Template:Did you know nominations/Helen Foster Snow


 * The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as |this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by BlueMoonset (talk) 03:16, 20 January 2017 (UTC)

Helen Foster Snow

 * ... that American journalist Helen Foster Snow was one of few foreign citizens who has been honored by the Chinese government as Friendship Ambassador? Source: Helen Foster Snow, 89, a Founder Of Industrial Co-ops in China, New York Times
 * ALT1: ... that American journalist Helen Foster Snow and her husband Edgar Snow lived in Asia for nearly a decade and did not eat raw foods the whole time in order to avoid dysentery? Source: Snow, Helen Foster. My China Years, page 323.
 * ALT2: ... that Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong divulged valuable Communist party history for the first time ever to American journalist Helen Foster Snow in 1937? Source: Billingsley, Dodge. Helen Foster Snow: Witness to Revolution.
 * Reviewed: Antone Rosa

5x expanded by JAGrace (BYU) (talk). Self-nominated at 19:06, 1 December 2016 (UTC).


 * Symbol question.svg Well done! 5x expansion verified. New enough, long enough, neutrally written, well referenced, no close paraphrasing seen. The first hook is the least hooky of the 3, so I struck it. The second hook is interesting and cited inline to an offline source, so it's AGF, but it doesn't give any indication of this remarkable woman's life. ALT2 is the best, but it's not written this way in the article; the article doesn't say anything about the history being valuable, and makes it sound like Mao was giving the information to Helen for the first time, not saying it for the first time. Perhaps you can tweak this based on the offline source and get back to me. I went through the article and added "citation needed" tags to statements that need verification. I also added a "clarification needed" tag to the lead to find out which Chinese revolution you're talking about; maybe you could link that. QPQ done. Yoninah (talk) 22:28, 15 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your notes! I understand how ALT2 can be read as ambiguous. I have added another source to this hook for further clarification. The added source states that information available to the Chinese people regarding the party's history was limited as Communist leaders did not want to glorify themselves as heroes. I have written several other hooks that may be easier to understand. I will also work on the adding the citations necessary to the article.
 * ALT3:... that Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong divulged the Communist party's previously unknown history to American journalist Helen Foster Snow in 1937 for widespread publication?
 * ALT4: ... that Inside Red China by American journalist Helen Foster Snow contains information from her interviews with Mao Zedong about the previously unknown history of the Chinese Communist Party?
 * ALT5: ...that American journalist Helen Foster Snow published the previously unknown history of the Chinese Communist party as told to her by Mao Zedong in her book Inside Red China? Sources: Billingsley, Dodge. Helen Foster Snow: Witness to Revolution. Heath, Harvard. Register of the Helen Foster Snow Collection: Biographical History. JAGrace (BYU) (talk) 17:51, 17 January 2017 (UTC)
 * , I didn't see that you made any edits to the article. After you add the source to the article and fix the tags, I will proceed with this review. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 06:59, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
 * , I just completed the edits to the article. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do. Thank you so much, JAGrace (BYU) (talk) 22:37, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
 * thank you for adding the cites. I like ALT3 the best, though the source says that she was the first Western reporter that Mao talked to. Can you verify that the information wasn't known or discussed before by a Chinese or other foreign reporter?
 * In doing the close paraphrasing checks with Earwigs, I noted that The New York Times obituary stressed that she was best known for initiating the concept of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. I'm wondering why you didn't cite this source when you write about the Cooperatives? You might also wish to edit the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives article to stress her conceptual role. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 10:12, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
 * According to my research, she was the first journalist to receive this information, nationality aside. The source found here states, "The Communists in the Mao era were reticent to divulge their histories because they did not wish to be revered as heroes of the people, because they believed that the community, not the individual, was all-important. Additionally, after the Snows’ books were translated into Chinese, they provided a valuable service to the Chinese masses, as they heretofore had little historical information on their leaders’ lives... From these interviews, Helen obtained three things: a history of the Red Army, a letter of introduction as a war correspondent that enabled her to go to the front, and a request from Mao to introduce the CCP’s “Ten Guiding Principles to Resist Against Japan and Save the Nation” to the Chinese people and to the rest of the world. " Her husband Edgar Snow, along with a handful of other journalists, had previously entered the Yan'an area and published works based off of their experiences there. However, no one had received the specific information from party leaders that Helen had during her trip. The interpreter that accompanied her on the trip said here, "When Edgar Snow visited north Shanxi he talked with chairman Mao several times. But Mao explained the history of the Red Army systematically for the first time to Helen." Her intention was to interview Communists about their way of life and she eventually made personal relationships by doing so, qualifying her to be the recipient of information that had been withheld from other journalists. Helen's obituary in The Hartford Courant states, "She interviewed more than 65 people, including Mao and Chou En-lai and many of the early influential women of communist China."
 * I understand that The New York Times obituary is important in establishing notability. I have added the source as a citation in the Cooperatives section on the Helen Foster Snow page, providing evidence for her conceptualizing of the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. Thanks, JAGrace (BYU) (talk) 17:41, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Symbol confirmed.svg Great. Thank you for all this information, and for pointing me to the sources. Everything looks good; ALT3 is verified and cited inline. It's a great hook! ALT3 good to go. Yoninah (talk) 19:14, 19 January 2017 (UTC)