2015年CRI The Trumpeter on the Book Cover-Bond between Two Families（在线收听）

The later generations of Edgar Snow, author of the book Red Star Over China, have met the son of Xie Liquan, the trumpet playing figure on the cover of the book in Beijing.

Red Star Over China, a 1937 book by American journalist Edgar Snow, is an account of the Communist Party of China written while it was still obscure to Westerners.

The book is considered as one of the most influential books on western understanding of the Chinese revolution in the 1930s.

Blake Anthony, who came to Beijing with his grandmother Sheril Bischoff, the niece of Edgar Snow's wife, says the book has had a great influence on him.

"It is because of this book that I eventually began to study Chinese, and it's why my grandmother is able to come and make new friends with the relatives of the people who fought in World War II and Chinese revolution as well."

Blake also says the message the book conveys to the world is still valid now.

"I think it is still valid now because it gives route to modern China. The Chinese Communist Party gained strength and finally was able to fight back Japanese invasion, which eventually led to CPC leading China and also China's success today. For political scientists and people who study history, when studying modern China, one of the required readings is Red Star Over China."

After the book was published, the cover picture in which a Chinese soldier posed with a trumpet became very popular.

For decades people had no idea who the figure on the cover was.

Xie Xiaopeng, son of Xie Liquan, the figure on the cover of the book, explains the reasons.

"For a long time, my father didn't talk much of the episode. He saw the picture in 1972 and wrote his experience in a letter. He gave the letter to us before he died of cancer in 1973. He did not consider himself a war hero. Instead, he says his life was saved by many people."

Xie Xiaopeng expressed his appreciation to Edgar Snow for his professional ethics.

"We bear great appreciation to Snow. I've liked collecting his books since I was young. I admire his sense of righteousness and his courage of reporting facts. He dares to seek the truth. Besides, I like his writing style and his choice of words. They are vivid and expressive. "

At the ceremony initiated by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of Zhongshan in south China's Guangdong Province, the members of the two families exchanged gifts with each other.

The book Red Star Over China is written based on Snow's observations and findings after he visited then CPC revolutionary bases in northwest China where he interviewed top leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai.

It has been translated into over twenty different languages after it was first published in 1937.