The Aromatic Laurel Camphor Tree

---------The Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree Honorary Award

By SHEN HAIPING

ANY award associated with the late Soong Ching Ling (1893—1981), widow of Chinese Republican leader Sun Yat-sen and a figure synonymous with world peace and the Chinese revolution, is of high eminence and prestige.

In order to continue and endorse the causes espoused by Soong Ching Ling throughout her life, the China Welfare Institute, in conjunction with relevant government departments, established two awards in her honor. One is the Soong Ching Ling Scholarship Award, the other the Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree Honorary Award.

The name of the second award recalls the courtyard of Soong Ching Ling’s former residence in Shanghai, where stand several tall and fragrant laurel camphor trees. Witness to many gatherings of friends and fellow revolutionaries, these fragrant, yet indomitable trees represent ad stand tribute to Soong Ching Ling and her admirable qualities. Hence, in1985, on the fourth anniversary of her demise, Soong Ching Ling’s friends and followers decided that a fitting name for an award to individuals making outstanding contributions towards bettering the lives of women and children should be the Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree Honorary Award.

This gilt, diamond-shaped medal bears the image of a laurel camphor tree. Its designer is Shi Liangji, new China’s first-generation designer of children’s drama stage scenery. His most outstanding work is the famous Soong Ching Ling and Her Children. Liang says that as he worked to design the medal he recalled many occasions he recalled on her at home when, upon hearing him enter her courtyard she would raise her head and smile in greeting from beneath an aromatic camphor tree.

Founded in June of 1985, the Camphor Tree Award celebrates and encourages those that emulate Soong Ching Ling by working for the benefit of women and children. Awarded biannually, candidates for it are recommended by ministries, commissions, provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, nominated by the Honorary Camphor Tree Award Office and confirmed by China Welfare Institute Executive Committee.

By 2002, the award had been presented on 11 occasions to 85 people making outstanding contributions to women and children’s health, education and welfare. Those honored include writers of children’s literature Bingxin and Chen Bochui, artists Zhang Leping and Yu Lan, and those who are from overseas working tirelessly and selflessly towards improving the lives of women and children.

Seven of those awarded over the past 20 years have worked within the China Welfare Institute. They include American Taltha Gerlanch — Geng Lishu in Chinese – who was originally assigned to work in China by the Young Women’s Christian Association in the 1920s and became a good friend of Soong Ching Ling. She subsequently joined the China Defense League (later renamed China Welfare Institute) led by Soong Ching Ling. Despite being recalled to the USA in 1947, she continued to give her support to Soong Ching Ling, and to make active appeals to the people of America for medical and childcare resources. In 1950, Soong Ching Ling invited Geng Lishu back to China to conduct research on preschool children’s education and health. Geng Lishu continued her work till her death in Shanghai in 1995 at the age of 100.

Another overseas person to whom the award has gone is internationally famous journalist and writer Israel Epstein. A staunch democratic revolutionary at the beginning of the 1930s, Epstein worked closely with Soong Ching Ling in Hong Kong towards establishing the China Defense League in 1938, and was a member of the Central Committee in charge of international propaganda. Today he is vice-chairman of the China Welfare Institute and Editor-in-Chief-Emeritus of China Today. He keeps a close eye on events in China, and has kept the world informed on China’s revolutionary progress and economic construction through each era. Eppie, as he is affectionately known, has played a major role in bringing China to the world and encouraging those outside it to give it their moral and material support.

The third overseas person to have been presented with the award in previous years is Genjiro, winner of the 8th Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree Honorary Award in 1996. A music teacher at a Japanese middle school, Genjiro eventually succumbed to cancer. In his lifetime he devoted himself to Sino-Japanese children’s cultural exchanges. As from 1980 Genjiro organized cultural exchange activities between the China Welfare Institute children’s palace and Japan, working together with his students to raise funds to pay the travel expenses for the Chinese Children’s Art Troupe to come to perform in Japan.

The 10th camphor tree awards in 2000 went mainly to nominees from West China that had devoted their lives to women and children in this underdeveloped region of China.

The Camphor Tree Honorary Awards have been running for 20 years. Those to whom it has been awarded are of various ages and nationalities and from diverse professions, all of them committed to Soong Ching Ling vow to “serve children and women wholeheartedly.” Their selfless dedication acts as inspiration to all that know them.

The 2004 12th Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree Honorary Award candidates were chosen from people inland and abroad. The five winners were: Peng Peiyun, honorary chairman of the All-China Women’s Federation; Anna Chennault, famous international social activist; Christian Voumard, UNICEF representative to China; Brian Mullaney, president and founding director of the Smile Train, which is dedicated to helping millions of children in the world who suffer from cleft lip and palate through free surgery, free training for doctors and research to find a cure; and Zhu Yantao, researcher at the Ministry of Public Security Criminal Investigation Department.

This year marks the 20th Soong Ching Ling Honorary Camphor Tree Awards, in recognition of which a ceremonial tribute to the humanitarian spirit of Soong Ching Ling was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Shen Haiping is deputy secretary-general of Shanghai-based Soong Ching Ling Foundation.