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The Life of John Zeidman

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Americans have been coming to China for centuries and they will continue to come long after my generation has left this world.  In fact, the first ones arrived in China in 1784 aboard the ship Empress of China, hoping to trade American ginseng for Chinese tea, porcelain, and other goods.  I have always enjoyed reading and hearing about these experiences, whether they happened a hundred years ago or last week.  Even with the great strides the world has taken and the developments these two countries have made, a trip from America to China is still an undeniable adventure.  Young men and women floating along in their lives in America with no hardened idea of what they want out of life may find themselves taking the flight to China and once there a new world of opportunity opens before them, and yes, even adventure.  China can intoxicate men with its vibrant cities, ancient culture, and a language that can make the most cynical of students see the beauty of learning a foreign tongue.  This country can literally provide everything that some young Americans need to make sense of this world, to see the way forward.

When Mozart first sat down at the harpsichord there must have been a click in his brain, a puzzle fitting into place.  For some, China can provide a similar epiphany.  It was this way for me and I know I am not alone in my sentiments.  While I am not saying I am destined to devote my whole life to China, I am just as sure that there was a profound click in my brain after my first trip to Beijing as a high school student.  It wasn’t something I could just brush off as I headed back to America.  There was something about this country that fulfilled my childhood dreams of foreign discovery in such a profound way and it gave me something useful to pursue in life.  Ever since that cold January day when I landed in Beijing that’s what I’ve been doing.  I don’t know where it will take me, but I know it will be worth it.

If this all sounds overly romantic, please excuse me.  I’ve just finished reading the story of an American that came to China to study a full five years before I was even born.  His name was John Zeidman and for him, like me and many other others, “China seemed to bring everything together.”

The story I read was written by Calvin Trillin and published in the New Yorker magazine on October 7, 1985.  I found my way to this mid-eighties copy of the New Yorker by way of a journalist I respect a lot, James Fallows.  You see Mr. Fallows just published a small article (all articles feel small in comparison to New Yorker articles) for the Atlantic magazine about an American couple who live in the town of Xizhou in my former home province of Yunnan.  To keep it short, they are trying to keep Xizhou from becoming the tourist wasteland that other historical towns in the hinterland of Yunnan have become (I’m looking at you Lijiang).  They run a community center/inn than supports the local arts and provides a more fulfilling way for visitors to appreciate that most beautiful and interesting corner of China.  Something mentioned in the article stuck out at me, though.  In the article we learn that the American husband, Brian Linden, came to China in the early 1980s as a student:

Soon after his arrival, he was spotted by a movie director while jogging down a Beijing street and cast as the lead in a Chinese movie. The film, He Came From Across the Pacific, was based on the tragic story of John Zeidman, an American exchange student who caught viral encephalitis in China and died in 1982.

I had never heard of John Zeidman, but I was instantly interested.  For a Chinese movie to have been made about an American student who came to China at that time, when relations between America and China were just beginning to include student exchanges, it was bound to be, at the very least, a good story and most likely a big deal.  Luckily for me before I came to Shanghai I packed a good chunk of my father’s “The Complete New Yorker,” which is stored on DVDs, and I had the 1984-1997 disc.  So today while there was a lull at work I stuck in the disc and brought up the article.  The information used in this post is entirely from that New Yorker article, unless otherwise noted; there was little more that I could find about him online and no photographs.  If you have a subscription to the magazine I suggest you read the article online.

I would like to add that in writing this post I don’t want to hurt anyone by rehashing a painful story, it was just that I found this young man’s experience in China so absolutely fascinating and heart wrenching.  The fact that no one I know my age living in China has heard of him is unacceptable to me.  Historians tell stories worth telling and this is without a doubt just such a story

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China’s National Day Parade

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

The Chinese National Day Parade 2009

The parade of the century is over.  There is a beautiful blue sky over Beijing, it is in fact nothing short of a perfect Beijing day.  In Shanghai, however, it’s overcast and raining hard.  Not a problem for me, I’m sick in bed and it’s better that it rains when one is sick than the other way around.  But in Beijing everyone is healthy and walking under a beautiful blue sky.  Keep in mind, the Chinese Air Force put a lot of time and effort into making this blue sky; last night they blew up special bombs over Beijing to dissipate any clouds that might be forming.  One must remember that the Communist Party of China decides the what the weather will be like.

