Red Star Over China

"Red Star Over China", a book by Edgar Snow, is an account of the Communist Party of China written when they were a guerrilla army still obscure to Westerners. Along with Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth", it was the most influential book on Western understanding and sympathy for China in the 1930s. [Harold Isaacs, Scratches on Our Minds, (New York: John Day, 1958; rpr. White Plains, 1989): 155 n. 71, 162-163.]

Overview

In "Red Star Over China", Edgar Snow recounts the months that he spent with the Chinese Red Army in the summer and fall of 1936. Snow uses his extensive interviews with Mao and the other top leaders to present vivid descriptions of the Long March, as well as biographical accounts of leaders on both sides of the conflicts, including Zhou Enlai, Peng Dehuai, Lin Biao, and Mao Zedong's own account of his life.

When Snow wrote, there were no reliable reports of what was going on in the Communist-controlled areas. Snow's status as an international journalist not previously identified with the communist movement gave his reports the stamp of authenticity. The glowing pictures of life in the communist areas contrasted with the gloom and corruption of the Nationalist government. Many Chinese learned about Mao and the communist movement from the almost immediate translations of Mao's autobiography, and readers in North America and Europe, especially those with liberal views, were heartened to learn of a movement which they interpreted as being anti-Fascist and progressive. Snow reported clearly Mao's new United Front policy which left violent class struggle behind.

Although Snow made clear that Mao's ultimate aim was control of China, many readers got the impression that the Chinese communists were "agrarian reformers."

Snow's Preface to the revised edition of 1968 describes the book's original context:

The Western powers, in self-interest, were hoping for a miracle in China. They dreamed of a new birth of nationalism that would keep Japan so bogged down that she would never be able to turn upon the Western colonies—her true objective. "Red Star Over China" tended to show that the Chinese Communists could indeed provide that "nationalist" leadership needed for effective anti-Japanese resistance. How dramatically the United States' policy-making attitudes have altered since then […]

It provided not only for non-Chinese readers, but also for the entire Chinese people—including all but the Communist leaders themselves—the first authentic account of the Chinese Communist Party and the first connected story of their long struggle to carry through the most thoroughgoing social revolution in China's three millenniums of history. Many editions were published in China … [ "Red Star Over China", Preface to the Revised Edition 1968 ISBN 0802150934.)]

Publishing history

Snow was not available to read proofs of the initial London and New York editions, but he revised the text of the 1939 and 1944 editions. The Publisher's Note of the 1939 edition explains that Snow added a "substantial new section" of six chapters bringing the narrative up to July 1938 as well as "many textual changes." Snow made the textual changes partly to polish but he also responded to friends and reviewers. Some of them felt Snow's account of party history had been too critical of Soviet policy, and others felt that he had given too much credit to Mao for independent Chinese strategies. Snow toned down but did not remove the implicit criticisms of Stalin. [Snow's revisions are listed in Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes K. M. Anderson, "The Soviet World of American Communism" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) pp. 347-341.] The 1944 edition was allowed to go out of print in the 1950s, but Snow made substantial revisions and annotations for the Grove Press reprint of 1968. [ S.B. Thomas devotes a chapter to the reception of the book in various quarters and these revisions. Ch 10 "The Strange Life of a Classic," "Season of High Adventure,"pp. 169- 189. ]

Edgar Snow, "Red Star over China" London: Left Book Club, Victor Gollancz, 1937; this edition reprinted as "Red Star Over China - The Rise Of The Red Army". (2006; ISBN 1-4067-9821-5).

--, (New York: Random House, 1938). Some changes from the London edition.

--, (Garden City, 1939) "Revised," with six extra chapters.

--, (New York: Modern Library, 1944).

--, (New York: Grove, 1968) Extensive revisions, with notes and annotations added.

Assessments and criticisms

The book has been called the "scoop of the century" [ A journalistic scoop in 1937, this book has since become a historical classic. [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19970901fabook3656/edgar-snow/red-star-over-china.html Review in Foreign Affairs.] ; [http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=58826 Snow, White & Seven China Revolution Classics] "] and it clearly played a role in swaying Western and Chinese opinion in favor of Mao. Indeed, Mao commented that the book "had merit no less than Great Yu controlling the floods." Snow probably believed what he was told to be true, and much of it is still of basic significance, especially the so-called "Autobiography of Mao." But Mao omitted key elements from his accounts of party history and Snow missed others. [Jung, Chang; Halliday, Jon, 2006. "". Random House, London. ISBN 0-224-07126-2, p. 192 ] . Recent scholarship also demonstrates that Snow submitted the transcripts of his interviews to be edited and approved by Party officials and critics charge that changes in the American edition were made in response to the Communist Party of the United States. [ Anne-Marie Brady, "Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People's Republic" (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003).] . The account of the Long March has come under particular criticism, only to have others reassert its basic validity. [Shuyun Sun, "The Long March : The True Story of China's Founding Myth" (New York: Doubleday, 2007). Andrew McEwen Ed Jocelyn, "The Long March: The True Story Behind the Legendary Journey That Made Mao's China" ( [London] : Constable & Robinson, 2006). ] But perhaps the most important role the book plays today is to recapture the spirit of revolutionary enthusiasm which Snow saw and reported.

See also

* Jack Belden
* Norman Bethune
* Dwarkanath Kotnis

External links

*Snow's 4-chapter biography of Mao can be found here [http://www.humanrights-china.org/meetingchina/Meeti2002114155129.htm] and here [http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/faq/bionotes.html] .
* [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/22/content_713979.htm Behind "Red Star over China"] (2006 account from "China Daily")
*There has also been a Chinese screen adaptation [http://english.people.com.cn/english/200010/10/eng20001010_52224.html] , which was however rejected by Edgar Snow's widow [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/55/418.html] .
* [http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv2n2/dimitrov.htm Georgi Dimitrov and the Chinese Revolution]

References

* Anne-Marie Brady, "Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People's Republic" (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003).

* S. Bernard Thomas, "Season of High Adventure: Edgar Snow in China" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).