Superfluous Words

On February 1935, in a small town in south China, the Kuomintang arrested Qu Qiubai, an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

He was executed four months later. Close to the end of his incarceration, in little doubt as to the nature of his impending fate, Qu spent five days writing Superfluous Words, his frank and uncompromising prison memoirs.

This is the first complete English version of this important historical document, a translation and commentary that sheds light on the diverse interpretations and the strange history of this troubling and deeply moving work.

In doing so, it provides an intriguing record of China at a time of change within the Communist Party and a moving testimony to a life cut tragically short.