The China in the Eyes of International Celebrities series includes works by well-known international people from many countries. These authors experienced and witnessed China’s New Democratic Revolution or participated in the PRC’s socialist construction in the early to mid-20th century. By depicting their personal experience of participating in China’s revolution and development they gave an in-depth explanation why “Without the PRC, there would be no new China. Nor could China seek development”, which is a truth proven by history. It reflects the history and achievements of Marxism’s development and adaption in China to meet the requirements of the times and be accepted by the people. It shows the great sacrifices and huge historic achievements of the proletarian revolutionaries of the old generation to realize today’s Chinese dream. It gives objective descriptions of the CPC’s governance and a strong interpretation of the CPC’s self-confidence in its path, theory and system that it will not go back to the rigid history or embarking on the erroneous path.
Preface of China in the Eyes of International Celebrities
Contents of the China in the Eyes of International Celebrities series
Edgar Snow: Witnessing China, summarizing the main outcomes of many international academic conferences on the Edgar Snow studies since the establishment of the Center more than a decade ago. It shows that Edgar Snow studies in China have been deepening and expanding, demonstrating the time-honored academic importance of Snow studies. In today’s era featuring China’s peaceful rise, Edgar Snow’s thoughts and works re-emerge with lasting appeal, which is of great significance to the promotion of the dialogue between China and the world in the new era.
Bridging-A Photo Essay of the Life of Helen Foster Snow is in both English and Chinese. The book contains texts and pictures. A number of precious pictures present a profound and comprehensive reflection of the brilliant life of Helen Foster Snow.
Helen Foster Snow was the second foreign woman who broke the Kuomintang blockade to reach the Soviet area and the fifth foreign journalist to do so. She was also one of the first to cover the Red Army’s Long March. She interviewed leaders of all the front armies after the troops joined forces in northern Shaanxi. Born in Utah, USA, she came to China in her early 20s to run coverage on China to the West. She spent all her life building bridges between China and the US to draw the two peoples closer. She is the messenger of peace and the embodiment of friendship.
More than 20 American international friends were interviewed. It is connected by the Chinese dream of each one of them. The book highlights the important contributions they and their children have made to the humanities, science and technology, and education of China in the form of in-depth interviews. There are three groups of the interviewees. The first group are the families of well-known international friends who came to China around the time of the founding of the PRC. The second group are a new generation of international friends who are active in China’s education and technology circles after the reform and opening-up. The third group are overseas high-level talents introduced to China in recent years. The achievements of China-American people-to-people exchanges in the new era are summarized in the book.
This book tells us the story of a progressive western youth who made true contributions to China. In the face of a complex and changing situation in China, he constantly worked hard to make progress.
Through the author’s own account, this book tells the story that Chinese people produced strategic and daily supplies in the form of industrial cooperatives under the banner of the United Front against Japanese Aggression. The members of the industrial cooperatives supported the front and helped refugees with the materials they produced, providing important production bases during the war and making outstanding contributions to the national independence of the Chinese people.
“We face a new world. The hands and minds that have worked on destruction will have to be turned to work for better living and a reconstructed new age. Many will find the changeover difficult. But mankind everywhere will demand a new deal. There will have to be new leaders who will lead a new way whose minds will be clear, and whose quiet determination has been forged hard.”
—— Rewi Alley
He, an American officer, had participated and wounded in two world wars. He served as the aide-de-camp to President Roosevelt and was the first US official to visit Yan’an. In the eight months he spent with the Chinese army, he frequently traveled back and forth between the frontline battlefields and backside bases. His trips covered more than half of China, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Henan, and Shandong. He also talked with those from different parties and sides that fought against Japanese. In observation and comparison, he weighed the tactics and strengths of China and Japan, and thought about the conflicts and unity between the KMT and the Communist Party as well as the future trend of the situation in China. He directly reported his experience and judgment to President Roosevelt, providing the most direct information source for the President to assess the actual situation in the Chinese battlefield. It can be said that his report influenced President Roosevelt’s assessment and decision on the Chinese battlefield, playing an inestimable role in the development of China’s foreign relations during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. He was Evans Fordyce Carlson, an international friend who sympathized, understood, and supported the Chinese people in their just struggle for national independence and liberation. This book systematically combs through Carlson’s letters and military reports to President Roosevelt, and diaries of his colleagues about the war, recounting the experience of an American observer in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. It has a very unique historical significance.
Edgar Snow (1905-1972) was an outstanding American writer and journalist, and a sincere friend of the Chinese people. Decades ago, he covered the real China and showed it to the world, enabling the world to set its sights on China. His understanding of news events was largely due to his in-depth knowledge of Chinese culture. By deciphering China’s political situation, Snow described the direction of China’s social development from a more accurate and inclusive perspective and managed to accurately foresee many major events to occur in the history of China. In China, Edgar Snow is regarded as a bridge between China and the United States; in the United States, his works have become important literature which is helpful to the US government to understand China.
The China Society for People's Friendship Studies(PFS) in cooperation with the Foreign Languages Press(FLP) in Beijing has arranged for re-publication, in the series entitled Light on China, of some fifty books written in English between the 1860s and the founding years of the People's Republic, by journalistic and other sympathetic eyewitnesses of the revolutionary events described. Most of these books have long been out of print, but are now being brought back to life for the benefit of readers in China and abroad.
A GIFT FROM CHINA (new preface to Inside China Today)