Last Boat Out of Shanghai

by Helen Zia

  August 15, 1945: Dong, Shanghai, 279.

  Chen Gongbo: Fu, Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration, 219; NCDN, Apr. 13, 1946.

  Japanese military was: Suzanne Pepper, The Civil War in China, 9–16; Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 308.

  arrest C. C. Pan: Shanghai Herald, Oct. 3, 1945.

  “Confiscated from Puppets”: Shanghai Herald, Apr. 3, 1946, Apr. 10, 1946; Pepper, Civil War, 16–24.

  CHAPTER 12: HO

  cabarets, gambling joints: Field, Shanghai’s Dancing World, 166–170.

  one hundred thousand: Harry S.Truman, Memoirs, vol. 2, 66; Pepper, Civil War, 9–12; Wasserstein, Secret War, 266.

  Japanese and German officials: Wasserstein, Secret War, 266.

  The uncertainty stymied: Ibid., 265.

  U.S. Tenth Air: Spence, The Search for Modern China, 484.

  USS Rocky Mount: Wasserstein, Secret War, 266.

  more than one hundred thousand: NCDN, Nov. 23, 1945, Jan. 1, 1946; Gail Hershatter, Dangerous Liaisons, 293–299.

  American sailors, soldiers: Dong, Shanghai, 281.

  right-hand side: Shanghai Herald, Dec. 31, 1945.

  puppets and collaborators: Pepper, Civil War, 37–40.

  students who stayed: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 308–309.

  “reconversion” training program: Pepper, Civil War, 37–40.

  students and workers: Ibid., 38–39; Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 314.

  marine had raped: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 54–58; Henriot and Yeh, In the Shadow, 359.

  Jiao Da engineering: Pepper, Civil War, 61.

  terrible inflationary pressure: NCDN, Nov. 23, 1948, Dec. 21, 1948; Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 309–314.

  hundred yuan could: Frank Dikotter, The Tragedy of Liberation, 18.

  required foreign students: Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic, Chinese America, 237.

  CHAPTER 13: BING

  Nine hundred million: Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution, 261–263.

  five hundred thousand: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 294; David M. Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 23–24.

  General George Marshall: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 297–305.

  American soldiers grabbing: Dong, Shanghai, 281.

  Shanghai’s local riders: SEP, July 20, 1946, Oct. 9, 1946.

  brokering a truce: Dorothy Borg, “America Loses Chinese Good Will,” Far Eastern Survey 18, no. 4 (Feb. 23, 1949): 37–45.

  About $500 million: Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution, 262–264; Hannah Pakula, The Last Empress, 556–561.

  stream of carpetbaggers: Pepper, Civil War, 16–24.

  Avenue du Roi Albert: Shanxi Nan Lu.

  CHAPTER 14: HO

  American GIs across: R. Alton Lee,“The Army ‘Mutiny’ of 1946,” Journal of American History 53, no. 3 (Dec. 1, 1966): 555–571.

  Lo-Lo Zhang Pan: Interview with the author, Aug. 24, 2007.

  more than three hundred: List of students on the General Gordon, 1947, Ho Chow papers, author’s collection.

  Ming Cho Lee: Interview with the author, May 15, 2008.

  CHAPTER 15: BENNY

  advice of Pan Da: Lamberton and Shen, St. John’s University, 203; Xu, “Religion and Education,” 130–133; undated memorandum, “St. John’s, Dr. T. M. Tang,” RG 79-12, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  grisly details of: Powell, My Twenty-Five Years, 335–338; Henry F. Pringle, Bridge House Survivor, 13–18.

  “rather indifferent to religion”: Xu, “Religion and Education,” 156.

  director, Grace Brady: Lamberton and Shen, St. John’s University, 188–189; Stephen Chun-Tao Cheng, “Remembering Ms. Grace Brady,” The Johanneans (Oct. 2005); The San Diego Union, July 8, 1960.

  Ward Road: Changyang Lu.

  Tilanqiao Prison, as: “A History of Shanghai’s Tilanqiao Prison,” That’s Shanghai, May 18, 2017, thatsmags.com/​shanghai/​post/​18980/​tbt-a-history-of-shanghai-s-tilanqiao-prison, last accessed Mar. 10, 2018.

  making mass arrests: NCDN, June 5, 1949, June 6, 1949; NYT, May 14, 1949.

  Little Vienna, where: Shanghai Ghetto, directed by Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann (2002; Rebel Child Production, New Video Group, 2004), DVD.

  Dai Li himself: Benny Pan, interview with the author, June 9, 2014; Frederic Wakeman, Spymaster, 352.

