The Long March, 80 Years On—China Youth Daily
Li Junhui—China Youth Daily
Li Junhui, a staff photographer at China Youth Daily, spent a month traveling along the route of the Long March with medium format film cameras. It has been more than 80 years since Mao Zedong led his supporters in the fledgling Communist Party 6,000 miles from their embattled base south of the Yangtze River to the desert caves around Yan’an. Li’s own slow retracing of the former leader’s steps seems to decelerate the pace of modern life, slowing movement, playing with light, and simplifying compositions to meditate on today’s China. Historians outside of China generally date the end of the Long March to 1935, when Mao’s Central Army arrived at Yan’an. But in China, the March is said to have ended in late 1936, by which time other groups of Communist troops had also made it to Yan’an and Mao had begun to consolidate his leadership.
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Li Junhui, a staff photographer at China Youth Daily, spent a month traveling along the route of the Long March with medium format film cameras. It has been more than 80 years since Mao Zedong led his supporters in the fledgling Communist Party 6,000 miles from their embattled base south of the Yangtze River to the desert caves around Yan’an. Li’s own slow retracing of the former leader’s steps seems to decelerate the pace of modern life, slowing movement, playing with light, and simplifying compositions to meditate on today’s China. Historians outside of China generally date the end of the Long March to 1935, when Mao’s Central Army arrived at Yan’an. But in China, the March is said to have ended in late 1936, by which time other groups of Communist troops had also made it to Yan’an and Mao had begun to consolidate his leadership.