by Xinran Xue
Through this book, I hope my own readers, standing like me outside the door looking in at China and its history, will experience these memories of China for themselves. I long for my readers to empathise with the people in this book and their families' stories; and to see how a people have risen from poverty and conflict to assume a new self-respect. And it will not be me – limited as I am to existing within a single moment, a Chinese cell with a single function – it will be the China witnesses who, with their stories, have the real power to persuade.
China Witness is a crystallisation, too, of numerous people's combined efforts. Without the help of the following, this book would never have seen the light of day now: in Beijing, Chen Linfei and Cheng Lu ran the research side; in Nanjing, Zhang Ye and Hao Chong coordinated the collection of background information; Yang Ji, Kate Shortt and others filmed and recorded; Julie from Jindian travel agency did the planning and organising; London office volunteers John and Li Yi did the email communications work, led by Motherbridge of Love (MBL) CEO Wendy Wu; and Xiao Shenshen (Beijing University), Wei Xuan (Beijing Broadcasting University), Pan Zhigang (Nanjing University Web) and more than fifty students from Shanghai's Fudan University, helped with documentation.
Without Esther Tyldesley, Nicky Harman and Julia Lovell, who translated this book from Chinese into English (putting Chinese clouds into an English box, as Esther says); without my two editors, Dan Frank at Pantheon Books, who formed my writing into a readable book, and Alison Samuel, who has done so much not only for this book but also my other books published by her Chatto & Windus team; without those Random House people who have worked on this book, and many friends in different countries and the wisdom and dedication they have brought to the project – without all of them these Chinese stories would still be gathering dust in my Chinese memory or even left in the past of China.
Please do not think that I have simply given you a long list of names. In fact, they are not only a part of this book, they are part of China's witnesses today. I thank them, as China will thank them in the future, because they gathered together for us these precious historical records. Every book is imbued with the blood, sweat and reflections of so many people, and forms a building block in the Long March of literature.
Chinese Assistants:
What China Witness meant to them
My thanks go to all the following for their help:
Wendy Wu, MBL CEO and China Witness supporter: As CEO of Mothers' Bridge of Love (MBL), I feel that the book opens a door for exploring a cultural journey for Chinese children, for those who were adopted by Western families and for those Chinese who now live in the West.
Leo Hao Chong, China Witness Nanjing research team leader: I realised, as I worked with the team, that the stories the book told were going to be very different from those in our school history textbooks.
Julie Zhu, China Witness travel and office assistant: This experience helps me and many others understand our parents' and grandparents' lives, with their tears and suffering, and their happiness which is different from ours.
Chen Linfei, Beijing research team leader: These witnesses have put up with such immense hardship and yet still stand miraculously tall…
Li Yi, London MBL office and media assistant: These people and their lives are both very distant and very close to us. I discovered a very simple fact: China is very big. They truly have testified to this most ordinary and yet most important fact about China.
Yang Ji, China Witness media assistant and cameraman: I never thought about what my parents' and grandparents' generation had lived through before this.
Xuan Xuan, China Witness media assistant: Ordinary people emit a very uncommon strength. Our self-restraint cannot conceal this expression of our national self-respect.
Panpan Xue, China Witness media assistant: The stories were different but the witnesses all felt relieved that someone was there to listen to them, to comfort them. I hope that people reading this book will reach a new level of understanding and be educated in the same way as I was.
Jiang Wei, China Witness media assistant: This project has awakened my interest in discovering the untold story of my own family.
Li Xu, China Witness media assistant: Now, wherever I am, I can say with complete confidence: "I am proud of my country and her people!"
Li Yuan, China Witness media assistant: I feel I have grown up by working on these stories about the kind of lives which I had never encountered in my life before…
Xu Ke, China Witness TV assistant: I had never been so moved as when I listened to those old people tell of the joys and sorrows of their lives. Now the whole world will listen to these hidden voices.
Kenny Renhu, China Witness research support: I gave my parents traditional respect, but I didn't learn about their history or try to understand them. My mother told me that she would not allow me to suffer the way she did.
