Sidney Rittenberg: An interview with a revolutionary

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2017

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sidney Rittenberg was a labor activist in the American South before going to China as a translator for the U.S. Army in 1945. He stayed there until 1980, joining the Communist Party and going to the revolutionary base at Yan’an, where he got to know Mao Zedong and other senior members of the Party who went on to govern China. He also spent 16 years in solitary confinement. In this first episode of a two-part interview, Kaiser and Jeremy talk to Sidney about his fascinating life story. You can read a Q&A with Sidney on SupChina here. You can buy Sidney’s books: an autobiography, The Man Who Stayed Behind, and Manage Your Mind: Set Yourself Free, on lessons he learned while in solitary confinement. The Revolutionary is a documentary film about his life. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Cynical listeners, Kaiser here.
0:02.0	We're doing a two-parter with our guest today.
0:04.2	Tune in next week to hear part two and enjoy the podcast.
0:17.6	Welcome to the Cynica podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China, produced in partnership with SUPChina.
0:23.3	SubChina is the best way to keep current with the latest news on China with a free email newsletter, a smartphone app, and at the website, subchina.com.
0:32.0	It's a feast of business, political, and cultural news about a nation that is reshaping the world.
0:37.3	I'm Kaiser Guo, coming to you from Scottsdale, Arizona.
0:40.3	With me here is Jeremy Goldcorn, now 40 bucks richer,
0:43.4	because he gave me a 20 to play in the Lauhuji in this ridiculous casino resort
0:47.1	that we're staying at, Jeremy.
0:48.3	How are you doing?
0:49.0	Pretty good, pretty good.
0:49.9	Very happy I gave my money to the Chinese guy to gamble with.
0:52.9	It's a smart move. Don't spend it all in one place.
0:55.9	Anyway, we are here in Scottsdale for a very special conversation with someone I wanted to meet for many, many years.
1:02.2	I'm sure that Sidney Rittenberg is a name familiar to many of our listeners.
1:05.9	He is, of course, the man who stayed behind, the first American to actually join the Chinese Communist Party,
1:11.8	a man who became personally acquainted with many of the towering figures of the Chinese
1:15.9	revolution, including Mao Zedong himself, Zhou and Lai, Zhuge, Zhang Qing, and many, many others.
1:21.7	And as lots of you already know, Sydney was imprisoned in two long stretches in solitary confinement, in fact, from
1:29.0	1949 to 1956, and then again from February of 1968 to November of 1977. He remained in China
1:38.1	until 1980 when he returned to the United States, where he started a very successful
	...

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