Scholars from China and the US held a symposium in Beijing on Wednesday to commemorate the historical interview between Mao Zedong and Edgar Snow, an American journalist and author of Red Star over China, during the Long March of the Red Army, highlighting the contribution made by foreigners to introduce real China to the world during the difficult years.

The Long March, a feat of astonishing endurance by the Red Army, did not only pave the way for the founding of the People's Republic of China, but can serve to inspire people everywhere to surmount hardship and difficulties, said Chinese and US scholars. 

"Snow put a human face to the Communist Party of China (CPC) and introduced the CPC leadership to international and Chinese readers," John James Kennedy, a political science associate professor at the University of Kansas, said at the 17th biennial Edgar Snow Symposium held in Beijing University on Tuesday and Wednesday. He said during his presentation that Snow brought American and Chinese people closer and enhanced mutual understanding.

Born in 1905 in Kansas City, Missouri, Snow was known for his books and articles on the CPC and the Chinese Communist revolution in the 1930s.

"Through the great and honest works by writers like Edgar Snow and American journalist Harrison Salisbury, the world is paying more respect to the Chinese people who endured through missions that seemed impossible," said Zhang Yuanyuan, a Chinese diplomat who accompanied Salisbury as his translator to re-enact the Red Army's Long March from 1984 to 1985 and did the translation for Salisbury's landmark work The Long March: The Untold Story (1985).

The victory of the Red Army, which gained high praise from foreigners like Snow and Salisbury, inspired people all over the world after their books were translated into different languages, Zhang said.

Recently, some people have attempted to undermine the historical facts of military feats of bravery, claims that have been strenuously denied by scholars and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily.

Zhang called on people not to follow historical nihilism. "There is no point in Chinese people losing confidence in our paths and ideals."

Kennedy noted that worldwide research and study on the subject will continue and remind both Chinese and foreigners that once they stay committed to a cause, they can get through anything and stay united.

He also pointed out that one of the major breakthroughs in recent years of the studies on the Long March is recognizing women and their importance during the expedition. "It was missing before and we haven't heard enough of, for example, the heroine Cai Chang, who was not one of leaders' wives but accompanied them, and also finished the expedition.

Daring feat

This year is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Red Army's Long Marches. From October 1934 to October 1936, the Red Army, the forerunner of the PLA, carried out daring military maneuvers that laid the foundation for the eventual victory of the CPC. The Red Army marched through raging rivers, snow-bound mountains and arid grasslands as they fought against the Kuomintang to continue their fight against Japanese invaders.

"It was remarkable how the Red Army was able to survive the Long March, in terms of the way they started the Long March from East China's Jiangxi Province and made it all the way to the final victory," Kennedy said.

"The Long March is of great significance to the development of the Party, the Red Army and the county," Kennedy said, explaining that the experience will always remind the Chinese people that they can get through and survive hardship.

Robert E. Gamer, professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told the Global Times on Wednesday that "the Long March also put Mao in charge [of the Party], I don't think many people could dispute that. Then Mao ended up as the effective leader of the People's Republic of China."

"The Red Army's Long March is a great turning point for the Chinese Revolution to go from defeat to victory, which … opened up a bright future for the Party to unite and lead the people to beat the Japanese militaristic aggressors and strive to build a new country," Bao Shixiu, a senior military strategist at the Chinese Academy of Military Science, said at the event.