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2026.09.17 22:30 GMT+8

American writer Edgar Snow reveals truth about Red Army's Long March

Updated 2026.09.17 22:30 GMT+8
CGTN

An original edition of Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China and its Chinese edition, on display at the Museum of the Communist Party of China, Beijing, April 9, 2026. /CFP

Edgar Snow, author of Red Star Over China, visits the revolutionary base area of northern Shaanxi, China, 1936. /CFP

Edgar Snow interviews Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China, in Yan'an, 1939. /CFP

A bronze bust of Edgar Snow – unveiled in 2016, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his first visit to Yan’an – at Yan'an Red Star Garden International Cultural Exchange Park, Shaanxi Province, September 15, 2026. /CGTN's Wu Yan

A portion of Edgar Snow's ashes is interred by Weiming Lake at Peking University in Beijing in 1973. /CFP

Visitors view historical materials related to Edgar Snow during the special exhibition "International Friends and the Chineses People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression" at the National Museum of China, Beijing, September 9, 2025. /CFP

The American writer and journalist Edgar Snow arrived at Yenching University in Beijing in 1934, having been invited to teach there by its president, John Leighton Stuart. Two years later, with the assistance of patriotic democrat Soong Ching-ling, Snow visited northern Shaanxi.

Drawing on firsthand observations and interviews conducted in the revolutionary base areas led by the Communist Party, he wrote the book Red Star Over China. Through this work, he provided the world with a comprehensive account of the Red Army's Long March and the reality of the tenacious resistance against Japan waged by the military and civilians in the base areas, offering an objective portrayal of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Red Army. Published in London in October 1937, the book was an international sensation; over 100,000 copies were sold within weeks, multiple reprints were ordered and it was subsequently translated into nearly 20 languages, including French, German, Russian, Italian and Spanish.

Inspired by Snow, many people from overseas flocked to Yan'an. Snow returned to Yan'an in 1939 and interviewed the Party leader Mao Zedong. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he visited the country three times between 1960 and 1970. After Snow passed away in 1972, a portion of his ashes was interred by Weiming Lake at Peking University in Beijing, in accordance with his will. The monument bears an inscription by Marshal Ye Jianying: "In Memory of Edgar Snow, an American Friend of the Chinese People."

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