  China National Aviation: Gregory Crouch, China’s Wings, 381–383.

  St. John’s Dial: Feb. 8, 1949, RG 30-2-23, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  Richard Lin Yang: Interview with the author, Oct. 15, 2007.

  CHAPTER 16: ANNUO

  important military victories: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 330–332.

  “ ‘whites-only’ policy”: Laura Madokoro, Elusive Refuge, 104–115; “White Australia Policy Begins,” National Museum Australia, nma.gov.au/​online_features/​defining_moments/​featured/​white_australia_policy_begins, last accessed Jan. 10, 2018.

  Big Four ruling: Parks M. Coble, Jr., The Shanghai Capitalists, 255.

  “A plane dispatched”: Pakula, Last Empress, 556–557.

  CHAPTER 17: BING

  U.S. Congress had: Madeline Y. Hsu, “The Disappearance of America’s Cold War Chinese Refugees, 1948–1966,” Journal of American Ethnic History 31, no. 4 (Summer 2012): 16; Richard Ferree Smith, “Refugees,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 367 (Sep. 1966): 44–46.

  “only a hundred and five Chinese”: Mae M. Ngai, “Legacies of Exclusion: Illegal Chinese Immigration during the Cold War Years,” Journal of American Ethnic History 18, no. 1 (Fall 1998): 3–35; Richard Ferree Smith, “Refugees,”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 367 (Sep. 1966): 44–46.

  sack of rice: Spence, The Search for Modern China, 502.

  August 19, 1948: Ibid., 520.

  ordered citizens to hand over: Wei, Shanghai, 261–262; Dong, Shanghai, 287–289.

  went too far: Ibid.; Pakula, Last Empress, 559–561.

  As hyperinflation careened: Colin D. Campbell and Gordon C. Tullock, “Hyperinflation in China, 1937–49,”Journal of Political Economy 62, no. 3 (June 1954): 236–245.

  spend their pay: “Shanghai’s Buying,” Life, Nov. 15, 1948; Charles P. Gilson Memoranda, Oct. 26, 1948, Nov. 2, 1948, Records of the Treasurer, RG 64-128-13 and RG 64-128-14, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  Shanghai’s wealthy capitalists: Wong Siu-lun, Emigrant Entrepreneurs, 16–25.

  Marshall, having witnessed: Arthur S. Lyman, “US Aid to the GMD, Statement to Committees on Foreign Affairs and Foreign Relations, US Congress,” February 20, 1948, in The China White Paper, 382–383.

  imposed martial law: NCDN, Nov. 12, 1948.

  “Removed by censor”: Noel Barber, The Fall of Shanghai, 110–111.

  China’s entire treasury: Ibid., 78.

  China’s greatest art: Aschwin Lippe, “Hidden Treasures of China,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14, no. 2 (Oct. 1955): 54–60; Chia-feng Wang, “Adventures of the Treasures,” Kuang-hua-tsa-chih [Sinorama Monthly], Aug. 1985.

  toothpaste, screws—anything: Shanghai confidential office memorandum from Taipei deputy mayor Chen Cheng, April 29, 1949, Q1-7-563, Shanghai Municipal Archives, accessed April 2008. Translated for the author by Emily Xuxuan Xu.

  By November 1948: NCDN, Nov. 12, 1948.

  MOTORCARS, APARTMENTS, CHEAP: NCDN, Dec. 2, 1948.

  ten-foot wooden: SEP, Apr. 20, 1949.

  CHAPTER 18: HO

  Back in 1946: NCDN, Dec. 17, 1948, Dec. 24, 1948.

  Ho’s letters from: Ho Chow papers, trans. by Emily Xuxuan Xu, author’s collection.

  called China Motors: Ho
Chow, interview with the author, July 11, 2007.

  the last gasps: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 342–350.

  landlords were being: Spence, The Search for Modern China, 517.

  Norwegian missionaries observed: Odd Arne Westad, Decisive Encounters, 134.

  great flight out: SEP, Apr. 26, 1949, Apr. 30, 1949, May 2, 1949; Charles P. Gilson Memorandum to Earl Fowler, RG 79-12, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  CHIANG RELINQUISHES POST: NYT, Jan. 22, 1949.

  With Chiang’s resignation: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 350–352.

  Communists had swept: Spence, The Search for Modern China, 510–513.

  mayor, K. C. Wu: NCDN, Apr. 1, 1949.

  April 21, 1949: SEP, Apr. 21, 1949.

