Edgar Snow’s ‘Scoop of the Century’ and its Lasting Impact
on US-China Relations

Diastole Scholars’ Center is partnering with the UMKC Libraries for an exhibit exploring Edgar Snow’s life and legacy, and 80 years of U.S. – China relations. The exhibit opens June 6 and runs through July.

The exhibit is entitled “Red Star Over China 80 Years Later: Edgar Snow’s ‘Scoop of the Century’ and its Lasting Impact on U.S. – China Relations.” An opening reception begins at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 6 at UMKC Miller Nichols Library, Fourth Floor, Dean’s Gallery, 800 E. 51^st. St., Kansas City, Mo. The opening reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. Please RSVP for the opening reception by email or phone to the Diastole Scholars’ Center, diastole@umkc.edu; 816-235-8855.

A Kansas City native, Edgar Snow spent much of the 1930s traveling across China. In 1936, he became the first western journalist to visit the revolutionary army’s stronghold in the western hills of Shaanxi Province. In the town of Baoan and the caves of Yanan, Snow spent five months interviewing Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese Communist leaders, while he observed the Red Army in action and saw how guerrilla forces lived among the people.

Snow’s classic account of the revolutionary movement that founded the People’s Republic of China, Red Star Over China, made him world famous. At the time, there was little exchange between the U.S. and China. Snow’s watershed book helped Americans overcome much of the distrust and fear they felt by introducing the men and women of the Chinese Communist Party through the eyes of an American journalist.  His work inspired many other Americans to look at China from the inside and to promote greater mutual understanding.

Now 80 years later, we explore the legacy of Snow’s work and the development of trade, diplomacy and cultural exchanges between the U.S. and China. More information about Edgar Snow’s Life and Legacy is available via LaBudde Special Collections at UMKC.