Israel Epstein Sees China Grow

By ZHANG YAN

"IN the past, there was much talk about how the advancing world would change China. We are now in the period when China's role in the world is changing the world situation and attracting notice all over the globe. This is a very great change in international culture," said Israel Epstein in an interview. He was celebrating publication of the Chinese translation of his latest book A Memoir of More Than 80 Years in China, published by Beijing's New World Press on April 20, 2004, the author's 89th birthday. The English original will soon also be published.

Epstein, long a stateless Jew, was born in Warsaw in 1915. He was brought to China at age three by his parents, who were engaged in revolutionary movements against Czarism. Although he grew up with a Western education, for all his life Epstein has witnessed China's invasion and humiliation by foreign imperialism. At the age of 15, he became a journalist for the English language newspaper Peking Tientsin Times. After China's war against the Japanese invaders broke out in 1937, Epstein covered a number of major battles as a United Press war correspondent, including China's victory in Taierzhuang. While marching in a torch light parade against the Japanese invasion in Guangzhou, he met Soong Ching Ling (wife of China's revolution forerunner Dr. Sun Yatsen), whom he had respected for a long time. The two became close friends. Later he spent a period of time working for the China Defense League under Soong in Hong Kong to publicize and enlist support for the Chinese cause. In 1944, Epstein visited Yan'an, center of the then Communist-led liberated area, and interviewed leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Zhou Enlai, who had devoted their lives to the Chinese revolution. It was through this historic visit that he saw the future of a new China and chose the road to follow.

When the People's Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949, Israel Epstein and his late wife, Elsie Cholmeley, were deeply involved in the American progressive movement that supported US recognition of New China. In 1951, they came back to China, upon the invitation of then Vice President of the PRC Soong Ching Ling, to start the English language journal China Reconstructs, later renamed China Today, that introduced New China to the world. Epstein remains editor-in-chief emeritus of this multi-language monthly. He has chosen China as his citizenship and permanent residence. Although he was imprisoned for five years under allegations that he was "an international spy" during the notorious "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), he accepted Premier Zhou Enlai's apology on behalf of the central leadership. He continued to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to what he was doing for China.

During various periods of the last century, Epstein published a number of books, including the following best known titles: Unfinished Revolution in China (1947); From Opium War to Liberation (1954); Tibet Transformed (1983); Woman in World History---Soong Ching Ling (1993), each a product of meticulous work. To write Tibet Transformed, Epstein visited this roof of the world four times between 1956 and 1982. In his visits, many lasting two months at a time, he interviewed hundreds of people, took numerous notes and researched many books written about Tibet. Epstein is also the only person ever to have been personally authorized by Soong Ching Ling to write her biography before her death in 1981. It took him several years of researching to write this book, which appeared on Soong's birth centenary in 1993. "The aim of this extensive biography," as writes the author, "is to have the reader meet the subject. Whenever possible the story is told in her own words, drawn from all available written material, including hundreds of personal letters, the testimony of participants and eyewitnesses and my own recollections over four decades."

Besides his regular work editing the journal and writing books, he has also served as a standing committee member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference since the mid-1980s, critiquing China's work in various aspects of culture and journalism. With his mastery of the English language, Epstein has been considered the ultimate authority on improving the English translations of important documents, including selected works of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Because Epstein is sometimes critical of the erroneous trends practiced by China's publicity machine for an international audience, listening to Epstein discussing China offers rare insight into the country's rich history. As a life-long witness and knowledgeable scholar of Chinese and contemporary world history, he seems to probe deeper into China than many ordinary Chinese people. Epstein looks at China from a unique angle, making it much easier for foreigners to understand what is happening in China. "Unlike watchers from the outside, we saw the international arena from the China standpoint," he said. "Considering our familiarity with both worlds, our perceptions might help others come to a rounder view."

Epstein begins his memoir with a chapter entitled "Crossroads---Westward Back to the East." This section shows readers the deep extent to which he has been absorbed into "the other" and presents concepts coherent to both the East and West. "In the West the compass is said to point North. To the Chinese, who invented it, it is 'the South-pointing needle.' The dual view does not affect its ability to guide in all directions. But it does draw attention to the relativity of things and multi-polarity of concepts. Also to the acute and ancient awareness of the Chinese, built even into their everyday language, of the unity or relation of opposites."

Readers may be impressed by the following passage from its last chapter:

"In the twilight of my days, I am often asked if I regret my choice of life.

"In the place and time in which history found me, I can think of nothing better and more meaningful than to have witnessed and linked myself with the revolution of the Chinese people, one fifth of all humanity, with their weight in the fortunes of the entire world.

"In this process, as in all else, there have been joys, pains and zigzags. But the overall road has been upward, contributing to progress nationally and internationally."              

ZHANG YAN, life-long friend of Israel Epstein and his colleague in China Reconstructs for half a century.