Ishikawa Yoshihiro (石川 禎浩) is a Japanese historian of the Chinese Communist Party, modern Chinese thought and politics, and Sino-Japanese exchanges. He is a professor at the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University.
An overview of the pivotal 1919 to 1921 period which led to the founding of the CCP, Ishikawa Yoshihiro's book is a short but pleasant and informative read that sheds light on the international aspects of the CCP's foundations and early organizational networks which comprised. There are a few important points which those familiar with the CCP's history will find interesting: the pivotal role of not only Japanese publications, but also direct contact with the Japanese socialist movement in moving Li Dazhao to Marxism, the initial importation of Leninism from American and British Marxist publications, various Soviet figures before Voitinsky and Maring's arrivals, the "other" CCP of Huang Jiemin and Yao Zuobin which was not recognized by the Comintern, the disproving of the "Li in the North, Chen in the South" historical thesis that is officially embraced by the CCP as a method of indigenizing Marxism to the nation, and a decent biography of the early life of Shi Cuntong until 1922.
A good starter for getting to understand the initial formation of the Chinese Communist Party; The most impressive insights are probably the lack of theoretical understanding that its members had, the shortsightedness of its radicalism and the fact that the whole movement is not, for the most part, driven by the bleak idealism of these angry youths. You could, after seeing how ridiculous this period in history had been, predict the rise and dominance of the old-school, brutal factional struggle within the party that persisted till today.
Historian Ishikawa Yoshihiro's "The Formation of the Chinese Communist Party" is the monumental book (520 pages) on the history of Chinese Communist Party. Japanese Historian Professor Ishikawa Yoshihiro describes the conditions of formation of Chinese Communist Party in the different stages, at the beginning, the developed stages - the China Revolution 1949, after-, then a long term ruling power - the Chinese Communist Party's governing China. Now, the age of questioning near history in the world, Japanese Professor Ishikawa Yoshihiro's "The Formation of the Chinese Communist Party" can be very useful.