Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution

Agnes Smedley worked in and wrote about China from 1928 to 1941. Her biographers have collected 18 of her stories and reportage on Chinese women, all out of print and most unavailable even in public libraries. The stories, based on interviews with revolutionary women, include descriptions of the massacre of feminists in the Canton commune, of the silkworkers of Canton whose solidarity earns them the "charge" of lesbianism, and of Mother Tsai, a 60-year-old peasant who leads village women in smashing an opium den. This book is a moving document of a people in the throes of revolution, with rare photographs taken by Smedley of the people she spoke with.