Yang Gang's appearance is not very outstanding, but he is slender, delicate, fluent in English and talented, and devotes himself to his literary career.
She publishes prose and poetry in her literary section, writes poetry herself, and publishes many articles, including short stories and reportage.
The picture comes from the Internet
For example, she collected first-hand information about the Japanese invasion of Zhejiang in 1942, which was considered by the U.S. Army attaché to be the best report he had ever discovered.
She was a leftist, but not a publicly identified Communist, in fact, a "supernumerary" cadre. The Communist Party urged her to maintain her work outside the Party and to refrain from any open contact with the Party.
However, her loyalty to the Communist Party is evident from the name she changed to herself, and she changed her name to "Yang Gang" when she left Yenching University, and the word "Gang" means "steel" character (Stalin's ghost!). ）。
For the first time, we agreed on the views of Wales' "China's Perspective" and Lin Yutang's "My Country and My People".
As she mentioned in her letter to me in August:
"I think Chinese persistence in life can explain something...... Very few of us commit suicide...... There are also very few people who have the habit of being lazy...... We cannot be easily and thoroughly Westernized.
We adapt but don't absorb it all...... We value 'reality' over theory...... Everything can be traced back to its economic background.
It seems to me that if all of the above analysis is true, they will have to make some changes...... Cowardice, paralysis, humility, lack of insight, practical attention to reality prevails over imaginative realism, compromise and unprincipledness, groveling to arrogant authoritarianism.
All these vices must be eradicated before the Chinese people can really stand up. This is what I said, to rejuvenate China, we first need to break free from all the shackles on us. ”
This was the opinion of the May Fourth Movement in 1920, and we can hear the voices of many influential thinkers, including Chen Duxiu and Lu Xun.
In terms of culture and values, Yang Gang has embraced the cultural trends and values of the contemporary Chinese revolution, because she grew up in a time of warlord warfare and witnessed the ills of the old society.
In fact, she is a serious, dedicated observer who examines China's old society and works to transform it.
We continue to meet, discuss, or exchange letters, and she analyzes for me from within the complexities of intellectuals, including their habitual attachment to those in power, their role as moral critics, their struggle to maintain their personality, and their need for an ideal of service to humanity.
For me, all these discussions are a gift from God, and it is a blessing to have such a friend.
My closest friend in the Diplomatic Service is Philippe Sprous. He was a Southerner, exemplary, prudent and wise, a decent bachelor with a good heart.
When I was about to apply for the Radcliffe Scholarship for Yang Gang, both Philip and Ms. Bogues wrote letters of support.
The picture comes from the Internet
In 1944, Yang Gang received a scholarship to study in the United States. Hu Lin, the publisher of Ta Kung Pao and a stalwart of the political school, helped her apply for a passport.
In my conversations and correspondence with Gong Peng and Yang Gang, I found that these two ladies knew very little about the theoretical knowledge of Marxism. They all graduated from Yenching University and have about the same level of knowledge of historical materialism as they do about English literature.
They are concerned with innovative expressions, but also with the improvement of material living standards. They are Marxist-Leninists, loyal to the Communist Party and accept its leadership. However, this belief is practical in nature, because the power of individuals to act alone is weak, and it must be united to have strength.
There are no super-rational miracles, no innate dogmas, no transcendent saints, or reincarnated gods, but in my opinion, they are Chinese "missionaries" who can change more people and bring them into their ranks.
Once I became friends, I found myself influenced by leftists, and I personally like to influence them accordingly. This is both an individual act and an interaction at a political level.
Qiao Guanhua brought the playwright Xia Yan, and at the home of Mrs. Sun (Soong Ching Ling), I became acquainted with her German assistant Anna von Kleist Wang (who was the wife of Wang Bingnan, the ambassador of the People's Republic of China).
Mrs. Sun was very frank and expressed great concern about the recent promulgation of the rule that Chinese are not allowed to fly military aircraft without passports. Even if she just changed the environment at home, she was not allowed by the authorities to leave Chongqing, let alone go abroad.
She asked, what would the agent think if she saw me visiting? I told her that I also knew that the people were worse off than she was.
(As soon as I came out, I noticed a man crouching on me.) ）
…… It is encouraging for someone of Madame Sun's stature to be able to express a poignant and touching gratitude to someone who came to visit in the evening and naively wished to help her.