I missed the beginning of the parade, when the flag was raised, precise groups of fighter jets and helicopters flew over the capital, and President Hu Jintao inspected endless rows of perfect soldiers and their heavy machinery.  Lucky for me the whole thing is on repeat on almost every channel, so I haven’t missed anything.

After the flag raising President Hu rolled down the avenue of Eternal Peace standing in his Red Flag limousine (the same kind Mao Zedong rode around in) for his inspection of the military.  He passed the Grand Hyatt hotel, a Mercedes Benz dealership, a Tiffany’s store (all closed and evacuated), and absolutely no spectators that weren’t either in the military or invited by the government. It was weird seeing the empty sidewalks around Tian’anmen square, what kind of parade doesn’t have people on the sidewalks?  As he inspected the very good looking soldiers I couldn’t help but gush over the turquoise blue missile carriers, it’s probably the young boy in me that gets a kick out of fabulously colored military equipment.  He kept screaming 同志们好！(Hello Comrades!) at the soldiers, and nothing more.  By the looks of it China could invade Taiwan and Japan still have enough people and equipment left over to leave a kick-ass army back home to defend the motherland.  Of course, as they kept saying, China is working to bring about world peace.  Forgive me, goosestepping soldiers and nuclear missiles make me think of another time.

After the fighter jets and President Hu’s military inspection the actual parade began.  It started with more perfect goosestepping soldiers, bright tanks and scary looking missile carriers.  Then the parade morphed into something that wasn’t a militaristic display of power but rather a happier and more upbeat display of the greatness of today’s China.  At first it reminded me of another autumn parade: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  But how can a parade of 200,000 people showing the glory and power of socialism be in the same category as Macy’s parade?  Plus the plastic smiles and stiff spectators weren’t really reminiscent of Macy’s parade.

The show was impressive my anyone’s measuring stick.  It seemed endless and was synchronized to a degree that I had, until now, believed could only be accomplished by robots.  It was colorful too, with red and yellow being the most prevalent.  On TV we largely viewed the parade from the viewpoint of the country’s leaders (interestingly, I only saw one woman standing with them).  They all stood on Tian’anmen gate, where Mao Zedong had proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China 60 years ago today.  Navy blue suits and red ties were a popular fashion choice among these big wigs, only President Hu wore the classic Mao suit (it’s actual name is the Sun Yat-sen suit, but for today let’s forget that).  The camera often focused on Jiang Zemin and President Hu, but almost as often we got a nice picture of Xi Jinping, who is speculated to be the next President of China.  It seems these things are decided far in advance.  This may not be true after all.

After all the tanks and missiles went by we got to see the floats and all the costumed dancers.  Somewhere in this quilted river of vibrating color were some friends of mine.  I’d like to say I could see them, but then again the whole point of the parade isn’t to see the individual.  My favorite part was the long line of province floats.  Each province had a float that showed off it’s splendor and what it’s famous for, often in a stereotyped fashion (coconut palms for Hainan!).  It was one of the only parts that made me really happy and abundantly proud of the country.  Somehow seeing the floats for the places I’ve lived and being able to understand the Chinese commentator’s words made me excited.  As a special treat there was even a Taiwan float (the PRC government considers Taiwan to be a rebel province).  My apologies to my Chinese friends, armies (whether American or Chinese) always put me off in a way and it’s hard to get excited about a float devoted to the construction of a new generation of rural villages.

