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Last Boat Out of Shanghai

Page 49

by Helen Zia


  A professor in China told me that, in modern China, everyone’s story is a tragedy. Unfortunately, the same may be said about those from many other regions of the world. My deepest appreciation goes to all who struggle to overcome the scars of exodus; their lives are cautionary tales that show why such tragedies of history must not be repeated.

  “Running away is”: in “Special Issue on Running Away,” Lun Yu [Lùnyˇu bàn yuè kān: Táo nàn zhuān kān] 173 (Mar. 16, 1949): 2376.

  PROLOGUE

  To the foreigners: Peter Hibbard, The Bund Shanghai: China Faces West, 212–225, 271–274.

  Land and sovereignty: Betty Peh-T’i Wei, Shanghai: Crucible of China, 20–45.

  Scholars and journalists: Sandra Burton, “Exodus of the Business Class: The Flight from Communism, 1949,” Time, Sep. 27, 1999.

  These two groups comprised: Zhang Zhongli (one of China’s preeminent sociologists), interview with the author, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Dec. 14, 2007.

  “Ben Char”: Interview with the author, May 6, 2010.

  “After the baby”: Marie Ristaino, Port of Last Resort, 254, 258–263.

  the General Gordon: APL Holdings file, Pacific Maritime Museum archives. APL first chartered the General Gordon, which was built in 1944, on June 18, 1946.

  During the war: North China Daily News (NCDN), Dec. 31, 1948.

  Only five months: NCDN, Dec. 5, 1948.

  “Between two and”: NCDN, Dec. 6, 1948.

  Communist gunners attacked: Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury (SEP), Apr. 20, 1949.

  The American President: SEP, May 21, 1949.

  Elder Sister congratulated: NCDN, May 20, 1949.

  Communist gunners narrowly: NCDN, May 20, 1949.

  As soon as: SEP, May 14, 1949.

  Only Alaska Airlines: NCDN, May 20, 1949.

  Shanghai was a: Bernard Wasserstein, Secret War in Shanghai, 2–3; Lynn Pan, Shanghai Style, 43.

  To the Communists: Wen-hsin Yeh, Shanghai Splendor, 2–5.

  For China, that: Wasserstein, Secret War, 1.

  When the war: Arthur S. Lyman, The China White Paper, August 1949, x–xiii.

  By late 1947: Ibid., 219, 256–261.

  The outcome of: Lloyd E. Eastman et al., The Nationalist Era in China, 1927–1949, 350–351.

  Nearly every family: St. John’s Dial and Echo, Dec. 7, 1948.

  Yet with each: NCDN, Nov. 12, 1948.

  Some of Shanghai’s: Wong Siu-Lun, Emigrant Entrepreneurs: Shanghai Industrialists in Hong Kong, 3–7, 17–41.

  Hong Kong’s population: Ibid., 3; Edvard Hambro, The Problem of Chinese Refugees in Hong Kong, 11–20.

  In Taiwan, approximately: A. Doak Barnett, report to Institute of Current World Affairs (ICWA), Oct. 15, 1954; Manfred Cheng, interview with the author, Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office, San Francisco, June 16, 2011; David M. Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 1949–1950, 110–111.

  Many thousands of: Lynn Pan, Sons of the Yellow Emperor, 178–218; Rose Hum Lee, “The Chinese Abroad,” Phylon 17, no. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1956): 258–265.

  CHAPTER 1: BENNY

  Avenue Haig: Huashan Lu.

  Shanghai’s foreign settlements: Betty Peh-T’i Wei, Shanghai: Crucible of China, 20–103.

  Though the boundaries: Ibid.

  German country club: Wasserstein, Secret War, 1, 49–51.

  a red band: Ibid., 18; J.F.K. Miller, “The Rise and Fall of Nazi Shanghai,” That’s Shanghai, May 2009.

  Soon he reached: Christine Estève et al., Lilongs—Shanghai; Hanchao Lu, Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century, 39–43, 138–166.

  “The Japanese must”: Frederic Wakeman, Policing Shanghai: 1927–37, 188–191.

  Their island neighbor: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 116.

  Frustrated Chinese leaders: Ibid., 51.

  But instead of: Ibid., 4–9, 47.

  But in recent: Wasserstein, Secret War, 15; Wakeman, Policing, 277.

  This new battle: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 119–120.

  Five years earlier: Harriet Sergeant, Shanghai, 187–193.

  “Those planes have”: Ibid., 296–308; Nancy Allison Wright, Yankee on the Yangtze, 166–170.

  Tibet Road: Xizang Zhong Lu.