[It is said that after the war, she returned to Shanghai on the plane of the commander of the United States Air Force, General Randall.] ］
John Davis and Eric Sewarade were forced to parachute to the Naga tribe in northern Burma, then after a long journey back to Assam and finally to Chongqing.
In Chongqing, we hosted a dinner in which we expressed our disappointment with the Chongqing authorities. Phil Sprouse and Jim Panfield from the embassy, Eric Sevalede of CBS, and I, along with Gong Peng and Qiao Guanhua, came to Guanshengyuan Restaurant for a pleasant and extravagant banquet that was as public as possible.
Unfortunately, there were no other guests dining here, but many agents were stationed here and recording license plate numbers.
Gong Peng and Qiao Guanhua are a delightful couple, but they are full of religious revolutionary fervor and are ready to die for it.
After that, they were followed everywhere, and when they spoke to someone, the police would show up and intimidate that person. It reminds me of Agnes Smedley, who was in Shanghai and had a nervous breakdown due to being followed by the police for a long time.
The difference is that the couple may literally disappear into thin air one day, and we openly protest against this.
This is a symptom of Americans' deepening concern about China's domestic politics. None of us expressed support for communism, we just wanted the opposition to accept politics normally, and not be forced to accept the dictatorship of one party or the other.
This flurry of movements soon divided American policy. But this is only one branch of the main Chinese phenomenon, the Mandate of Heaven. Essentially, the Communist Party did not subvert us and steal the Mandate of Heaven. On the contrary, first of all, Chiang Kai-shek was bound to lose the Mandate of Heaven.
The year 1943 was the beginning of the end of the Chiang Kai-shek clique.
Another political demonstration took place at the Soviet Embassy, which held a public visit on the anniversary of the Victory in the October Revolution.
The former site of the Soviet Embassy in Chongqing The picture comes from the Internet
The Soviet Embassy was located in a magnificent duke's mansion on the top of the highest hill. Here, there are two separate roads leading to the downtown area, north and south.
When you climb to the top, the view is especially spectacular, with a view of the Chinese Airlines airstrip on a sandbar in the middle of the Yangtze River.
Our group set off from the embassy and walked through the crowd to the venue on the anniversary of the Victory of the October Revolution in the Soviet Union. At that time, Kiev had just been conquered (it had been recaptured by Soviet troops), and the timing was very coincidental, but the press counselor of the USSR told me in all seriousness that all this was not specially arranged.
There was no traditional caviar, but there were plenty of local wines and refreshments, and the six large rooms on the first floor were packed with about 1,000 people, many of whom were haggard-looking leftists.
These people excitedly greeted each other and greeted us as well. Because, we think that since we are all in the Soviet embassy, we can also behave to the left than we can in the streets of Chongqing, which are full of spies.
On occasions like this, far from being an ordinary social event, it is a real political event, and everyone present is a political figure.
Zhou Enlai's secretary, Chen Jiakang, was a very excited little man, but his mind was as agile as a ferret, and he greeted me loudly unoften, because Dong Xianguang happened to pass me at that time.
Dr. Sun Ke walked around the table and shook my hand, chatted with me for a long time, and said that something would be sent to me tomorrow, but in reality, it was not delivered the next day. He said that, probably because I was talking to Wang Shijie [another KMT minister].
General He Yingqin also came over to shake my hand.
As I approached the time to leave China and return to the United States, I found that I was increasingly leaning toward the opposition in my day-to-day work. I borrowed the title of Mrs. Roosevelt's column and recorded it as follows:
Sunday, October 25, 1943, my day. When I woke up, I turned down the chef's request to add 5,000 yuan to the canteen (which has now risen to 95 fiat dollars per meal).
I then crept through the muddy streets to visit my female friend Gong Peng, a Communist Party member, who had recently published a pamphlet documenting the fruitful work done by the Communists against the Kuomintang, printed on extremely fine white paper, and how such a work could be published at the time was a complete secret.
She gave me several pamphlets, half of which she had translated into English herself. Subsequently, the admirable preacher explained that the Kuomintang secret service believed that she had distributed a lot of pamphlets to foreigners and was planning to kidnap her at any time, so she could not leave the headquarters very often.
I assured her that, as her follower, I would definitely work out measures for her protection.
Last week, for example, her sister Gong Pusheng (who received a bachelor's degree in Yenching literature in 1936 and a master's degree in religious studies from Columbia University in 1942, and who worked with Mrs. Roosevelt) arrived in Kunming with a suitcase of medicine and clothes.
