Fudan University officials believe they have discovered -- on the dusty shelves of the university library -- the first Chinese-language translation of the earliest English-language autobiography of the late Mao Zedong when he was leading the Red Army in Shaanxi Province.

The autobiography was an "as told to" account that was written 64 years ago by the late Edgar Snow, the American journalist whom Mao credited with bringing him and his movement to the attention of the world. Snow, who later wrote the classic Red Star Over China, journeyed through battlefields to interview Mao at his Shaanxi headquarters.

"We are glad to have found the four issues of the Chinese-language magazine, Digest, which carried the autobiography," said Fudan librarian Qin Zengfu. "The Digest was then affiliated with Fudan University."

Fudan librarians and scholars began searching for the four issues of the Digest -- August through November 1937 -- that carried the autobiography after one of the issues, the September edition, was found in Shaanxi Province five months ago.

"We discovered the four issues of the Digest among the library's old files in mid-September," Qin said.

The Digest's translations are based on what Snow wrote for Asia, the New York-based magazine that focused on events and newsmakers in the Far East. Mao's autobiography appeared in four installments in the July through October 1937 issues.

Asia's editors promoted Snow's work as "one of the most extraordinary documents of modern times," telling "with the greatest candor" Mao's experiences and "the events which influenced him toward liberalism and, later, communism, and the building of the Red Army."

Qin said the editors of Fudan Liming Press realized the significance of Snow's piece and had Snow's work translated into Chinese for the Digest. They also had connections to the Chinese Communist Party, he said.

Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the Party was an underground organization.

Qin said Snow's Red Star Over China, also published in 1937 in the West, has several chapters based on the Mao autobiography that first appeared in Asia magazine. So the autobiography has historic significance, Qin added.

Red Star Over China has long been required reading in courses related to China at many universities in the United States.

(Eastday.com 10/10/2001)