Dr. Zhang Yifang, member of the medical delegation to save Snow in 1972, gives a speech on Wednesday, at Peking University. [Photo/China Daily]

Beijing - One of China's "dearest friends", the American journalist Edgar Snow (1905-1972), who wrote the seminal work Red Star Over China, was commemorated today at Peking University on the 40th anniversary of his death.

Peking University president Zhou Qifeng said that it's of special significance that the university hold the commemoration.

"Snow had worked here (in China), and half of his body is buried here," Zhou said, adding the university is to hold the 15th international symposium on the writer in October.

First arriving in 1928, Snow was among the first of established Western journalists to go deep into interior China to interview and write about the top Chinese Communist leaders, including the late Chairman Mao Zedong. The result was Red Star Over China, which was first published in 1937.

"Snow served as an excellent example of faithfully revealing the truth about China, which is even more important now as there is more and more worldwide interest in our country," said Ma Canrong, director of the China Society for People's Friendship Studies.

Zhang Yifang, former head of Beijing's Xiyuan Hospital, was a member of the medical delegation sent to Geneva, Switzerland in January 1972 to help treat a failing Snow. She recalled the writer's final days.

"His stoicism in facing the pain caused by his illness, and his constant concern about China touched me very much," Zhang said.

Michael Crook, 61, who was also among the 100 participants at the commemoration, said that without the book, his father David might not have been inspired to come to China in the 1930's, met his mother and given birth to him.

"Without that book, there might not be me," said Crook, who is chairman of the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives -Gung Ho.

The US-based Edgar Snow Memorial Fund sent two letters praising Snow for showing the world "how one person can make a difference in affairs concerning two countries".