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From Nothing to Nothing: The Chinese Communist Movement and HongKong 1921-- 1936, by Chan Lau Kit-ching. NewYork: St. Martin's Press, 1999. $59.95. Pp. 342.
This book is devoted to a study of Hong Kong's involvement with the Chinese Communist movement in the early part of the 20th century, and aims to fill a void that currently exists in the turbulent history of the period.
The author has based her study on a wide selection of Chinese and English sources that traces the vicissitudes of the Communist movement in Hong Kong and Guangdong from its inception, through a series of crucial historical events: the first united front of the Chinese Communist Party and the Guomindang (1924), the first split between the two (1927), and the eventual evacuation of the Communist Party forces from the Central Soviet Region (1936), set up by them during the first civil war (1927-1936). For this period, the author examines the involvement of the Communist movement in Hong Kong from two different angles: the movement that grew and developed in Hong Kong, and the special role that Hong Kong itself played in it.
The Communist movement in Hong Kong was inseparably bound up with that of Guangdong province, which began in the May Fourth period (1919). From there the Chinese Communists extended their activities into Hong Kong. They were first involved in the Hong Kong Seamen's Strike (1922), and then supported the Guangzhou-Hong Kong Strike-Boycott (1925-1926). Despite these activities, the local Communist movement in Hong Kong did not...