Peking University, May 25, 2026: On May 15, a delegation from Peking University's China Center for Edgar Snow Studies visited Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Widener Library. The visit focused on the organization and digitization of Edgar Snow-related materials, opportunities for academic collaboration, and plans for future exchange activities.
Bai Yuzhou introducing the historical materials donated by Edgar Snow.
At Widener Library, Harvard-Yenching librarian and Peking University alumnus Bai Yuzhou unveiled a collection of historical materials Snow had personally donated. The collection included documents, printed materials and periodicals related to the Red Army, many of which he gathered during his 1936 visit to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia region, alongside works from the Lu Xun Academy of Arts. These artifacts are currently being digitized and are expected to be made publicly available on Harvard University's website in June.
Historical material donated by Edgar Snow to Harvard University.
Sun Hua, director of the China Center for Edgar Snow Studies sat down with Dinda Elliott, executive director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, and Samuel Colin Maclean, communications manager at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and great-grandnephew of Snow. They discussed ways to further strengthen cooperation in Edgar Snow research. Sun shared the Center's progress in weaving together a national network of Snow scholars across China, leading the development of a research database, and broadening the lens to include other international friends from the same period. A parallel effort at the University of Missouri-Kansas City has already scanned over 4,000 items, with roughly 30,000 more awaiting attention.
Looking ahead, this visit affirmed the growing importance of a digital humanities network that links archives, universities, and scholars across continents. In an age when technology can sometimes flatten human stories, this collaboration insists on the opposite. Snow's legacy, and the bridges he built between peoples, deserve to be preserved with care and reanimated for a new generation.
Written by: Lim Wei Urn
Edited by: Chris Tang Xiao Tong, Chen Shizhuo
Source: PKU News (
Chinese)