Pan Zhigang, China Witness assistant manager, Nanjing
Shen Wei, China Witness assistant manager, Beijing
Cheng Lu, China Witness research assistant, Beijing
Xiao Shenshen, China Witness research assistant, Beijing
Yan Yan, China Witness research supporter, Beijing
Tea, China Witness research supporter, Nanjing
Xin Meng, China Witness research supporter, Nanjing
Liang Qin, China Witness research supporter, Henan
Wu Suiping, China Witness research supporter, Henan
Yi Zhang, China Witness research supporter, Xinjiang
Lin Xue & Ping, China Witness research supporter, Sichuan
Zhang Yongmin, China Witness research supporter, Shanghai
Zhong Jane, China Witness research supporter, Shanghai
Liu Tong, China Witness research supporter, Gansu
Zha Xi Liu & Pu er Min, China Witness research supporters, Anhui
Xi Fenglan, China Witness research supporters, Guizhou
Li Lin, China Witness research supporter, Shandong
Gao Feng, China Witness research supporter, Shanxi
Hu Feibao, China Witness research supporter, Silk Road
Wu Fan, China Witness research supporter, Guangdong
Kate Shortt, China Witness photographer
What we have done together with Xinran is so that Chinese history will not be forgotten, and so that our history will be known and remembered throughout the world.
Index
Africa
Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi, emperor
Amdo
Amdo people
Angola
Anhui province
see also Linhuan
Anli
Anti-Japanese War
see also Japan/Japanese
Anti-Rightist movement
Anxi
Anyang
Archangelsk-Daqing Line
Bai Juyi
Ban Chao
Banpo Neolithic village
Beijing
4 May Movement
Olympics see Olympics 2008
Beijing Central Mapping Bureau
Beijing Educational Research Institute
Beijing Library
Beijing University
Bengbu
Bethune, Norman
Black Sea
"Black Warrior Lama" (Danbin Jianzan)
Bo Gu (Qin Bangxian)
Bohai Gulf
Boys' Army
Braun, Otto see Li De
Britain
Bureau of Mines, Turfan
Cang'an county
Cao Rulin
CCP see Chinese Communist Party
Central Asia
Central Military Committee
Central Plains Regional Courts
Central Red Army
Central Soviet Area
Chad
Chang'an
Changsha
Chaoshui Brigade
Chen Changfeng
Chen Lianshi ("Double-Gun Woman")
Chen Yi
Chen Yun
Chengde
Chengdu
Chevron-Texaco Company
Chiang Kai-shek
China Engineering Physics Research Institute
China Military Diplomatic Academy
China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company
China Petroleum and Gas Group
China Petroleum Corporation
China-Vietnam War
Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
Central Committee
and Long March
and media
Military Committee Foreign Languages Training Unit
and "Three Represents"
and Xinjiang Construction Corps
Chinese Criminal Code and Protection Procedure Law (1979)
Chinese Earth Management Delegation
Chinese Post Office
Chishui River
Chongqing
"Clear Sky Bao"
CNN
Colombia
Columbus, Ohio
Communist Party see Chinese Communist Party
Communist Youth League
Congo, the
Cuba
Cultural Revolution
and acrobats
Chinese official website account of
and lanterns
and Mao Zedong
and People's Courts
and tea houses
Dalai Lama
Danbin Jianzan ("Black Warrior Lama")
Daqin
Daqing oilfields
Daxue Mountains
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Yingchao
Dingxi
Direct Broadcast Reform Team
Dong'an
"Double-Gun Woman" see Chen Lianshi
Douhet, Giulio
Dunhuang
Dushanzi oil deposit
East China Normal University
E'erduosi Basin
Eighth Route Army
Ela Grasslands
Equatorial Guinea
Erlian Basin
European-Asian Association of Earth Management
European Earth Management Association
ExxonMobil
Fallaci, Oriana
Fang Haijun
First Front Army
First World War
Flaming Mountain
Foreign Languages Institute
Foreign Ministry
Four Clean-Ups
Fourth Army
Fourth Front Army
4 May Movement
Fudan University, Shanghai
Fujian province
Gabon
Gan Ying
Gang of Four
Gansu province
see also Hezheng; Lanzhou
Gao Mingxuan, Professor
Gao Yaojie
Geological and Mining Production Department (Geological Bureau)
Germany
Ghost Gate Pass
GMD see Guomindang
Gobi Desert
Grand Canal
Great Leap Forward
Great Massacre (Nanjing Massacre)
Great Powers
Great Wall
Great Wall Lubricants
