Bertha Sneck


Bertha Sneck was an American translator and political activist who lived in China.

Biography

Bertha Sneck moved to China in 1948 with her husband William H. Hinton. Their daughter Carma Hinton was born there. Sneck worked from 1949 to 1963 in the Foreign Languages Institute of Beijing and from 1964 to 1972 for the Newspaper "China in Pictures".
In June 1966 she and three other Americans – Ann Tompkins, Joan Hinton and "Sid" Erwin Engst – wrote a large-character poster, in which they demanded to be treated exactly the same way that their Chinese colleagues were and to be allowed to engage in political activities. A copy of the poster was given to Mao Zedong, who praised it.
From 1972 to her retirement, Bertha Sneck worked for the newspapers Beijing Perspective and Chinese Literature. In 1984 the State Council recognized her for exceptional service.

Footnotes

↑ Chou 2009, S. 350; 毛泽东：对四位美国专家的一张大字报的批语. In: 《建国以来毛泽东文稿》. Beijing: 中央文献出版社, 1998, Vol. 12, p. 126f., and 毛泽东：对四位美国专家的一张大字报的批示. In: 《毛泽东思想万岁》 Vols. 1961–1968, p. 350, Beijing: Samisdat,.