Spirit of Long March remembered at Edgar Snow memorial

“There was no firewood; they were obliged to eat their green wheat and vegetables raw. There weren’t even any trees for shelter, and the lightly-equipped Red Army carried no tents.”

“It is impossible to deny recognition of their Long March – the Ch’ang Cheng as they call it – as one of the great exploits of military history.”

Excerpts from a book by American journalist Edgar Snow describing the Long March, the epic journey of Communist soldiers in a military retreat from 1934 to 1936, were recited at the 17th Edgar Snow Symposium in Beijing on Oct. 11. The event also marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army’s Long March, and the 80th anniversary of Snow’s historic interview with Chairman Mao Zedong, based on which Snow produced the first account of the early history of Communism in China, “Red Star over China.”

Attendees of the event include Scott Wagner, Mayor Pro Tem of Kansas, where Snow was born; representatives from the Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation of Missouri University; and additional representatives from the University of Kansas, the China Society for People’s Friendship Studies and the Center for Edgar Snow Studies of Peking University.

During the Long March, the Red Army traversed more than 12,500 kilometers over the course of 380 days to evade the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. Departing from eastern China’s Jiangxi province, the soldiers’ route wound through some of the most difficult terrain in China – first to the west, and then north to Shaanxi. By the end of the Long March, only about one-tenth of the original force that had left Jiangxi survived. Just 8,000 soldiers marched into the final camp.

In 1937, Edgar Snow, who was reporting on China for American newspapers and magazines, published “Red Star over China.” It was in this book that he introduced the Long March to Western readers for the first time.

“The statistical recapitulation of the Long March is impressive. Altogether the Reds crossed 18 mountain ranges, five of which were perennially snow-capped, and they crossed 24 rivers. They passed through 12 different provinces, occupied 62 cities, and broke through enveloping armies of ten different provincial warlords,” Snow wrote in his book, hailing the event a “military miracle” and “a spirited march of victory.”

“Snow’s reports about the Long March by the Red Army, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), showed the world the bravery and endurance of the army, and the greatness of the party personnel that survived [the Long March],” said Ding Xiaoping, a member of the China Society for People’s Friendship Studies and an editor at PLA publishing house.

“The international influence [of Snow’s book] was to introduce North American and Western European audiences to the Chinese Communist Party and its leaders,” explained John James Kennedy from the University of Kansas.