  Benny straightened: Wei, Shanghai, 140–141.

  If anyone would: Wakeman, The Shanghai Badlands, 96.

  Pan Zhijie was: Wasserstein, Secret War, 7–9.

  the Chinese were: Wei, Shanghai, 51–63; Wakeman, Policing, xv–xvii.

  The Chinese pilots: Wakeman, Policing, 280.

  Avenue Edward VII: Yan’an Lu.

  Benny’s formal name would: Lynn Pan, Sons, 10–12; H. P. Wilkinson, The Family in Classical China, 157–210.

  Just beyond the: Sixian Deng, interview with the author; Hanchao Lu, Beyond, 39–43.

  Some foreigners claimed: Leo Ou-fan Lee, Shanghai Modern, 29–30; Wei, Shanghai, 231–232; North China Herald, May 27, 1911, as republished at earnshaw.com/​shanghai-ed-india/​tales/​t-public01.htm, accessed Feb. 2, 2012.

  docks and godowns: Nicholas R. Clifford, Spoilt Children of Empire, 42–43.

  The Chinese compradors: Wei, Shanghai, 123–127; Hanchao Lu, Beyond, 56–67.

  And it was: Edward Yihua Xu, “Religion and Education: St. John’s University as an Evangelizing Agency” (master’s diss., Princeton, 1994), 100–101.

  His father had: Wei, Shanghai, 193.

  the horror on: Sergeant, Shanghai, 297–306.

  Two of the: Nancy Allison Wright, Yankee on the Yangtze, 168–170.

  But no one: Tingchang “T.C.” Yao, interview with the author, May 14, 2010.

  Avenue Joffre: :Huaihai Lu.

  Charlie and John: Charlie Sie, interview with the author, Sep. 10, 2008.

  On the heels: Wasserstein, Secret War, 17–18.

  By December 1937: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 119–123.

  Cut off from: Frederic Wakeman and Wen-hsin Yeh, eds., Shanghai Sojourners, 4.

  Their gruesome massacre: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 120; Sergeant, Shanghai, 324.

  CHAPTER 2: HO

  In Changshu, the: The Peabody Essex Museum has a thorough description of gentry life and a reconstructed multigenerational Chinese gentry house: yinyutang.pem.org/, last accessed Mar. 9, 2018.

  Chinese lore is: Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution, 34, 52–59; Christina K. Gilmartin et al., Engendering China, 47–68.

  Weighing their options: Sergeant, Shanghai, 188–191.

  Medhurst Road: Taixing Lu.

  Their house on: Andrew David Field, Shanghai’s Dancing World, 149, 197; Wakeman, The Shanghai Badlands, 14.

  The Zhonghua: Wen-hsin Yeh, The Alienated Academy, 120.

  Bubbling Well Road: Nanjing Xi Lu.

  Avenue Foch: Yan’an Lu.

  Japanese secret police: Wasserstein, Secret War, 8–11, 201; Sergeant, Shanghai, 323.

  In the early: John B. Powell, My Twenty-Five Years in China, 334–335.

  Jessfield Road: Wanhangdu Lu.

  Chinese, rich or: Lynn Pan, Old Shanghai, 96; Sergeant, Shanghai, 316; Christian Henriot and Wen-hsin Yeh, eds., In the Shadow of the Rising Sun, 116–132, 243–254.

  CHAPTER 3: BING

  There was no: Hanchao Lu, Beyond the Neon Lights, 189–198.

  The stove heated: William Hinton, Fanshen, 37n.

  The “1-2-8 invasion”: Peter Harmsen, Shanghai 1937, 15–17; Wakeman, Policing, 188–191.

  By 1935, when: Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China, 403–424; John King Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution, 236–239.

  Her mother in: H. P. Wilkinson, The
Family in Classical China, 149; Christina K. Gilmartin et al., Engendering China, 92–96.

  She had a: Lynn Pan, Shanghai Style, 25–32.

  “These are not”: Wakeman, The Shanghai Badlands, 85–88.

  CHAPTER 4: ANNUO

  The walls of: George Wang and Betty Barr, Shanghai Boy, Shanghai Girl, 89–90.

  patriotic Boy Scouts: Frederic Wakeman and Wen-hsin Yeh, eds., Shanghai Sojourners, 124–125.

  The Imperial Japanese: Eastman et al., The Nationalist Era, 120, 134–135.

  People rushed to: Wei, Shanghai, 245.

  By the end: Harmsen, Shanghai 1937, 210–217.

  During those ten: Marie Bergère, The Golden Age of the Chinese Bourgeoisie, 227–241.