The grandest show in the world ended with about ten thousand children letting go of big red balloons and rushing Tian’anmen gate screaming while the words 明天更美好 (Tomorrow will be even better!) were spelled out in massive yellow characters behind them on Tian’anmen square.  It was a nod to the bright future of China and it’s children.  It was cool watching the balloons float over the square and hearing the happy children scream, nonetheless the whole parade never made me think of China’s bright future.  In my eyes, the parade more than anything else seemed to make China’s government look old and dated. This is what I came away with from this awe-inspiring display of China’s unity and power.  For one, the overwhelming military presence, the over 100,000 synchronized students waving colorful fans, and Chinese characters as large as buildings that spelled 社会主义好 (Socialism is good!) on Tian’anmen square all brought to mind the old Soviet Republic and today’s North Korea.  The floats weren’t exactly futuristic, either.  There was great fanfare about the future development of science education and the happiness of the country’s 56 official ethnic minorities, but it didn’t really make China look like a country going forward.  Rather it seemed like a loving display of China’s gloried past and and affirmation that China is happy where it is and that reform is unnecessary.

I’m proud of China and it’s people today.  Regardless, this parade was never meant for me, it was meant for them.  As long as they’re happy then it was a success, that’s what’s important here.  Everyone celebrates their nation’s bithday differently and this celebration was about as Chinese as you can get.  Now I’m going to pop some Tylenol and lie in bed so I can be ready to watch the fireworks display tonight.

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John Quincy Adams

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

If there is a Bostonian who ever sailed from his own harbor for distant lands, or returned to it from them, without feelings, at the sight of the Blue Hills, which he is unable to express, his heart is differently constituted than mine.

-John Quincy Adams

I’m kind of on a John Quincy Adams kick right now, certainly an odd place to be.  I got the above quote from Josiah Quincy’s 1858 biography, Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams.

I’m not terribly homesick for the blue hills of Massachusetts, but I will say I’m prouder than ever to be a native son of the Commonwealth.  With the passing of our great Senator Edward Kennedy I am reminded again of the great politicians and leaders that have come from the Bay State and our long and storied past.  I’ve found over the years that there’s no better vantage point to appreciate your home and government than from overseas, so these days I’m trying to find time between reading novels and watching Mad Men on Tudou to read about Massachusetts’ history and about some of the excellent people that have hailed from our state.  It’s a nice change from reading the Chinese news and researching Chinese law.  And what about those Red Sox, huh?  They’re just six games behind the Yankees at 89 and 60.  If we get to the Playoffs (knock on wood) I’m fairly certain I’ll be able to find a bar in Shanghai playing the games, of course, the timing couldn’t be worse here on the other side of the world.

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What it takes to be an Old China Hand

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

general stilwell burma

Vinegar Joe himself

The term China Hand or Old China Hand (always written in capital letters, thank you very much) describes a foreigner who understands China very well and it gets tossed around a lot these days.  In Chinese China Hand is 中国通 and it often doesn’t take much for a Chinese person to give you this title, much in the same way as when people applaud a simple Chinese sentence coming out of a Westerner’s mouth.  Of course, being in China one must be  modest and anyways becoming a China Hand has always seemed like an unattainable goal to me.

Right now I’m reading The China Hands by E.J. Kahn, Jr (1972).  It’s about America’s pre-1949 Foreign Service officers in China and what befell them during the crazy days under Senator McCarthy.  These men were almost all children of missionaries and had grown up in China, they were the only people who could hope to try to understand China in those days of decadence, warlords and Chiang Kai-Shek that preceded the Communist Revolution.  Before WWII China was one of the only countries whose consulate directors had to be fluent in the local language, kind of surprising.  Because of the demanding nature of the work these foreign service officers were a group unto themselves and in his book Mr. Kahn writes what it takes to be a Old China Hand:

These China specialists were extraordinarily noncompetitive.  There was no single star, no Kennan (?), among them; they considered themselves, and probably were, a collective elite, with a shared pride comparable to that often found among United States Marines, and a shared elan stemming from their shared concern for intellectual inquiry, from their deep and immersion into and understanding of Chinese enthocentricity, and from the pecuilar challenge of the problems that faced them in their work.  And, further, they had in common a shared awareness of how challenging it had been merely to get where they were; it was generally conceded that it took a minimum of about ten years in China before anyone could rightly be termed, in the nonpejorative sense, an Old China Hand.

Interesting stuff.  It means I still have several years to go before I could rightly be termed an Old China Hand, fine by me.  I should add that other than a few interesting parts I can’t really recommend this book, it’s so badly written.

