Two editions of Red Star over China, published in 1938 and 2018.
Edgar Snow (1905–1972) was a well-known American writer and journalist. In 1928, this adventurous young man came to China and started traveling for interviewing and reporting. In 1936, he arrived at the Northern Shaanxi Soviet Area for a visit. With his sympathy for Chinese people and relentless pursuit of the truth, Snow gradually deepened his understanding and recognition of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the course of his journalism career. His magnum opus Red Star over China caused a great sensation among Chinese and foreign readers. Since then, he had made unremitting efforts throughout his life to tell stories of the CPC to the world and cement the friendship between Chinese and Americans. People cannot help but ask what charm of the CPC had captured this American journalist's heart. Let us turn to history, the best "textbook" of mankind, for an answer.
STARTING THE JOURNEY OF AWAKENING
On July 19, 1905, Snow was born in Kansas City, Missouri. In his teenage years, bored with the dull classroom teachings, he actively took part in all kinds of extracurricular activities. He loved reading and playing musical instruments, and at the age of 14, he began making long trips to the West Coast of the United States. In 1928, 23-year-old Snow decided to spend a year traveling the world. He got a chance as a deckhand on the commercial vessel Rlandraud bounded for the Far East. After brief stopovers in Hawaii and Japan, he headed to China with a burning desire to discover the "charm of the East."
Snow had intended to stay in China for only six weeks, but ended up staying for as long as 13 years. He arrived in Shanghai in July 1928, where he accepted a job offer from John Bill Powell, the then editor of Millard's Review (later renamed The China Weekly Review). He participated in editing the special issue of New China. He buried himself in numerous oriental books and materials for this position, acquiring a preliminary understanding of China. At that time, China had been struggling in intense turmoil. After the vigorous Great Revolution (1927–1928) failed, the Chiang Kai-shek clique launched waves of arrests and massacres of the CPC members and the revolutionary masses, and ruled in an autocratic way. Undeterred, the Chinese communists led workers and peasants to fight against the Kuomintang (KMT)'s reactionary rule. Snow had originally, influenced by Powell, believed that Chiang Kai-shek stood on the side of morality, aspiring to save China from the "mobs," but soon what really happened changed his mind.
Snow embarked on a tour of mainland China to prepare for his reporting. In June 1929, he went northward along the railway line and inspected Salaqi (now the location of Tumed Right Banner in Inner Mongolia), Baotou and Guisui (now Hohhot). During his visit, the area was suffering from a severe drought, and Snow saw for himself the tragic scene of fields littered with dead bodies of the starved. "I witnessed tens of thousands of children die from a famine which eventually claimed more than five million people's lives," he wrote, "it was as bleak and lifeless all the way as if a volcano had just erupted. Even tree barks were stripped off for staying people's stomachs. Most of the mud-brick houses in the villages collapsed, and the few timbers that remained were torn down and sold for several coppers. The dying men sat or lay motionlessly on their doorsteps here and there. I saw a skinny, naked child, and his stomach was bloated like a balloon from eating leaves and sawdust to satisfy his hunger ..." Snow took a large number of photos of the disaster-hit area. He published them in reports to appeal to the public and urged all parties to offer help. These efforts proved to be of no avail. The Chiang Kai-shek regime, instead of providing disaster relief, used the famine as an effective weapon to force the northwestern warlords to surrender. Seeing so many people dying in this famine, Snow deeply sympathized with the Chinese people in distress. This experience became a starting point of awakening in his life.