In 1949 the bamboo curtain clattered down over one-fifth of the people of the world. In one sudden twist of history, a vast community that had been militarily and politically allied with the West was transmuted into the ideological foe of everything the free world stands for. With the surprise intervention by Red China in Korea, a new alignment of world powers was confirmed and the bamboo curtain had been fastened down securely.

If the people of China were inadequately known in the years before the Red Revolution, all free intercourse between East and West was now interrupted completely. Chinese life could be described only by released westerners who had viewed it through prison bars, or it had to be interpreted from the incredibly distorted releases of the communist propaganda bureaus.

Suddenly, in 1956, China offered to open its doors to western reporters wishing to come and see what was really happening in their country. In the spring of 1957, William Kinmond, Staff Reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail, entered Red China with assurances that he might travel where he wished and report what he liked—or disliked. This is his report on China at this moment in history.