  “their Stalingrad” with: NYT, May 19, 1949.

  mounted machine guns: NYT, May 1, 1949, May 2, 1949.

  summarily executed dissenters: NCDN, Apr. 2, 1949, May 12, 1949; NYT, May 8, 1949.

  warnings to evacuate: NCDN, Apr. 26, 1949, Apr. 29, 1949.

  Operation Flying Dragon: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Daily News Bulletin,” May 20, 1949.

  business as usual: NYT, June 5, 1949.

  CHAPTER 19: BENNY

  martial law imposed: Dong, Shanghai, 291–292.

  A strict curfew: NCDN, May 26, 1949.

  Shanghai universities shut: China Press, Apr. 28, 1949; SEP, Apr. 28, 1949.

  On May 24: NCDN, May 25, 1949.

  few blocks away: Ibid.

  the next morning: NCDN, May 26, 1949.

  only opposition arose: NCDN, May 27, 1949; newsreel footage exhibit, Shanghai General Post Office Museum, viewed Jan. 3, 2008.

  “People’s Liberation Army”: NYT, May 27, 1949.

  two thousand Red Army: NCDN, June 5, 1949.

  Other Nationalist troops: SEP, May 25, 1949.

  in wild celebration: NCDN, May 26, 1949; NYT, May 27, 1949.

  the yang ko: Ibid.; Sam Tata, Shanghai 1949: The End of an Era, 122–141, images 66–75.

  the women’s dormitory: Confidential letter, RG 79-12, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  an underground Communist: Tao-Fu Ying, interview with the author.

  pro-Communist campus: “St. John’s University,” p. 82, RG 79-12, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  Marshal Chen Yi: NYT, June 5, 1949.

  Thousands of mines: NCDN, June 5, 1949.

  the renminbi: NCDN, May 24, 1949, June 5, 1949.

  With much fanfare: NCDN, May 27, 1949.

  shut down the vice: Field, Shanghai’s Dancing World, 263.

  attacks on Shanghai: NCDN, June 24, 1949, July 22, 1949; NYT, June 30, 1949.

  Nationalist plane mistakenly: NCDN, June 24, 1949.

  Dr. Tu Yu-Ching: Lamberton and Shen, St. John’s University, 340.

  Communist government swiftly: Barber, The Fall of Shanghai, 174–179, 192.

  CHAPTER 20: HO

  Immigration and Naturalization Service: Ho Chow papers, author’s collection.

  sympathetic Americans wrote: NCDN, Dec. 31, 1948; National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), RG 85, No. 56234/455.

  Chinyee: Interview with the author, Dec. 5, 2007.

  Chinese Students Club: Confidential INS file, NARA, RG 85, No. 56324/950, Box 243.

  Chinese Students’ Christian: “Chinese Students’ Christian Association,” NARA, RG 85, folder 56292/617; Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic, Chinese America, 221–222.

  named Paul Lin: “Proposed Course of Action Relative to Investigation of Questionable Chinese Student Organizations,” Feb. 20, 1950, and “Subversive Activity of Dr. Paul Ta-kuang Lin,” Jan. 25, 1950, NARA, RG 85, No. 56292/617.

  Dr. Paul Chih Meng: “Chinese Students in the United States and Their Communistic Affiliations and Activities,” July 19, 1950, NARA, RG 85, No. 56292/617.

  debate ensued in Washington: “INS Views on Bill to Permit Chinese Students to Remain in US for Three Years,” NARA, RG 85, No. 56190/93.

  Maria Lee Koh: Interview with the author, Oct. 28, 2009.

  powerful Americans claimed: Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes, 376–377; David E. Kaplan, Fires of the Dragon, 112; John Dower, War Without Mercy, 309.

  all Chinese were: Renqiu Yu, To Save China, To Save Ourselves, 182–191; Cindy I-Fen Cheng, Citizens of Asian America, 149–157.

  Madame Chiang Kai-shek: Pakula, Last Empress, 626–632, 650–656.

  being a lesbian: Jonathan Fenby, Chiang Kai-shek, 397.

  apartment on Fifth: Ibid., 627n.

  Jack Tang, the: Interview with the author, Sep. 14, 2007; Jack Chi-chien Tang, oral history conducted by Carolyn Wakeman, 1999, “The Textile Industry and the Development of Hong Kong, 1949–1999,” transcript, UC Berkeley Regional Oral History Archives, 2003, 28–31.

  clamoring to return: “Proposed Mass Movement of Resident Chinese Back to China,” NARA, RG 85, No. 56240/732.

