60th Anniversary of Death of Agnes Smedley Commemorated

Today’s news is tomorrow’s history. Journalists who record news day after day often become writers with deep insight. American journalist Agnes Smedley was one of these shining examples.

In the 20th century, turbulent China was the focus of the world attention, attracting a large number of foreign journalists. Some forged indissoluble links with the country. Their works not only spread all over the world, influencing public opinion and having much impact on the course of Chinese history. Edgar Snow, Anna Louise Strong, Agnes Smedley were among many such figures making an important contribution. Their reportage not only helped people around the world have a clear understanding of a real, inspiring and courageously advancing China, but also supported the resolve of a generation of Chinese to embark on the road of revolution. I am one of them. I think that many contemporaries have the same experience and even some foreigners. Today, when we look back the development of that period of history, we are sure that these people’s meritorious deeds will never be obliterated.

Agnes Smedley came to China in 1928. As a correspondent of the German Frankfurter Zeitung, she came to investigate a country torn apart by warlords and corruption. Later, she served as resident correspondent of Britain’s respected Manchester Guardian.In 1941 she returned to the United States because of illness. In her far-too-short 58-year lifetime, this American woman born of a poor family dedicated herself to revolution including 12 years in China.

She witnessed the brutal rule of the Kuomintang, the warlords’ extorting taxes ruthlessly and the feudal oppression gripping rural China. She was the first foreign journalist and writer to write about the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, the Chinese Soviet Republic and the leaders of the Communist Party of China ― even before Edgar Snow. As early as 1934 her book China’s Red Army Marches was published in Moscow.

During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Smedley, invariably wearing military uniform, shared all the hardships and fought together first with the Eighth Route Army led by Zhu De and Peng Dehuai on the battlefields of North China, and then with the New Fourth Army led by Ye Ting in Central and Eastern China. In this connection, she wrote two famous books of reportage Battle Hymn of China and China Fights Back.

In her most famous book The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh, she had already extended her vision of China’s history back to the Revolution of 1911 and the May 4th Movement. Her book Chinese Destinies revealed more of her great insight and thought about the changing Chinese society.

Her increasingly deep analysis of China in her books became inseparable from her efforts to tap into Chinese society and people. Lu Xun, Ding Ling, Zhou Libo…were all close friends. Their deep insight naturally became the nutrient and valuable historical sources for her works. Smedley once said, she often “forgot she was not a Chinese”. From this, we can see that she devoted herself unsparingly to the Chinese people’s revolutionary cause. In the headquarters of the New Fourth Army in 1934, a British correspondent Jack Belden with the book War and Peace by Lev Tolstoy in his hand asked Smedley: Who is able to write a Chinese War and Peace? She answered: “Only the Chinese who personally fight all through the War of Resistance against Japan are able to write such a monumental book.” Smedley regarded her own works as only records kept by an observer; but, Chinese writer Meng Qingzai said that, in terms of both historical and literary value, her writings well deserved the honor of being listed as China’s War and Peace, providing stronger emotional impact and richer intellectual contemplation particularly to the Chinese people than Tolstoy’s War and Peace.”

In 1950, on her way to China via Britain, she unfortunately died of illness. To comply with her will, her ashes were buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing.

She had written: “As my heart and spirit have found no rest in any other land on earth except China, I wish my ashes to lie with the Chinese revolutionary dead.”

Zhu De wrote the inscription: “The Tomb of the Chinese People’s Friend and American Revolutionary Writer Agnes Smedley” engraved on her tombstone and attended the ceremony to bury her ashes. The tombstone was erected by the China Federation of Literature and Art Circles. Personal items she especially left to China including her camera and typewriter have become precious historical relics in the Museum of Chinese Revolution.

Today, when commemorating the 60th anniversary of the death of Comrade Smedley, we can feel it a great relief to tell her: “your last wish has become a reality. Around you lie the Chinese revolutionary martyrs, and not far from you lies your old friend Ren Bishi. Very often Chinese or foreigners are seen to stand in front of your tomb to pay solemn tribute to you.”

We, in particular, wish to tell you that earthshaking changes have taken place in your beloved China. China has now ascended to the ranks of a world power. The independent Chinese people are fighting shoulder to shoulder with the people around the world for world peace. This might be the happy news you would like to hear. Agnes Smedley, so, you can rest in peace.

(May 5, 2010)

The author is former first deputy editor-in-chief of China Today.