Editing André Malraux (section)

===Indochina===
[[T. E. Lawrence]], aka "Lawrence of Arabia", has a reputation in France as the man who was supposedly responsible for France's troubles in Syria in the 1920s. An exception was Malraux who regarded Lawrence as a role model, the intellectual-cum-man-of-action and the romantic, enigmatic hero.<ref>Roak, Denis "Malraux and T. E. Lawrence" pages 218-224 from ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 61, No. 2, April 1966 from page 218.</ref> Malraux often admitted to having a "certain fascination" with Lawrence, and it has been suggested that Malraux's sudden decision to abandon the Surrealist literary scene in Paris for adventure in the Far East was prompted by a desire to emulate Lawrence who began his career as an archaeologist in the Ottoman Empire excavating the ruins of the ancient city of [[Carchemish]] in the ''vilayet'' of Aleppo in what is now modern Syria.<ref>Roak, Denis "Malraux and T. E. Lawrence" pages 218-224 from ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 61, No. 2, April 1966 from pages 218-219.</ref> As Lawrence had first made his reputation in the Near East digging up the ruins of an ancient civilization, it was only natural that Malraux should go to the Far East to likewise make his reputation in Asia digging up ancient ruins.<ref>Roak, Denis "Malraux and T. E. Lawrence" pages 218-224 from ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 61, No. 2, April 1966 from page 219.</ref> Lawrence considered himself a writer first and foremost while also presenting himself as a man of action, the ''Nietzschean'' hero who triumphs over both the environment and men through the force of his will, a persona that Malraux consciously imitated.<ref>Roak, Denis "Malraux and T. E. Lawrence" pages 218-224 from ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 61, No. 2, April 1966 from pages 219-220.</ref> Malraux often wrote about Lawrence, whom he described admiringly as a man with a need for "the absolute", for whom no compromises were possible and for whom going all the way was the only way.<ref>Roak, Denis "Malraux and T. E. Lawrence" pages 218-224 from ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 61, No. 2, April 1966 from pages 222-223.</ref> Along the same lines, Malraux argued that Lawrence should not be remembered mainly as a guerrilla leader in the Arab Revolt and the British liaison officer with the Emir Faisal, but rather as a romantic, lyrical writer as writing was Lawrence's first passion, which also described Malraux very well.<ref name="Roak pages 218-224">Roak, Denis "Malraux and T. E. Lawrence" pages 218-224 from ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 61, No. 2, April 1966 from page 223.</ref> Although Malraux courted fame through his novels, poems and essays on art in combination with his adventures and political activism, he was an intensely shy and private man who kept to himself, maintaining a distance between himself and others.<ref name="Langlois 1976 pages 683-687">Langlois, Walter "André Malraux (1901–1976)" pages 683-687 from ''The French Review'', Vol. 50, No. 5, April 1977 page 685.</ref> Malraux's reticence led his first wife Clara to later say she barely knew him during their marriage.<ref name="Langlois 1976 pages 683-687"/>

In 1923, aged 22, Malraux and Clara left for the [[French Protectorate of Cambodia]].<ref>Cate, pp. 53–58</ref> [[Angkor Wat]] is a huge 12th century temple situated in the old capital of the [[Khmer Empire]]. Angkor ([[Yasodharapura]]) was "the world's largest urban settlement" in the 11th and 12th centuries supported by an elaborate network of canals and roads across mainland Southeast Asia before decaying and falling into the jungle.<ref>{{cite news
  | title= Buried Treasure
  | newspaper = The Economist 
  | date=18 June 2015| url = https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21700614-buried-treasure
  | access-date = 25 October 2016}}</ref> The discovery of the ruins of Angkor Wat by Westerners (the Khmers had never fully abandoned the temples of Angkor) in the jungle by the French explorer [[Henri Mouhot]] in 1861 had given Cambodia a romantic reputation in France, as the home of the vast, mysterious ruins of the Khmer empire. Upon reaching Cambodia, Malraux, Clara and friend Louis Chevasson undertook an expedition into unexplored areas of the former imperial settlements in search of hidden temples, hoping to find artifacts and items that could be sold to art collectors and museums. At about the same time archaeologists, with the approval of the French government, were removing large numbers of items from Angkor - many of which are now housed in the [[Guimet Museum]] in Paris. On his return, Malraux was arrested and charged by French colonial authorities for removing a ''[[bas-relief]]'' from the exquisite ''[[Banteay Srei]]'' temple. Although he was guilty, his arrest and imprisonment were deemed inappropriate – for the crime was of no consequence. Clara, his wife, started a campaign for his acquittal and a number of notable arts and literary figures signed a petition defending Malraux: among them were [[François Mauriac]], [[André Breton]] and [[André Gide]]. Malraux had his sentence reduced to a year, and then suspended.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-many-lives-of-andre-malraux/|title=The many lives of André Malraux|first=Emilie|last=Bickerton|date=August 26, 2017|website=Apollo, the International Art Magazine}}</ref>

Malraux's experiences in [[French Indochina|Indochina]] led him to become highly critical of the French colonial authorities there. In 1925, with Paul Monin,<ref>Yves Le Jariel, L'ami oublié de Malraux en Indochine, Paul Monin (1890–1929)</ref> a progressive lawyer, he helped to organize the [[Young Annam League]] and founded a newspaper ''[[L'Indochine]]'' to champion Vietnamese independence.<ref>Cate, pp. 86–96</ref> After falling foul of the French authorities, Malraux claimed to have crossed over to China where he was involved with the [[Kuomintang]] and their then allies, the Chinese Communists, in their struggle against the warlords in the Great Northern Expedition before they turned on each other in 1927, which marked the beginning of the Chinese Civil War that was to last on and off until 1949.<ref>Roak, Denis "Malraux and T. E. Lawrence" pages 218-224 from ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 61, No. 2, April 1966 from page 220.</ref> In fact, Malraux did not first visit China until 1931 and he did not see the bloody suppression of the Chinese Communists by the Kuomintang in 1927 first-hand as he often implied that he did, although he did do much reading on the subject.<ref>Xu, Anne Lijing ''The Sublime Writer and the Lure of Action: Malraux, Brecht, and Lu Xun on China and Beyond'', New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2007 page 12.</ref>