"Are there really such men ... or have you made them up?" asked U.S. Marine officer Evans Carlson in 1937, skeptical of the humble, earnest Chinese Communists in Edgar Snow's book Red Star Over China.

"See for yourself," Snow encouraged. And so -- he did. 

This is Episode 1 of 4 in Seeing Is Believing: The Story of a U.S. Marine Officer Embedded in CPC-led Anti-fascist Forces. Stay tuned.

Produced by Xinhua Global Service■