AG/AB - [Alfred Bosshardt - Lone Western prisoner of the Long March]

AG/AB

Series

[Alfred Bosshardt - Lone Western prisoner of the Long March]

1930-1939
1970-1996

3 boxes Mixed

Bosshardt, Alfred, 1897-1993

China -- History -- 1912-1949 --
China -- History -- Long March, 1934-1935
Chinese Christian Church, Manchester

Alfred Bosshardt (1/1/1897-6/11/1993), a Manchester-born Christian missionary marched 2,500 miles as a prisoner of Mao under sentence of death. He and a Belgian missionary colleague were virtually the sole Western prisoners on the Long March. AG based his main character for the novel 'Peking' in part on the experiences of Bosshardt (Jakob Kellner). This added great historical authenticity to the novel.

AG and Bosshardt became friends from the late 1980s onwards and before Bosshardt's death at the age of 96, AG filmed a Channel Four TV interview with him in June 1987 entitled 'Witness of the Long March.' This film (of which a video cassette and three copies are included along with the original master film and two audio tape records of the entire conversations recorded for the programme), along with a copy of Bosshardt's book, 'The guiding hand', dictated from his sick bed after his release near to death, provide unique eye witness insights into this period of China's turbulent history in the mid 1930s. The material also includes 2 cassettes of a series of programmes about Bosshardt subsequently made by China TV as a result of the Channel Four film; a Chinese book entitled 'Captivity and answered prayer in China'; and a copy of 'The restraining hand'. Bosshardt became lifelong friends with General Hsiao Ke, a top Communist general on the Long March and later Defence Minister and AG was able to put them in touch for the first time since the Long March on his first return visit to China in 1988.

After the Long March Bosshardt remained in China until 1951 at which time he moved to Laos. In 1966 he returned to the United Kingdom. He was a leader in the Manchester Chinese Christian Church.

Papers in this series include transcripts of a 1986 interview of Bosshardt by Aubrey Singer and Ana de Juan; material relating to the interview 'Witness of the Long March' including correspondence, notes and script material for this Channel Four documentary; papers relating to the finance and production of the Chinese filming of 'The guiding hand'; a screenplay draft entitled 'The captive missionary'; background press-cuttings from the 1930s; photographs; slides taken in September 1987 by AG of Bosshardt; correspondence between AG and Bosshardt; newsletters produced by Bosshardt; correspondence relating to AG's 1988 visit to China and Vietnam; biographical material by AG on Bosshardt; obituary notices; and a pair of straw sandals.