New Books Unravel Madame Soong's Friendship with Snow, Smedley

Scholars and publishers discussed two new books about Soong Ching Ling's friendship with Edgar Snow and Agnes Smedley at a seminar in Shanghai on October 16.

The two titles, authored by Wang Zhicheng and Xu Fenghua, were published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. They are new additions to the book series titled "Soong Ching Ling and International Friends," which already features works on Rewi Alley (2019) and Shafick George Hatem (2023).

"Their stories with Soong Ching Ling reflect the best of human nature, the yearning for peace on the part of the Chinese people and all peace-loving people in the world, and their friendship with the Chinese people will forever shine in human development," said Xue Chao, president of the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Study Association, which started and supported the series.

On Madame Soong's advice, 31-year-old Snow ventured into a forbidden area in northwest China's Loess Plateau in 1936 and penned "Red Star Over China," an insightful portrayal of the revolutionary movement that the world was largely unaware of. The book swept the West. The first Chinese version appeared in Shanghai in 1938.

"This great work, for the first time, allowed the world to see the pivotal role of the main East theater in the global anti-fascist war and the role of the Communist Party of China in the war. It galvanized the country's youth to flock to Yan'an to participate in the fight," he said.

After the founding of New China in 1949, Snow and Soong met multiple times in China, with Snow helping normalize diplomatic relations between China and the US until his 1972 death at 67.

Yang Jiemian, former president of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) and director of the SIIS Academic Committee, spoke about the need to continue collecting memories and protecting Shanghai's relics and sites, including Madame Soong's, and to work on the files and produce more books, movies, documentaries and video projects.

Yang noted that the Chinese and American people began direct trade through the "Empress of China," and their friendship was "tempered in the anti-fascist war and deepened in the past decades of cooperation and communications."

"The current difficulties are temporary. Nevertheless, these difficulties will not automatically go away. On the contrary, they need our people, as well as our governments, to make great efforts to bring China-US relations back to the right track," he added.