Anecdotes as Told by China Today Forerunners

 

Two Outstanding and Legendary Teachers

Zhang Yan, former first deputy editor-in-chief of China Reconstructs, regards Soong Ching Ling and Israel Epstein as the two most impressive figures he has ever known. He respectfully refers to them as teachers because of their legendary life experiences, great characters and outstanding talents.

“Soong Ching Ling had a prominent character; she was both a patriot and internationalist. She always placed China within the scope of world progress in the hope that her country could share in the fruits of world progress and, meanwhile, make greater contribution to it,” says Zhang Yan. “Zhou Enlai, whose experience was also broad, had the most thorough understanding of Soong Ching Ling as a ‘pioneer of China's modernization.' Soon after the founding of New China, Zhou Enlai, its premier and foreign minister, suggested to Soong Ching Ling that she found a magazine reporting on the realities of New China to overseas readers. Soong Ching Ling gladly accepted this suggestion, and personally named the magazine China Reconstructs ."

“Maintain close contacts with readers and pay attention to letters from readers” was one of the guiding principles defined by Soong Ching Ling, and one she personally exemplified. From the founding of the magazine to her death in 1981, she contributed many important articles to it, and sent copies of China Reconstructs to dozens of friends abroad, at the same time soliciting their opinions.

Israel Epstein is another legendary figure. He accompanied his Polish revolutionary parents to China as an infant, at a time when China was in national crisis. Epstein began living at the foreign concession in Tianjin as an infant. During the time he received his Western education, he witnessed the cruel oppression suffered by the Chinese people. As a result, and in his own words, although he was a Jew born in Poland, his feelings were those of the Chinese people.

Epstein remarked on his experience, “In general a Chinese person goes from patriotism to internationalism. But I have a different road, from internationalism to patriotism.”
Epstein observed China from a world viewpoint while at the same time seeing the world from China's angle. As Zhang Yan points out, “This was a stance beneficial to the work of international communication.” Epstein and Soong Ching Ling had undergone different routes between patriotism and internationalism, but their unique concept of observing the world from both angles was what defined the unique character of China Reconstructs .

Zhang Yan still remembers vividly his first meeting with Israel Epstein and his then-wife Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley. “In the summer of 1951, Epstein and Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley arrived at Tianjin New Port from the United States, via Europe. They then took train to Qianmen Railway Station, where Chen Hansheng, one of the founders of China Reconstructs , and I, on behalf of People's China magazine, went to meet them. That was our first meeting, although I had long admired Epstein by virtue of reading his excellent reportage. Short, and wearing a straw hat, Epstein and his tall wife, Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley, caused many heads to turn as they walked along the railway platform. I escorted them to their dormitory in a siheyuan courtyard on Yangshi Street, and we subsequently became good neighbors.” Epstein's arrival actually marked the start of China Reconstructs .

Interviewing the Last Emperor

Soon after Shen Suru, then an ordinary reporter, came to China Reconstructs he accepted a special assignment: that of interviewing Puyi, the last emperor of feudal China. Shen eventually held the position of deputy editor-in-chief of China Today .

At that time, the autobiography of Puyi entitled The First Half of My Life had not yet been published. This historic figure was a focus of curiosity. People Chinese and foreign alike wanted to know all about him.

The interviews they had made Shen Suru and Puyi “close contacts.” A few months after first meeting Shen, Puyi's guard lowered and he talked unreservedly to this young journalist about his experiences. What came over most strongly was that the last emperor, bred to regard himself as a higher breed than the masses, preferred his life as common citizen to that as emperor.

Shen Suru's article “From Emperor to Citizen” was published in the January 1964 issue of China Reconstructs , and caused a sensation. The 5,000-character piece described Puyi's incredible transition from last emperor to citizen. Shen Suru remembers clearly his article being translated by Liu Yifang. It was her excellent work that satisfied Western curiosity about what actually happened to China's last emperor. Later, Puyi's autobiography The First Half of My Life was translated into English, also under the title From Emperor to Citizen .