Gu Yeliang
Guangdong province
Guangxi province
Guangzhou
Guangzhou military government
Guilin
Guizhou province
see also Xingyi
Gulf of Guinea
Guo Shaoquan
Guomindang (GMD)
corruption
harsh policies
and liberation of Shanghai
and Long March
and resistance to Japan
San Qing Tuan
and system of ownership
Gurbantunggut Desert
Hami
Han
Hangzhou
Hankou
"Harmonious Society", concept of
Haslung, Henning
He Long, General
Hefei
Henan People's Radio Station
Henan province
see also Zhengzhou
Hero (film)
Hezheng
Hezheng County Guest House
Hezheng Fossil Museum
High Court of the People's Republic of China
Higher People's Courts
Hongsong
Hongxingyuan compound, Zhangjiakou
Hu Jintao
Hua Guofeng
Hua Mulan
Huai River
Huanshui River
Huaying Mountain Uprising
Hubei Cadre School
Hubei province
Hui
Huiba
Hunan province
Hundred Regiments Offensive
Huocheng
Hussein, Saddam
Ili
Imperial Academy, Archives of the
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
International Herald Tribune
Iraq
Islam
Japan/Japanese
and First World War
invasion of China
and Nanjing massacre
see also Anti-Japanese War
Jews
Jiajing Mountain
Jiang Qing
Jiang Zemin
Jiangnan
Jiangsu province
see also Nanjing
Jiangtai Fort
Jiangxi
Jian'ou
Jiao-Ji Railway
Jiaqing, emperor
Jiayuguan
Jilin
Jilin Basin
Jimsa
Jinan
Jingning
Jingxian
Jinhua
Jiujiang
Jiuquan
Jiuquan Big Brigade
Jiuzhaigou
Kaifeng
Kaifeng Normal University
Kang Shi'en
Kang Yiming
Kangba
Kebuduo
Keji-ri Bao newspaper
Kelamayi oilfield
Korean War
Kunfan Girls' Middle School, Shanghai
Lake Elinhu
Lake Zalinhu
Landa
Lanzhou
Lanzhou University
Lazi Kou Pass
Leiongzhuang Farm
Leitai
Lhasa
Li De (Otto Braun)
Li Xiannian
Liberation
Lin Biao
Lin Liguo
Lin'an
Linhuan
Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture
Liu Bocheng
Liu Shaoqi
Liu Ziyu
Long March
Longmen Caves
Longxi
Louis XIV, King
Lu Shan
Lu Zongyu
Luding Bridge
Luo Ruiqing
Luoyang
Lushan Conference
Lushan Declaration
Ma Bufang
Maiji Grottos
Malacca Straits
Manchuria
Manila
Mao Zedong
and Cultural Revolution
and Long March
and national heroes
opinions about
Maqu
Marco Polo Bridge incident
Mediterranean
Men He
Middle East
Ming dynasty
Minhe Brigade
Mobil
Mogao Caves
Mongolia
Mongolian Revolutionary Army
Moscow
Moscow State Geological Prospecting Academy
Mosuowan Farm
Muslims
Nanjing
lantern-makers
massacre (1937)
tiger stoves in
Nanjing Central School of Politics
Nanping
Nanyang
National Civil Administration Depar
tment
National Party
National Prospecting Bureau see Petroleum Bureau
Nationalist Forces
Neighbourhood Administrative System
Nine-Thirteen Incident
Ningxia
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
North China oilfield
North China People's University
North Korea
North Sichuan Dam
North-West Geology Management College
Northern Song dynasty
Nurhaci, emperor
Oil Prospecting Conference
Olympics 2008
Öndörhaan
Opium War
Pakistan
Paris Peace Conference
Pearl River Radio
Peng Dehuai, General
People's Courts
People's Daily
People's Liberation Army (PLA)
and Construction Corps in Xinjiang
Foreign Languages Institute
and liberation of Shanghai
Persian Gulf
Petroleum Association
Petroleum Bureau (China Petroleum Prospecting Bureau; National Prospecting Bureau)
Petroleum Ministry
Philippines
PLA see People's Liberation Army
Public Security Bureau (PSB)
Putten, Frans-Paul van der
Qi Jiguang
Qianche
Qilian Mountains
Qin Banxian see Bo Gu
Qin dynasty
Qin Gui
Qin Huai Lantern Festival
Qin Huai lantern-makers
Qin Shi Hung Di, emperor
Qing dynasty
Qingdao
Qinghai province
Qinghai-Tibet railway
Qinghua University
Qiqihar
Qiu Jin
Quanzhou
Qula
Radio Jiangsu
Raise the Red Lantern (film)
Rehe River
Reader magazine
Red Army, Chinese
see also Long March
Red Army, Soviet
Red Crag (film)
Red Guards
Reform through Labour
Revolutionary University
Richthofen, Baron Ferdinand von
Russia
see also Soviet Union
Sahara Desert
Sai Mengqi
St John's College, Shanghai
St Petersburg
San Qing Tuan
Sanguanmiao
Sangxiong
Second Front Army
Sha Duoling (pen name of Yu Ruobin)
Shaanxi province
see also Xi'an
Shandong province
Shanghai
4 May Movement
