When Serfs Stood Up In Tibet

Light on China

by Anna Louise Strong

After Tibet broke the chains of feudal serfdom it leaped a thousand years in only ten years, thrusting the old Tibet of darkness aside and surging into a thriving new socialist society. This is the strongest impression of our two-month, 5,000-kilometer tour through this vast autonomous region on China's southwest border.

The wealth of scenes captured by our cameras and the many moving stories recorded in our notebooks made us want to help the reader see how freedom from serfdom has released the wisdom and creativity of a courageous and industrious people, and examine the significance of the tremendous changes which they have brought about in such a short time under the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Communist Party in this corner of the People's Republic of China.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Politics

254 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

American journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

Reviews

[Norma J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope people read this. People need to find out about society is going from deeply being oppressed To liberating themselves. People here in the United States don’t see themselves as depressed. We’re not living in dirt floor huts being told not to kill our lice because they’re our grandmothers living in the afterlife, an idea which people are forced to have even though they know it’s made up nonsense used to oppress us.
Tibet liberated itself after Chinese soldiers from the long march camped outside Lhasa for a couple of years, affirming with people there that their ideas of rejecting the rulership of the brutal occupiers had to end and that they could do it. By the time they started to advance into the city to take over, the US removed the dolly Dali. Almost no damage was done to the city no burning little breaking.
After millennia of oppression liberation is hard to work out, especially when it has brutal brutal opposition. The people who had been in power didn’t want to give it up, don’t wanna give it up. normaha@pacbell.net

[Arya · Rating 5 out of 5]

glad to have finally read one of strong's books, shes as fantastic and inspiring as i was expecting !

[Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dramatic story of the overthrow of Tibetan serfdom in 1959, a particularly brutal form of socioeconomic and religious oppression. This book is a necessary counter-weight to the overwhelming western bourgeois propaganda that depicts pre 1950's Tibet as some sort of idyllic Shangri La. This book should be read in conjunction with Michael Parenti's great essay, "Friendly Feudalism" which destroys wealthy liberal agrarian fantasies promoted by such nonsense as "Seven Years in Tibet". When confronted by self satisfied, virtue signaling urban dwellers with "Free Tibet" bumper stickers on their Volvo SUVs, one can immediately respond, "Mao already did that."

[Cutter · Rating 5 out of 5]

dalaï lama scorpion pit!