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Chinese Government Tries to Hide Dirty Past

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
The Goddess of Democracy

The Goddess of Democracy

Tomorrow is the big day.  It is the most sensitive anniversary of this year (so far): June 4th, the 20th anniversary of the Tian’anmen Square Massacre that brought the months long student protest for greater freedom and democracy to a bloody close.

This is actually a much smaller deal in China then you would think.  The reason is largely due to the fact that the younger generations, the high school and college students, have never heard about this dark day in Chinese history.  And if you do know anything about it your gut reaction is probably to be quiet, what with the Harmonious Society kick the government is on these days.  Back in 2004 when I was a outspoken and overzealous high school student in Beijing I brought up the protest with my host brother.  He had never heard of it.  Yet it turned out that he had been there as a toddler.  His parents, like many Beijing residents, went to the Square to give food to the protesting students, many of whom were holding a hunger strike.  My young host brother handed out popsicles.  Still though he had never learned of the protest until an American student had come to live with him 15 years later.

Of course the most lively discussion about the big anniversary is happening online.  Former dissidents have been promoting a campaign to have people wear white clothes on June 4th, white is the color of mourning in the Chinese culture.  There is already talk online that TV presenters are banned from wearing white (or black, or red) for the whole month of June.

A lot the discussion of the anniversary and what people are doing has been happening on Twitter.  So it was probably inevitable that Twitter was blocked yesterday, along with the Flickr photo sharing site and Hotmail (Hotmail is now back).  Many outspoken Chinese bloggers have been using Twitter as a nice uncensored alternative to the options available in China.  It is the first time Twitter was blocked. The New York Times has an article up about the recent wave of censorship in China.

First thing, this sucks.  I use these sites everyday.  All the photos on my blog are uploaded to Flickr, so now the blog looks rather naked from China.  I was getting really into Twitter too, though I must say a break from Twitter isn’t all that bad for my time management.  This recent wave of web site blockings (all in the name of creating a happy harmonious society) comes at the heels of many earlier attempts at censorship in the lead up to the anniversary.  Youtube was blocked over a month ago and as usual searching for websites related to the anniversary shuts down your access to Google and other sites.  In other forms of censorship pages from the International Herald Tribune were taken out of every issue entering the country and the BBC World News channel, which is available to many people in large cities like Beijing and Shanghai, found that it’s signal cut out whenever it brought up the Tian’anmen Square protest.  Geesh!  So much work you guys!  I wonder how many Party members it takes to unscrew the light bulb?

However the government, like a sloppy child hiding a mess from his mother, doesn’t actually manage to hold back the flow of information too well.  For instance this video is still available here in China.  These attempts at blatant censorship have also given the world media a lot to write and talk about and are incredibly noticeable and infuriating over here and not just to us American expats.  It seems to me that this campaign achieves nothing but to diminish the people’s trust in the Party and government.   Tomorrow I will have my own little protest by wearing white, but if anyone at my school asks me why I must lie.  (I have been banned from wearing white by an American.  It’s actually fine by me, giving voice to your political thoughts in China is just plain scary and often stupid (especially for a foreigner).  Ironically enough though it seems that half of the teachers at my school are wearing white.)  No wonder my students always say they love America because of its freedom.  They may not know anything about the Tian’anmen Square Protest and the bloody massacre that ended it but they’re not stupid.

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My Collection of Curious Cultural Revolution Curios: Part One

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

I can’t believe it has taken me so long to write this post, but that’s the way blogging goes sometimes.  This post relates back to my trip to Sichuan over two months ago.  It took me to Chengdu, Kangding, Litang, and finally back to Chengdu, where I went shopping for books.

There is no other kind of shopping that satisfies me the way shopping for books does.  China loves bookstores and I love China for loving bookstores.  However the large impressive book stores that most Chinese people go to are filled with new shiny copies of books (even Barack Obama’s last book can be found!), none of the books seem to be older than 5 years.  If you want to find used books and bits of China’s fascinating past you need to dig a little deeper.

