A Rendezvous in Beijing: Young Marshal Chang Hsiao Liang and Bernard Shaw

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the meeting between Bernard Shaw and the famous “Young Marshal” (so-named) Chang Hsiao Liang in February 1933 in Beijing, and how that meeting was constructed into Chinese political and military history. In meeting Chang, Shaw became part of the Young Marshal's strategic move to advocate the need to fight Japanese aggression in China. Chang Hsiao Liang was the number two political and military leader in China at that time, and was advocating using Chinese military forces to fight Japanese aggression, while the number one leader, Chiang Kai-shek, wanted instead to encircle communist forces under Mao Zedong. In meeting Shaw, Chang could leverage on the Nobel Laureate's international stature to further his political agenda.