  Annuo’s parents epitomized: Bergère, Shanghai: Gateway to Modernity, 147–165.

  the Green Gang: Brian Martin, The Shanghai Green Gang, 5–7, 10–43; Sergeant, Shanghai, 82.

  businesses soared: Nicholas R. Clifford, Spoilt Children of Empire, 257–275.

  Chiang embarked on: Sergeant, Shanghai, 68–94; Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 1–9.

  “pact with the”: Bergère, Shanghai, 195–199.

  The gang’s leader: Ling Pan, Old Shanghai: Gangsters in Paradise, 16–17.

  The “White Terror”: Sergeant, Shanghai, 65–94.

  Women sporting bobbed: Wen-hsin Yeh, ed., Becoming Chinese, 346–347; Stella Dong, Shanghai, 184–185.

  More than thirty: The China Chronicles: Exodus and Resistance, directed by Yuan Min, exec. prod. Richard Lin Yang (2006; Canada Live News Agency, 2007), DVD.

  “Kill all, loot”: Spence, The Search for Modern China, 469; Hinton, Fanshen, 72.

  southern supply route: Barbara W. Tuchman, Sand Against the Wind, 234–240.

  Rue Lafayette: Fuxing Lu.

  “General Han Deqin”: Annabel Annuo Liu, interview with the author, May 17, 2007.

  CHAPTER 5: BENNY

  Pro-Nationalists argued: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 115, 136.

  Tokyo had expected: Ibid., 134.

  Chinese troops slowed: Ibid., 121–123; The Battle of China, directed by Frank Capra (1944; Office of War Information), accessed April 28, 2009, youtube.com/​watch?v=m4Ebv-FzP60.

  By early 1939: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 117, map; 136.

  More than a million: SEP, Dec. 17, 1941.

  So many of: “Johanneans in Government Service,” Johannean (1937), author’s collection.

  In 1939, Pan: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 96.

  more than 150: Ibid., 25.

  One particularly brazen: Ibid., 59–64.

  Even Generalissimo Chiang: Martin, The Shanghai Green Gang, 80–81.

  four hundred constables: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 96.

  C. C. Pan even: Ibid.

  76 Jessfield Road: Ibid., 58, 85; Wasserstein, Secret War, 24.

  Li Shiqun, reputed: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 85.

  An older St. John’s: Tao-Fu Ying, interview with the author, Oct. 6, 2008.

  Fu Xiaoan: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 97.

  Wang Jingwei: Lynn Pan, Old Shanghai, 61–76.

  Police Chief Pan: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 105.

  The elegant English-style: Zhang Yuanji, “40 Jessfield Road,” Guangxi Normal University Publications Dept., Baidu, accessed Sep. 5, 2011. Translated for the author by John Yu.

  British inspector scrawled: “Private House Occupied by S.G.O.P.B. at 40 Jessfield Rd.,” Police Report, Shanghai Municipal Police Investigation Files, 1947, RG 263, Microfilm Box 3, Roll 60, N332, National Archives, College Park, MD.

  CHAPTER 6: BING

  Three Principles of: Henry Blair Graybill and You-kuang Chu, The New China, 355.

  “Blood and Soul”: Field, Shanghai’s Dancing World, 203–204; Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 67–68.

  “tiger stove” shop: Lu, Beyond the Neon Lights, 102.

  wartime price inflation: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 152–169; Henriot and Yeh, eds., In the Shadow, 122–132.

  cronies and relatives: Ibid., 134–138; Dong, Shanghai, 281–286.

  black markets popped: NCDN, Oct. 10, 1945; Bergère, Shanghai, 314.

  Marlene Yang: Interview with the author, Mar. 18, 2009.

  CHAPTER 7: ANNUO

  a major riot: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 55.

  a single egg: Robert W. Barnett, “Starvation, Boom and Blockade in Shanghai,” Far Eastern Survey 9, no. 9 (Apr. 24, 1940): 97–102; Henriot and Yeh, In the Shadow, 124–128; James R. Ross, Escape to Shanghai, 209.

  first four years: Henriot and Yeh, In the Shadow, 1–6; Poshek Fu, Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration,120–126; Ursula Bacon, Shanghai Diary, 113–117.

  Japan’s military coordinated: NCDN, SEP, Hong Kong Standard (HKS), and New York Times (NYT), Dec. 8–10, 1941; William C. McDonald III and Barbara L. Evenson, The Shadow Tiger, 208–216; Dong, Shanghai, 268.

  Gudao, Solitary Island: Fu, Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration, 30–38, 120–126.

