On Oct. 18 and 19, the Edgar Snow Memorial Fund will host the Edgar Snow Symposium 2006 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. This year’s topic is “Advancing partnerships between China and the United States in the 21st century.”
　　A symposium panel will discuss the U.S.-China relationship five years after China's accession to the World Trade Organization. journalist Dan Rather will serve as moderator for the program. Also scheduled to speak are:
　　Zhou Wenzhong, ambassador to the United States from the People's Republic of China.
　　J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to the People's Republic of China and current managing director of Kissinger McLarty Associates.
　　Tong Zhiguang, former People's Republic of China vice minister of foreign trade.
　　William Reid, vice president of Visa International.
　　Snow was born in Kansas City, Mo., in 1905. He briefly studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia, before moving to New York. With some money that he had made in the stock market, Snow embarked on an overseas trip, arriving in China in 1928.
　　Snow found work as correspondent, sending articles back to the west about a part of the world that few readers knew about. In 1937, he wrote the seminal work Red Star Over China, an account of the communist revolution.
　　He left China in 1941, but he continued to write about the revolution and the government that was founded in 1949. In 1970, he learned that the Chinese were open to a visit from President Richard Nixon and wrote about it. Two years later, Nixon made his historic visit.
　　The Edgar Snow Memorial Fund seeks to foster and enhance friendship and understanding among the peoples of China and the United States. In addition to the panel discussion, this year’s symposium includes a lecture on Chinese art, a discussion on biotechnology development, performances of Chinese music and dance, and a food festival.
　　Snow remains a somewhat controversial historical character.
　　In the years after World War II, it became politically fashionable to as, “Who lost China?” And Snow’s association with the Chinese communist movement made him an object of suspicion. During the McCarthy period, he was interviewed by the J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and asked about any communist leanings.
　　He eventually left his homeland and died in Switzerland in 1972.
　　His legacy continues to be debated.
　　For scholars and others interested in Sino-American relations, the symposium is a rare opportunity to bring a degree of focus and understanding to a life so richly lived. The free presentations in the Performing Arts Center, White Recital Hall are open to the public.