Yesterday, I read the biography and report on Edgar Snow and was deeply struck by this American friend who was concerned about the Chinese revolution and China's construction.
Edgar Snow
Edgar Snow (19.07.19.1905 – 1972.2.15) was a well-known American journalist and writer who was born in a home of publishing and printing owners in Kansas City, Missouri, and studied journalism at the University of Missouri. However, he gave up his bachelor's degree and came to Shanghai in 1928, where he served as a reporter and correspondent for several European and American newspapers in China, and had a considerable income. In Shanghai, he became acquainted with Song Qingling and Mr. Lu Xun. Snow once said, "Lu Xun is a key to teaching me to understand China." Later, with the help of Song Qingling and Zhang Xueliang, he and his companion Ma Haide (another American friend) came to Yan'an in June 1936. Here, he wrote a large number of newsletters, interviewed Chairman Mao and other central leaders and SOLDIERs of the People's Liberation Army, learned a lot of materials such as the Long March of the Red Army, and became the first Western reporter to interview the Red Zone.
On the eve of the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Snow completed the writing of "Journey to the West". In October, "Red Star Over China" ("China Under the Red Star", Chinese "Journey to the West") was published in London, England, which caused a great sensation among Chinese and foreign progressive readers, so that more people, especially in Europe and the United States, saw the real red whirlwind and learned about "China under the red flag". Before his work was completed, american newspapers rushed to publish it, but Snow refused to revise his original manuscript, so he handed it over to the British newspaper for publication.
Red Star Over China
He truthfully reported on historical events such as the 12.9 Movement and the Anhui Southern Incident, so he was blacklisted by the Japanese and forced to leave China and return to the United States in 1941. After Snow returned to the United States in 1941, he still publicized China's War of Resistance Against Japan to the American people and the people of the world. He said: "I am still in favor of the cause of China, which fundamentally belongs to the cause of the Chinese people, and I am in favour of any measure that will help the Chinese people to help themselves, because only by adopting this method can they save themselves." ”
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mr. Snow was persecuted by McCarthyism in the United States, his actions were not free, and he was banned, and the newspaper did not dare to publish his reports and book manuscripts. In 1959, he was forced to move with his family to Geneva, Switzerland, but he remained concerned about China's socialist revolution and construction. At this time, his finances were relatively poor, and only one of his two children went to college. In June 1960, he finally came to Beijing and met Mao Zedong and other leaders. Zhou Enlai wrote to say that the Chinese government would pay for his visit to China, but he politely refused. He said he did not want to be told that it was the Chinese government that paid for him to speak for Chinese. During this visit to China, he came to Peking University (when the faculties were reorganized in 1952, Peking University moved to the site of the former Yenching University on the shore of the lake), met with teachers, students and friends of the year, and the visit lasted for 5 months. The book "The Other Side of the Ocean," published in 1963, states: "Once the most important thing was the National Peking University, where the most important founders of the Communist Party were trained, to this day, Peking University is still the place where ambitious art and science students and graduate researchers aspire."
In 1964, Snow visited China again and returned to Yanyuan.
In the fall of 1970, Snow and his wife, Lois Wheeler, came to China again and talked cordially with Mao Zedong on October 1 on the upper floor of Tiananmen Square, who spoke highly of him: "I have not changed, and you have not changed." Subsequently, Snow published articles such as "I Talked to Mao Zedong" and "Zhou Enlai's Conversation". During their stay in Beijing, he and his wife returned to Yanyuan. Lois later recalled: "We stopped at a slightly grayed, pale red pavilion (referring to the mountain gate of Tzu Chi Temple), looking through its vault and gazing at a lake rippling in the sun. Behind us, a few steps up the stone steps, in the slightly elevated area, there was a clearing overgrown with vines, surrounded by pine trees, obscuring our view..."
Invited to tiananmen
On February 15, 1972, two days before President Nixon's visit to China, Snow died of cancer in Geneva, Switzerland. During Nixon's visit to China, no reporter could interview his conversations with Mao Zedong. So Snow's fellow journalists said that if Snow had been there, he would have been able to get Permission from Mao Zedong and get first-hand information about their conversations.
Premier Zhou Enlai greeted U.S. President Richard Nixon at the airport
When Snow was seriously ill, he left a will: "I love China, and I am willing to leave a part of my life there after I die, just like when I was alive..." In accordance with Snow's will and with the consent of the Chinese government, on October 19, 1973, the burial ceremony of part of Snow's ashes was held on the shore of the unnamed lake of Peking University. The base of the tomb is rectangular, uncarved cyan rock, and on the upper side lies a white jade tombstone, temporarily affixed with black tape: "The Tomb of Edgar Snow, the American Friend of the Chinese People." In front of the monument was a wreath sent by Mao Zedong, and the ribbon read: "Dedicated to Mr. Edgar Snow"; Song Qingling, Zhu De, and Zhou Enlai also sent wreaths; and party and state leaders Zhou Enlai, Li Fuchun, Guo Moruo, Deng Yingchao, Liao Chengzhi, Kang Keqing, and representatives of Peking Masters and Students attended the burial ceremony. His wife Lois and his daughter Xian Snow attended the ceremony, thanking the Chinese government and people, saying: "My husband expressed his love for China in his last words, and said that part of his body and mind were always in China during his lifetime, and hoped that after his death, part of his body would also be placed under the ancient land of New China, placed among the new chinese, where respect for mankind reached a new height, and here, the hope of the world shines with new light." ”
Another part of Snow's ashes are buried in the garden of a friend's house on the banks of the Hudson River in the United States.
On December 13, 1977, Comrade Ye Jianying personally inscribed the name of the inscription on Snow's tomb: "The Tomb of Edgar Snow, the American Friend of the Chinese People", which was later engraved on the tombstone by distilled gold.
Edgar Snow's tombstone
In order to commemorate Edgar Snow, a close friend of the Chinese people, china's former Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued a set of 3 commemorative stamps entitled "Friends of the Chinese People" on June 25, 1985, of which the third stamp of 80 cents was Edgar Snow.
Edgar Snow Commemorative Stamps
The image of Edgar Snow on the stamp design, the gaze and thoughtful gaze, and the closed lips not only show his decisive, capable and insightful character, but also reveal the dedication of a journalist to the truth, worthy of the respect of Chinese people.
On September 14, 2009, he was named one of the 100 heroic models who made outstanding contributions to the founding of New China.