  State Department established: “Reports from State Dept. re: Chinese Students Intending to Depart from United States,” NARA, RG 85, No. 56324/395.

  letters came from: “Proposed Mass Movement of Resident Chinese Back to China,” NARA, RG 85, No. 56240/732.

  about one hundred: “Reports from State Dept. re: Chinese Students Intending to Depart from United States,” NARA, RG 85, No. 56324/395.

  WAI SHENG REN: Dominic Meng-Hsuang Yang and Mau-kuei Chang, “Understanding the Nuances of Waishengren,” China Perspectives 83 (2010): 110–114.

  Nationalist secret police: Charlotte Brooks, Between Mao and McCarthy, 114–119; Yu, To Save China, 183–184; Kaplan, Fires of the Dragon, 112–116.

  CHAPTER 21: ANNUO

  Four hundred years: Yu-Shan, “Formosa under Three Rules,” Pacific Historical Review 19, no. 4 (Nov. 1950): 397–407; Harry Alverson Franck, Glimpses of Japan and Formosa, 141–147.

  China had ceded: Ibid., 48–52.

  Upon Japan’s surrender: Ibid., 52–55.

  February 28, 1947: Allan J. Shackleton, Formosa Calling, 45–68; George H. Kerr, Formosa Betrayed, 239–248; Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 61–67.

  more than a million: Mahlon Meyer, Remembering China from Taiwan, 4–8.

  entire Nationalist government: Fenby, Chiang Kai-shek, 494–498; Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 71–73, 169–172.

  vigilant against the: NCDN, May 3, 1949.

  constant state of: NCDN, May 24, 1949; United Press International, May 1, 1949.

  the White Terror: Laura Tyson Li, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, 344–348; Meyer, Remembering China from Taiwan, 3; Elizabeth Converse, “Formosa: Private Citadel?” Far Eastern Survey 18, no. 21 (Oct. 19, 1949): 249–250; Hong-zen Wang, “Class Structures and Social Mobility in Taiwan in the Initial Postwar Period,” China Journal 48 (July 2002): 68, 77.

  China Aid Act of: Lyman, China White Paper, 408; Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 31.

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

  General Bai Chongxi: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 352.

  Pai Hsien-yung: Interview with the author, Nov. 29, 2010.

  [“The United States does”]: Bevin Alexander, Korea: The First War We Lost, 18.

  China lobby roundly: Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 264–270.

  vise of martial law: Cheng, “The Formosa Triangle,” 801–803; Kerr, Formosa Betrayed, chap. 20.

  On March 1, 1950: Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 295–297.

  on Green Island: Ibid.; Shawna Yang Ryan, Green Island.

  “We Taiwanese have”: Peter P. C. Cheng, “The Formosa Triangle,” Asian Survey 7, no. 11 (Nov. 1967): 800.

  urban residential se
ctors: Hsinchu Museum of Military Dependents Village, Hsinchu city, Taiwan; military village restoration and museum, 44 South Village, Taipei.

  “retake the mainland”: Meyer, Remembering China from Taiwan, 44–50.

  President Chiang was: Eastman, The Nationalist Era, 352.

  bombers to attack Shanghai: Ibid., 292–295.

  CHAPTER 22: BING

  Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: American Experience, “Chinese Exclusion Act,” directed by Ric Burns and Li-shun Yu, produced by Steeplechase Films, aired on May 29, 2018, on PBS; ricburns.com/​film/​the-chinese-exclusion-act; caamedia.org/​blog/​2017/​03/​13/​chinese-exclusion-act-a-new-film-about-a-19th-century-law-with-21st-century-lessons/, accessed Mar. 3, 2018.

  many Chinese were: Erika Lee, The Making of Asian America, 96–99.

  lengthy imprisonment with: Ibid.; “Immigrant History,” Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, aiisf.org/​education/​station-history/​life-on-angel-island, last accessed Jan. 7, 2018.

  most influential organizations: Brooks, Between Mao and McCarthy, 16–22.

  Catholic priest, Reverend: Margaret Soong, interview by author, June 11, 2009.

  CHAPTER 23: DOREEN AND BENNY

  boss and benefactor: Ellis N. Tucker, confidential letter, June 12, 1948, RG 79-12, Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, TX.

  Nationalist forces continued: NCDN, June 30, 1949, July 22, 1949; Pepper, Civil War, 392, 401.

  from the Soviets: Han Suyin, The Morning Deluge, 502–524.

  Avenue Pétain mansion: Anne Warr, Shanghai Architecture, 130–131.

  taken millions of dollars: Dong, Shanghai, 289.

  misused diplomatic passports: NYT, Sep. 23, 1947, Oct. 6, 1947.