When I visited Chengdu in 2006 I had visited Dufu’s Grass Hut park, a large leafy area where the Tang dynasty poet had once lived and written some of his best poetry.  Right outside the park there was a wonderful and uncommon collection of used book stores, a sight which had existed for hundreds of years.  Their musty smell and dusty piles of books that reached to the ceiling had no resemblance to the new massive “book cities” that one normally runs into.  The clientele were also skewed older than most bookstores here.  I had fallen in love with this used book district of Chengdu two years ago, so I eagerly went back in 2008.

Sadly times have changed.  Tourism to the Dufu park was much heavier this year and the surrounding neighborhood was filled with more restaurants and even a new Amway cosmetics store.  The used book stores I had fallen in love with two years ago were no more.  In their place was an assortment of antique stores, mostly selling items that could hardly be considered antique.  But since it was the National Holiday the sidewalk was brimming with entrepreneurial energy, goods laid out on table cloths choked one’s ability to walk.  One man’s goods I found tucked away down an alley and behind a building instantly drew me in.  Browned books were displayed on the ground and classic posters of China’s Maoist era hung from a clothesline.  The object of my curiosity was this poster:

100 Clowns: Cultural Revolution Poster 1968

(Click on the picture for more details)

I had seen a copy of this classic Cultural Revolution poster while reading the my copy of MacFarquhar and Schoenhals’ Mao’s Last Revolution, a great history of the tumultuous period.  The title of the poster is:

漫画刊  百丑图 （红卫兵上海红捍卫东风编辑部编列）68.10

Caricatures of One Hundred Clowns (Compiled by the Shanghai Red Guards Defend the Revolution Editorial Department) October, 1968

These ‘clowns’ are the men and women whom Mao and his cronies violently spoke out against, ranked by importance.  Ever since the June 1, 1966 publication of the People’s Daily editorial “Sweep Away All Monsters and Demons” at the very start of the Cultural Revolution Red Guards took it upon themselves to find such “monsters and demons” and expose them.  The Red Guards humiliated these men and women by publicly parading them at massive rallies, by writing “big character posters” denouncing them, and also by publishing posters of them, like the one I bought.  The blue stamp in the top right corner says that it was published by the Shanghai Red Guards.

While I cannot completely vouch for the poster’s authenticity, everything I’ve seen makes me think it is the real thing.  The paper was made in the old method, by catching pulp on a screen made of bamboo or metal skewers (you can the imprint of the screen on the paper).  It has browned edges and the brittle like you would expect from paper that is 40 years old.  I also wholeheartedly trust the seller.

When I show this poster to my Chinese friends they inhale slowly with an awed look on their face as they point out the many famous figures from Chinese politics and arts: men and women who are certainly not clowns.  There are the obvious political figures that today are considered to have been wrongly “struggled” against, people such as Liu Shaoqi and his wife Wang Guangmei, Peng Dehuai, Luo Ruiqing, Lu Dingyi, and many more (though no Deng Xiaoping (at least not yet)).  Less well known by both foreigners and Chinese alike are the many literary and artistic figure who were denounced during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.  The author Ba Jin is there along with the most famous Peking Opera star of all time (his name escapes me).

There is a special section in the bottom right of the poster titled: “Imperialists and all reactionaries are paper tigers” (带国主义和一切反动派都是纸老虎).  These foreign “paper tigers” include: Dulles, Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson; Khruschchev, Brezhnev, Kosygin, Sholokhov; Harold Wilson; Tito; Tsedenbal (Mongolia); Indira Ghandi; Chiang Kai-shek; Sukarno and General Nasution; General Ne Win; Miyamoto Kenji (Japan; Communist Party general secretary).  If you want a concise and visual guide to who these caricatures represent please visit the poster’s Flickr photo page.

Up next: Part two will be about this small book that I also bought in Chengdu that day.  It is a collection of CCP editorials that were published in June and July 1966, the first time that the public was told about the Cultural Revolution and the first time that college students began to take revolution into their own hands.  June 1966 marks the beginning of the chaos that would engulf China for the next 10 years until Mao’s death in 1976.  It is a priceless piece of Chinese history and deserves it’s own post.

