''Red Crag'' or ''Red Rock'' () was a 1961 novel based partly on fact by Chinese authors Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan, who were former inmates in a

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

prison in

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of th ...

. It was set in

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Cou ...

during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...

in 1949, and featured underground

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

agents under the command of

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Ma ...

fighting an espionage battle against the Kuomintang. The novel contained a highly negative portrayal for the

Sino-American Cooperative Organization The Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization, also known as the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), was an organization created by the SACO Treaty signed by China and the United States in 1942 during the Second World W ...

, as responsible for the running prisons jailing communists and other political dissidents, although in reality they were actually run by the KMT secret police service BIS, and had no American involvement. The main protagonist Jiang Xueqin, or "Sister Jiang" (), is based on the Communist revolutionary

Jiang Zhuyun Jiang Zhuyun (; 20 August 1920 – 14 November 1949) was a Chinese communist resistance fighter and revolutionary martyr.Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret Service - Page 166 Frederic E. Wakeman - 2003 "Occasionally, but only very seldom, ...

(1920–1949). Xujun Eberlein wrote in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' that "The novel played a critical role in the heroism culture of the Mao era."Eberlein, Eberlein.
Another Kind of American History in Chongqing, 1: Prologue

Archive
. ''

''. January 31, 2011. Retrieved on December 20, 2015. The book includes a poem that was attributed to, but was not written by, the revolutionary "martyr" Chen Ran (陈然, 1923－1949).

Adaptations

The 1964

Chinese-language western-style opera Chinese contemporary classical opera (Chinese: 当今古典歌剧; ''dāngjīn gŭdiăn gējù''; "contemporary classical opera") is a musical art form drawing on western opera traditions - distinct from modern developments of traditional Chinese ...

titled ''Sister Jiang'' is based on the novel.East Asian History - Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, 1998 p134-137 The opera was composed by Yang Ming and Jiang Chunyang, musicians of the art bureau of the

Chinese Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

. In 2002, at the invitation of the German World Art Festival, director Zhang Yuan presented a

Peking opera Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...

(also titled ''Sister Jiang''), with Zhang Huoding in the title role, at the Cologne Grand Theater - the first major presentation of a revolutionary opera in Europe. Zhang Yuan made a film version of the production in 2003. In 2004, a Peking opera titled ''Hua Ziliang'' was produced by Tianjin Chinese Opera Theater for DVD in 2004 with Wang Pin in the title role.Tianjin Statistical Yearbook 2004 Page 31 7503743220 2004 The city performed Peking opera " Hua Ziliang" , ballet opera "Jingwei" and drama "Applause for you" . Hua Ziliang is a character from the novel. A 2010

CCTV-1 CCTV-1 (CCTV General Channel) is the primary channel of CCTV, the national flagship terrestrial television network of the People's Republic of China. It broadcasts a range of programs from CCTV Headquarters at East 3rd Ring Road in Beijing an ...

TV series also titled ''Sister Jiang'' is also based on this novel.

References

{{reflist 1961 novels 20th-century Chinese novels Fiction set in 1949 Chinese Civil War Chinese novels adapted into plays Chinese novels adapted into television series Novels set in Chongqing