Edgar Snow and the Construction of the International Image of the CPC During the Yan’an Period: Special Investigation Based on Edgar Snow’s Archives

Abstract

As the first foreign journalist to interview the revolutionary base in northern Shaanxi, Edgar Snow conducted an in-depth interview with Mao Zedong and other leaders of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Taking this opportunity, the CPC, represented by Mao Zedong, gradually conveyed the party’s revolutionary principles and policies to the outside world by expressing revolutionary words to foreign journalists, and initially established the image of the CPC as a revolutionary party.At the same time, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other leaders of the CPC deeply explained the party’s democratic political concept around what democracy is, why democracy should be implemented, and how to achieve democracy, which further promoted the spread of the CPC’s democratic discourse. With Edgar Snow’s publication of a series of newspaper articles overseas and the wide distribution of Red Star Over China, the CPC’s idea of unity and resistance and the concept of democratic politics have been widely spread in the international community, which has strongly promoted the construction of the international image of the CPC.