Mark Twain’s short story “Running for Governor”, published in the literary magazine Galaxy just after the New York gubernatorial election in 1870, takes aim at what Twain saw as hypocrisy of the American electoral process and the dog-eat-dog nature of party politics. Though this satire is little known in the USA, several generations and millions of Chinese have read it. Mark Twain is very popular in China and Running for Governor is one of his best-known works.

That Running for Governor was a critique of the United States written by an American as highly esteemed as Twain is precisely what made it so appealing to the Chinese. Soon after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it was taught in middle schools across China for more than 40 years alongside writings by esteemed Chinese literary figures. Besides young students, Twain’s unaffected satires and consistent willingness to take on what he saw as the pervasive inequality and injustice in his own country endeared him to many people in early 20th-century China, and still to this day. The contrast in Chinese and US governmental systems is evident, so the revolution and adoption of communist rule in China might have made it seem that democratic rule isn’t nearly what it's cracked up to be. It is always somewhat satisfying to know that mighty and prosperous others have their own flaws.

I like Running for Governor every bit as much as the Chinese did back then, and as they still do. That’s why I included it with two other largely obscure Twain stories in the award-winning Twain Illustrated. Published in 2022, Twain Illustrated won the Midwest Independent Publishers Association (MIPA) award for best Short Story Anthology. My wife Anne and I tried to take advantage of one of the promoted benefits of that award by submitting a  read-along version of Running for Governor for posting on YouTube. However, it was never posted, possibly because it might have offended some conservative members of the MIPA organization (you probably know that Twain never in his life set out to ‘not offend’ somebody). I have posted it on this website though, so why not have a view and a listen if you are not afraid. I’m not bragging, but some people have told me it’s pretty good.