Early ‘Red Star Over China’ editions unveiled to mark WWII anniversary

The first Chinese edition of Red Star Over China, an influential book that gave people in the West an understanding of Mao Zedong and the Communist Party, is on display for the first time in Shanghai as China marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The 1937 book was written by American journalist Edgar Snow, the first Westerner to meet Mao and other early party leaders.

In 1936, Snow visited Yanan, the party’s headquarters following the Long March, which had concluded the previous year. He documented the months he spent embedded with the Red Army in the remote hills of northwest Shaanxi province during China’s civil war.

His book featured interviews with Mao as well as Zhou Enlai, who would go on to become the first premier of the People’s Republic of China, army commander Peng Dehuai, and Red Army warriors, guerillas and ordinary people.

He “wrote of unmatched determination to fight the Japanese and described ‘a rocklike solidarity’ among the people of the region led by the Communist Party of China”, state news agency Xinhua said.

Three versions of the book are on display at the Shanghai Mass Art Centre. Photo: Shanghai Observer

At the Shanghai Mass Art Centre, three versions of the book are on display – the original 1937 English edition, the first US edition from January 1938 and the earliest Chinese translation published in March 1938. The exhibition will run until September 21.

South China Morning Post