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An American Who Has Lived in China for Over 60 Years

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

I get a real kick out of reading about foreigners who have made China their home for long extended periods of time, especially those who lived through World War II, the Chinese civil war, and the Maoist era. People like Sidney Rittenberg and Joseph Needham lived lives those of us who are relative newcomers to China can only dream about. So it was with great excitement that I found this video about another foreigner, American no less, who has lived in China since 1947. His name is Sidney Shapiro, he is 93 years old and lives in a hutong in Beijing.

This video is in Chinese. Though if you know a little Chinese you can probably follow along, it’s relatively simple. I didn’t understand every bit of it but understood the majority. Fascinating stuff. He saw Shanghai under control by the Guomindang, moved to Beiping (as Beijing was known then), watched as Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China from Tian’anmen gate, joined the Chinese Communist Party, and married a Chinese woman. I really enjoyed hearing him speak Chinese. His Chinese is quite natural sounding even if he does add a rising tone to the end of some sentences. I wonder if his Chinese is better than his English now?

Also, a couple weeks ago I read this story on Danwei. It is about a Belgian man who has lived in Beijing since 1980 and recently received the equivalent of a green card from the Chinese government – basically a residence permit that lasts for 10 years. For the rest of us living in China requires a lot of time spent getting and renewing visas, I’m pretty jealous of this guy’s situation.

Posted in Beijing, History, Video | 1 Response »

The Heathen Chinee

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

American prejudice against the Chinese during the nineteenth century interests me because of its sad place in our country’s history and because of how it showcases the American fear of foreigners.  The first federal law passed by Congress that specifically prohibited the immigration of foreigners based on their race was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.  During the second half of the nineteenth century Americans of all types were flocking west in search of new exciting lives and the transcontinental railroad, that was then being finished, brought more and more people and goods west.  At the same time thousands of Chinese were being recruited on the streets of Canton (aka: Guangzhou) to come to America to mine gold and work for companies like the Central Pacific Railroad.  To the Chinese America represented a better life than south China in the late Qing era.  The Chinese name for San Francisco is 旧金山, Old Gold Mountain, which shows how the Chinese immigrants viewed this new world before their departure.  However, once the Chinese got to California life was anything but golden.

-Chinese cigar factory, San Francisco

I was reminded of this bit of American history this morning while casually flipping through my father’s copy of the 1941 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.  Lately I have become extremely enamored of this book.  It’s short passages of the English language chosen at a time far different from today are endlessly captivating and expose me to people I otherwise would never have known.  The book really deserves its own blog post.

To get back to my point, today I looked up the word Chinese to see what I could find.  This led me to the works of Bret Harte, an American who in the late nineteenth century had written about life in California.  Miners and pioneers had been his main focus, but later in his life he had moved to Europe and settled in London and there he wrote a little poem entitled Plain Language From Truthful James, which was published in 1870.  This little poem became known to the American people as The Heathen Chinee and helped fuel the violent racial prejudice against Chinese immigrants that would eventually culminate in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.  The poem was originally never meant to be an attack on the Chinese but rather “was written with a satirical political purpose” and was plainly a satirical attack on American racial prejudice.[1]  One of the quotes I discovered from this work was:

We are ruined by Chinese cheap labour.

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Remembering Harvey Milk

Monday, September 8th, 2008

This post may a bit off topic, but I am compelled to write it anyway.  You see I was perusing the Apple movie trailer site (something I do when I’m bored) and stumbled upon the trailer for Gus Van Sant’s new movie Milk starring Sean Penn as Harvey Milk.  Who is Harvey Milk?  He was just the first openly gay person elected to a major political office in the history of the planet and my favorite figure in the history of the struggle for gay rights.  Before Barack Obama was preaching the glory of hope in his campaign speeches I knew a politician that had preached the same message in his speeches: Harvey Milk.  It was Milk who said:

“The true function of politics is not just to pass laws, but to give hope.” (1)

His life and story is a tragic one and more people should know it.  Hopefully this new movie will do just that.

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