Talk:Yan'an Soviet

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Requested move 14 December 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved (closed by non-admin page mover) BegbertBiggs (talk) 22:56, 22 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region → Yan'an Soviet – I'm open to counter-arguments, but here's my reasoning:

Although "Yan'an Soviet" not the most common name among academic sources, I think that it's by far the most recognizable name to English speakers with some knowledge of Chinese history. Most English speakers who have heard of this area have heard it referenced in general terms, as "the Communist base in Yan'an" or "the Yan'an period in CCP history", etc. To the casual reader, it's not clear that "Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region" is a reference to the same time and place. But "Yan'an Soviet" is an accepted informal name for the area, and using it instead will make it MUCH easier for readers to find this article.

I think the way other articles talk about this area is very telling. There are many references to the CCP's time in Yan'an, but far fewer mentions of the "Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region". Some articles that reference this region don't even link here, I think because even most Wikipedia editors don't know this page exists. For examples, see: Yan'an Forum, Yan'an Rectification Movement, Yan'an faction, Maoism#Yan'an period between November 1935 and March 1947, Mao Zedong#Alliance with the Kuomintang: 1935–1940. SilverStar54 (talk) 22:04, 14 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Support. Yan'an Soviet meets common name requirements and is more concise. JArthur1984 (talk) 22:08, 14 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Wiki Education assignment: History of Socialism

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2024 and 9 December 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nhhu (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Nhhu (talk) 16:32, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Nhhu, I'm glad to see you take on this project and I wish you luck. As someone who's worked on this page before, I wanted to offer you some useful info. It's going to be difficult to find reliable sources on this topic. There's a lot of reasons for that: Yan'an was very isolated, a civil war was going on, the CCP continues to keep many relevant documents top-secret, many secondary sources are written in Chinese, and many English sources have a strong ideological bias against (or for) the Communists. Be prepared to spend a long time looking for good-quality sources. Only in the last few decades have better sources become available to historians, so be skeptical to anything published before ~2000. Here are some good sources to start you off:

How the Red Sun Rose by Gao Hua
Accidental Holy Land by Joseph Esherick
Moulding the Medium by Patrick Stranahan
Can the Weak Defeat the Strong? Mao’s Evolving Approach to Asymmetric Warfare in Yan’an by Andrew Kennedy
Moving Labor Heroes Center Stage by Nicola Spakowski
The Blooming Poppy and the Red Sun by Chen Yung-fa, published as a chapter in New Perspectives on the Chinese Revolution
Yan’an as a Site of Memory in Socialist and Postsocialist China by Kirk Denton, published as a chapter in Places of Memory in Modern China
You'll also be able to find a lot of sources by searching for the "Shaan–Gan–Ning Border Region", since this is the name preferred by academics.

SilverStar54 (talk) 18:44, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@SilverStar54 What a useful, and encouraging response to the student editor. I compliment you! @Nhhu good luck, you have picked a challenging but intellectually rewarding topic. JArthur1984 (talk) 18:53, 22 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you so much!!! I'm hoping to create a history section for this article so this really helps! Nhhu (talk) 15:53, 6 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]