Until the present day, Mao Zedong's biography has been the subject of an international mountain of commentary in China and elsewhere. Biographies praising Mao and those slandering him are all based on the American journalist Edgar Snow's (1905–1972) account in Red Star over China for the route Mao traveled from early childhood through his youth.

How the "Red Star" Rose introduces the image of Mao and the biographical information made known to the world through the publication of Red Star, and with its publication the circumstances which they fundamentally undermined. There is no reason that Mao Zedong the person himself would completely change by virtue of the publication of Red Star. However, the external image surrounding him did completely change from before.

Ishikawa uses Mao Zedong as raw material to examine from whence and how ordinary historical information and images which we habitually use unconsciously come into being. He desires to help readers to reconsider the historicity of the generation of not only Mao's image but of that of "historical materials."

This book also examines the situation prevailing after the collection of data and publication of Red Star which played the definitive role in generating Mao's image and will investigate the various editions of Red Star in English, Chinese, Russian, and Japanese.