  Bridge House on: Henry F. Pringle, Bridge House Survivor, 4–12.

  Avenue Pétain: Hengshan Lu.

  Waibaidu (Garden) Bridge: Sergeant, Shanghai, 315–316; James R. Ross, Escape to Shanghai, 205–208.

  128 bank employees: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 120–123; Theresa Chow, interview with the author, June 10, 2010.

  Rue Boissezon: Fuxing Xi Lu.

  Rosalyn Koo: Interview with the author, July 23, 2007.

  Theresa Chen-Louie: Interview with the author, May 21, 2010.

  Nationalists and Communists: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 227–233.

  CHAPTER 8: BENNY

  Students across Shanghai: Mary Lamberton and George C. Shen, St. John’s University—Shanghai 1879–1947, 184; interviews by the author with numerous subjects, including Benny Pan, Nov. 10, 2012; Rosalyn Koo, July 23, 2007; Lo-Lo Zhang Pan, Aug. 24, 2007; Mary Ann Sun, May 22, 2008.

  private schools in: Wen-hsin Yeh, Alienated Academy, 284–287, tables 3–4.

  from Jessfield Park: Lamberton and Shen, St. John’s University, 183–184.

  Frank Kwok: Interview with the author, Sep. 9, 2009.

  plain dormitory: Edward Yihua Xu, “Religion and Education: St. John’s University as an Evangelizing Agency” (master’s diss., Princeton, 1994), 149–151.

  a sandwich at: Benny Pan, interviews with the author, including on Mar. 3, 2010; Zoya Shlakis file, Series I, Box 1, Folder 4: Memories of Shanghai, Old China Hand Archives, California State University, Northridge.

  “Good manners mark”: Xu, “Religion and Education,” 33.

  even Japanese politicians: Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 112.

  C. C. Pan was: Ibid., 132–133; Wasserstein, Secret War, 129.

  William Zu Liang Sung: Xu, “Religion and Education,” 130; undated memorandum, “St. John’s, Dr. T. M. Tang,” RG 79-12, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  Chiang Kai-shek himself: Lily Soo-Hoo Sun, biography of Zu Liang (William) Sung, unpublished manuscript, 26–27; Mary Ann Sun, interview with the author, Feb. 11, 2011.

  Sung called Benny’s: Lamberton and Shen, St. John’s University, 203.

  restore China’s sovereignty: Henriot and Yeh, In the Shadow, 253–262; H.L., “The End of Extraterritoriality in China,” Bulletin of International News 20, no. 2 (Jan. 23, 1943): 49–56.

  Jewish opera singer: Ross, Escape to Shanghai, 85–88.

  CHAPTER 9: BING

  all Allied nationals: Dong, Shanghai, 269–271.

  Plenty of British: Robert Bickers, Empire Made Me, 313–319.

  He had plenty: Wasserstein, Secret War, 135–140, 270–271; Ristaino, Port of Last Resort, 214.

  Kristian received orders:
SEP, Dec. 17, 1941.

  about twenty thousand: Ristaino, Port of Last Resort, 98–108; Bergère, Shanghai, 296–297.

  English-language papers: Powell, My Twenty-Five Years, 342; Fu, Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration, 30–38.

  citizens of Allied: Wasserstein, Secret War, 135–140.

  seventy-six hundred Americans: Ibid., 137.

  CHAPTER 10: ANNUO

  “Spies are everywhere”: Henriot and Yeh, In the Shadow, 142; Wakeman, Shanghai Badlands, 135; Myra Souza dos Remedios, interview with the author, May 10, 2010.

  “baojia snitches to”: Wang and Barr, Shanghai Boy, Shanghai Girl, 150–152; “Shanghai—Counter-Espionage Summary,”Aug. 12, 1945, Headquarters Office of Strategic Services, China Theater, author’s collection, 5.

  fleas infected with: Spence, The Search for Modern China, 496.

  where white rice: Henriot and Yeh, In the Shadow, 143–146.

  June 9, 1944: Wasserstein, Secret War, 256.

  Chinese Curtiss Hawks: Alexander Ludeke, Weapons of World War II, 218–275; Gregory Crouch, China’s Wings.

  Nellie Sung Tao: Interview with the author, July 24, 2007.

  CHAPTER 11: BENNY

  Married men of: Gail Hershatter, “Regulating Sex,” in Wakeman and Yeh, Shanghai Sojourners, 145–167; Sergeant, Shanghai, 282–284.

  one American bomb: Dong, Shanghai, 279.

  two hundred American: Ibid.; Kenneth C. Liang collection, accessed Apr. , 2008.

 

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