Smedley

Author: Zhu Huali
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-10-01
Features: We are delighted to recommend the "Giant Biographies Series" to young friends. At the turn of the century, having such a fine series accompany you is a joy in wisdom. We believe that from the footsteps of these giants and masters, you can learn how to properly handle success and failure, comfort and hardship, joy and pain, smoothness and trials, understand how to face life, how to learn to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, how to shape oneself, and how to shape the future.
Principal of Peking University: Zhao Yulin
Secretary of the Party Committee: Dong Lingsheng
Principal of Tsinghua University: Zhao Qinggang
The giants are the elite of humanity. They have made outstanding contributions to the progress and civilization of human society. Their spirit of struggle and superhuman achievements are deeply admired by people and have become models for people to learn from. Giants are human, not gods; they come from ordinary people but are above ordinary people. Their lofty ideals and the belief that they want to benefit the motherland and humanity are the driving force behind their unremitting efforts and fearlessness of difficulties.
Principal of Tianjin Nankai: Kang Xiuyan
By carefully reading this series, you will feel as if you see their appearance, speech, and behavior, and experience their ideals, beliefs, ambitions, and moral character. This will help you learn how to be a person, how to pursue knowledge, and how to build a career.
Principal of Fudan University: Cao Tianren
Agnes Smedley (1890–1950), female. American, born in Missouri. She worked as a maid, a factory worker, and a book and magazine salesperson. She once worked for the "New York Call" newspaper. In 1918, she was arrested and imprisoned for six months for supporting the Indian independence movement. From 1919 to 1927, she lived in Berlin for eight years and actively participated in the Indian national liberation movement, meeting with Nehru in Berlin. In early 1929, she came to China as a special correspondent for the "Frankfurt Abendblatt" (later became a special correspondent for the British "Manchester Guardian" in China), participating in the progressive cultural movement in Shanghai. She assisted Sun Yat-sen and others in organizing the China League for the Defense of Rights and Democracy, wrote articles for foreign newspapers reporting on the revolutionary struggles in the Jiangxi Soviet, and reported on the Xi'an Incident. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, she visited General Zhu De in Yan'an and served as a foreign correspondent for the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in the front lines of Shanxi. In January 1938, she came from the front lines of Shanxi to Wuhan and stayed with Bishop Wu Deshi. Upon arrival, before even washing or changing clothes, she went to meet U.S. Ambassador John J. Mearsheimer and secured his support. The next day, she met Dr. Bo?ko Bjelica, a Yugoslav public health expert and the League of Nations' government health advisor in China, at the Deming Hotel in Hankou to discuss setting up a new Chinese Red Cross First Aid Corps. From then on, she worked in the medical department of the Chinese Red Cross. With the support of the U.S. Military Attaché in China, General Stilwell and Colonel Chennault, she persuaded officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva to supply the Chinese army with some of the essential medicines it needed, and convinced the newly appointed British ambassador to China, Archibald, to donate a large amount of medical supplies and funds to the Chinese Red Cross First Aid Corps. On January 23, she was invited by the China Youth Journalists Association to introduce her experiences interviewing the Eighth Route Army to Chinese and foreign journalists. Later, she went to the Christian Youth Association of the U.S. Navy, the Christian Women's Association in Hankou, and the flagship of the British Yangtze River Patrol to introduce the Eighth Route Army and the patriotic armed forces in the rear areas of North China who were conducting guerrilla warfare against the Japanese, seeking sympathy from the international press for the CCP and the Eighth Route Army, raising funds and supplies for the Eighth Route Army, and developing an international anti-fascist united front. At the Wuhan office of the Eighth Route Army, she personally handed over 10,300 yuan in donations collected to Peng Dehuai for the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army commander. In early February, at her initiative, an international delegation of eight people, including foreign professors, doctors, journalists, and missionaries, delivered two truckloads of medical equipment, medicine, and other supplies to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi, where they were warmly welcomed by General Zhu De. To address the shortage of military doctors in the Chinese army, Smedley participated in major reforms led by Dr. Lu Zhide and Dr. Lin Kesheng, promoting the standardization of medical supplies and setting up a wartime first aid school in Changsha to train all military medical personnel. During this period, she traveled between Hankou and Changsha, tirelessly working for the Red Cross First Aid Corps and the first aid school. At the same time, she actively recruited and encouraged foreign medical volunteers to come to China. Norman Bethune, a famous Canadian doctor, and Richard Browne, as well as Dr., a famous Indian surgeon, came to China in response to her call. Smedley wrote two articles for the "Manchester Guardian" every week, reporting to the world about the heroic deeds of the Eighth Route Army in fighting the Japanese under extremely difficult conditions. On January 15, 1938, her article "Observations at Fengling Ferry" published in the "Xinhuabao" reported on the scene in late 1937, where she witnessed Nationalist officers humiliating a group of ragged soldiers and fleeing in their cars along the Yellow River. In the article, she passionately declared, "I will never forget the cold laughter I had never seen before. I want them to remember a truth: He who laughs last laughs best!" During her 10 months in Wuhan, she frequently visited the front lines for interviews, wrote numerous reports, and completed her book "China's War Against Japan," which was praised by American critics as "the history of the Eighth Route Army from the Long March to becoming a modern military miracle." In mid-October, she withdrew with the medical aid team of the Chinese Red Cross to Changsha. Soon after, she followed the New Fourth Army and the Nationalist government's anti-war forces in fighting across the Yangtze River in Central China for more than a year, becoming "the longest-serving foreign journalist to visit the Chinese war zone," and was once listed by the Japanese as a political enemy. In September 1940, she went to Hong Kong for rest due to illness. In 1941, she returned to the United States, where she wrote and spoke about China, and raised donations for China to alleviate war disasters. In February 1949, she was falsely accused of being a "Soviet spy." In autumn 1949, she went into exile in the United Kingdom. On May 6, 1950, she died in Oxford, England. According to her will, her ashes were sent to China and buried in the Revolutionary Cemetery of Babaoshan in Beijing. The epitaph was inscribed by Zhu De in person: "Friend of the Chinese People, Agnes Smedley, American Revolutionary Writer." She wrote books such as "The Great Road—The Life and Times of Zhu De," "Da Di De Nü," "The Fate of the Chinese People," "The Chinese Red Army Marches Forward," and "Poetry of China."