BEIJING: Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China triggered a China craze in Europe and the United States. Many Western journalists dreamed about going to China, a country under “red star”. Harrison Forman, an American explorer, photographer and war correspondent, was one of them. After his many visits to China, he penned the book Report from Red China, which is often seen as a companion piece to Red Star Over China. In his book, Forman provided a factual account of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression.
In 1937, on the eve of the July 7th Incident, Forman came to the Soviet Area in northern Shaanxi for the first time to interview the Red Army, which was preparing to march to the front line to fight against Japanese aggression. After his meetings with Peng Dehuai, He Long and other Red Army generals, Forman expressed his appreciation for the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s policy of cooperation with the Kuomintang (KMT) and the establishment of a national united front against Japanese aggression. He was also full of admiration for the people’s anti-Japanese armed forces led by the CPC. A red seed was quietly planted in his heart. In 1940, Forman came back to China as a correspondent of The New York Times, The Times and BBC. As a veteran journalist, simply listening to air-raid sirens and writing superficial reports in Chongqing were not enough for Forman.
Driven by his journalistic ethics, Forman was eager to go to Yan’an, which was under military blockade, and to find answers to the many baffling questions that had been lingering on his mind: What was it like in the blocked area? Was it true that the CPC was, as the KMT government portrayed, treacherous and refused to resist Japanese aggression? How did the CPC survive the blockade of both the Japanese and KMT armies? Forman couldn’t wait to find out the truth and report it to the world.– Agencies
