox views, freely expressed, and of peculiar habits freely indulged...
...As Chiang emerged from stiff-necked, often high-tempered young manhood into leadership...
...Chiang Kai-shek wanted to be a soldier...
...His mother wanted him to be a lawyer...
...Chiang was one of the handful of original KMT members...
Vol. 38 • May 1955 • No. 22
