André Malraux

Excerpt from Man's Fate

Originally published in 1933

"Ch'en was become aware, with a revulsion verging on nausea, that he stood here, not as a fighter, but as a sacrificial priest. He was serving the gods of his choice; but beneath his sacrifice to the Revolution lay a world of depths beside which this night of crushing anguish was bright as day."

A ndré Malraux's novel Man's Fate is set in Shanghai, China, in the spring of 1927. Chinese Communists are trying to stage a revolutionary uprising in the country's most industrialized city. A terrorist named Ch'en has been sent to assassinate an arms dealer in order to obtain a document that will enable the Communists to obtain three hundred guns. Meanwhile, forces led by Chiang Kai-Shek attack their Communist allies, executing thousands. (Chiang [1887–1975] was a military leader who would rule China for twenty years.)

Although the events described in the novel did not actually take place, a rebellion did occur in Shanghai in 1927. The book's opening scene, excerpted here, provides the author's view of a political assassination, a moment in which the principles of politics and philosophy come down to taking the life of a specific human being.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from Man's Fate:

• André Malraux's description of Ch'en's attack provides an insight into the mental process of someone about to kill another human being—not in the heat of battle or passion, but in cold blood. Not all terrorist acts occur in the same way as the stabbing depicted in Malraux's novel, but many take place under similar circumstances. Literature is one of the few ways an ordinary person can gain insights into the assassin's thought process.
• This excerpt is from a work of fiction. Ch'en's thoughts as he contemplates carrying out an assassination are as imagined by French author André Malraux. The entire novel depicts the relationship between Ch'en the terrorist and the other characters; similarly, in real life the actual assassins who commit acts of terrorism are but a few of the many players on the global political stage.

What happened next …

In the novel, Ch'en went out from the hotel and took a taxi to the edge of the French-ruled part of the city. From there, he crossed over into the Chinese section, where he made his way to a shop with a sign on the door: Lu Yu Hsüan & Hemmelrich, Phonographs. Four of his comrades were waiting.

In real life, the Chinese Communists failed to launch their revolution in 1927. But the country was soon to be plunged into twenty-five years of turmoil: first invasion by Japan, then World War II (1939–45), and finally the takeover of the government by Chinese Communist forces led by Mao Zedong (also spelled Tse-tung; 1893–1976) in 1949.

Did you know …

• In addition to writing novels, André Malraux (1901–1976) was active in politics in France, where he served two one-year terms as the Minister of Information (1945 and 1958) under President Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970). Malraux also was France's minister of cultural affairs. His best-known novel besides Man's Fate is Man's Hope, which is set during the Spanish civil war of the late 1930s.

For More Information

Botjer, George F. A Short History of Nationalist China, 1919–1949. New York: Putnam, 1979.

Chesneaux, Jean, Françoise Le Barbier, and Marie-Claire Bergére. China from the 1911 Revolution to Liberation. Translated from the French by Paul Auster, Lydia Davis, and Anne Destena. New York: Pantheon Books, 1977.

Dong, Stella. Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City. New York: William Morrow, 2000.

Fitzgerald, John. Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.

Langlois, Walter G. André Malraux: The Indochina Adventure. New York: Praeger, 1966.

Madsen, Axel. Silk Roads: The Asian Adventures of Clara and André Malraux. New York: Pharos Books, 1989.

Malreaux, André. Man's Fate. First published in 1933. Reprint: Vintage Books, 1961.

Sih, Paul K. T., editor. The Strenuous Decade: China's Nation-Building Efforts, 1927–1937. New York: St. John's University Press, 1970.