Edgar Snow Portrait hanging over stage at an event in China

About the Foundation

Since 1974, the Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation has fostered cross-cultural activities and exchanges that enrich the citizens of the United States and China.

Our Founders were globally concerned citizens Mary Clark Dimond and her husband Dr. E. Grey Dimond, who honored their friend, Kansas City born journalist Edgar Snow.

Snow is believed to be the first Western journalist to interview Mao Zedong and other foundational leaders of modern China and is best known for his landmark book Red Star Over China, first published in 1937.

Vision Statement

We seek to develop closer relationships and mutual understanding between the people of the US and China in the spirit of Edgar Snow.

Mission Statement

Edgar Snow Symposium in 2012

Our mission is to enhance US and Chinese understanding and friendship in accord with Edgar Snow’s legacy. We do this by cultivating deeper and more enduring relationships between the people of our two nations through collaboration and exchange in cultural, educational and economic engagement.

The ESMF is a non-profit, non-commercial, non-political organization.

Our Partners in China

River Li visited by Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation travel delegation

Our partner organization in China is the China Society for People’s Friendship Studies (PFS). The PFS is headquartered in Beijing and is composed primarily of retired Chinese diplomats. It was founded by the late Huang Hua, former Foreign Minister of China, the People’s Republic of China’s first permanent representative to the United Nations, and Henry Kissinger’s Chinese counterpart during the groundbreaking negotiations to reestablish relations between the two countries in the early 1970s.