Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on March 23, 2008 at 18:44:02 from 195.93.21.2 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Ransome the Socialist posted by Duncan on March 23, 2008 at 16:16:39:
I had not heard that. I have been told that, in the caves in Yan'An, Mao had a team listening in to western news wire reports, which were of course in Morse. and transcribing them without being able to understand the English in which they were transmitted. The transcripts were handed to others who translated them.
According to my informant, whose grandmother was one of the translators, one message which needed virtually no translation, because all the wires carried it simultaneously, was "Japan has surrendered". There was much debate over whether to wake Mao, who was sleeping. In the end he was woken and told. He muttered "Hen hao!" (Very good!) and went back to sleep.
I had better say something apposite to Arthur Ransome now!
If the three taicoons are caricatures of contemporary Chinese political figures, it should be possible to work them out. Let's start - one would certainly have to be Chiang KaiShek, so which is he?