In order not to leave the mark of a Communist, she handed over her medicine and clothes to Brooks Atkinson, a New York Times correspondent who happened to be also in Kunming.
Brooks Atkinson then handed over the bag to a naval doctor at the U.S. Embassy, who in turn took the items on a military plane to Chongqing and handed them over to Time, Life, and Fortune correspondent Grace Bai.
Bai Xiude sent the items to the American Publications Service, after which they were picked up by the recipient, and the recipient of the items had to strictly follow the legal procedures at every step of the way.
As one of General Stilwell's lieutenants had invited her out for lunch, I left the young lady's rat-infested fortress and returned on the muddy road.
On the way, I noticed a young, inexperienced and uniformed agent sneaking out of the teahouse that was spying on us and hanging out in front of me, waiting for me to pass him.
So, I followed him in a more laid-back and idle manner, and finally he stopped completely, and I stopped, and then he turned around and went back to the next target.
Later, I met with a leader at Academia Sinica, who was adamantly critical of the Ministry of Education and its policies, and who wanted me not to lose confidence in the situation altogether.
Wang Bingnan and his wife in Chongqing old photos The picture comes from the Internet
After that, I rushed back in time to have dinner with Xie Weisi and Wang Bingnan and his wife. They gave in-depth information about the small party until 10 o'clock in the evening when I drove them home in a car. The gasoline produced in Gansu corroded the metal car pump into small holes, so we had to spend 4,500 fiat dollars to replace it with a new one (also second-hand).
The theme of life here seems to be prices and revolution. Together with Philip Sprous, I hosted a banquet for Mr. Dong Biwu, a member of the Communist Party of the National Council of Representatives, and Chen Jiakang, the secretary of Zhou Enlai.
The former speak in incomprehensible dialects, while the latter is active and a new idea pops up from time to time.
In order to verify their claims, the next morning, I went to visit the Party Affairs Office of the War Zone of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang. I had dinner on Wednesday with Chiang Kai-shek's chief expert on Japan, and I thought, I should visit the Communists on Thursday so that I can maintain general fairness and no prejudice.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much contact with Xie Weisi in China. We hardly met in Beijing in 1935, and by the time I arrived in Chongqing in 1942, he had already left and did not return until late 1943.
I found that he was the one U.S. official who had the most contact with the Chinese people. While I was unaware of the report he secretly wrote to Goth and Stilwell, we felt the same way.
Between 1942 and 1943, I had experienced more in China than many other China experts, so I quickly recorded what I had seen and sent to the relevant people as information to be provided.
However, my experience is still very inadequate. I didn't have face-to-face contact with the general public, or even with students. The people I met in formal settings were officials and other administrators, and the conversations were necessarily superficial.
In addition to my own observations, the experiences I shared with my friends also indirectly helped me to make a basic understanding and evaluation of things.
My friends can be divided into two categories: one is the Western-educated liberal professors, whom we met in Beijing in the early 30s and are now old friends who are reunited;
On the other hand, there are young new leftists who are also products of Western education in China, and who are now champions of communism and who are fighting for it.
As the years wore in 1943, I came to realize that, as the liberals of the older generation, their role was to assist rather than control power, and therefore they could not lead.
Young leftists, on the other hand, are not strong enough, but they are hopeful and resourceful, and may have a chance to develop in the future.
Both of my friends are engaged in a desperate struggle with those in power, whom I see as moral heroes.
It is curious that ordinary people are not the main force in this struggle. For example, farmers in Sichuan usually live in abundance, while farmers in Henan are on the verge of starvation.
But in my narrow vision, the political struggle did not involve them, but was confined to the ruling class.
The problem now is that Chiang Kai-shek's rule faced great difficulties, such as inflation, and he seemed helpless about it. At the time, the official exchange rate of fiat currency to the dollar was 20:1, and the black market exchange rate was as high as 400:1, forcing Americans eager to help China to sit on the sidelines and not be able to influence what to change.
We find that what should have been done by the Kuomintang but not done well is now being done in the Communist Party areas, including the literacy campaign, the small industrial production cooperatives, the rural mobilization, and the women's liberation movement, all in the context of the revolution.
Instead, Chiang Kai-shek trusted his organizational structures, including the CC department and the military command led by Dai Li. They tried to achieve a semblance of unity by suppressing opposition, but they were unable to do so.
Its dictatorship and intimidation have undermined the government's legitimacy in the eyes of patriots at the top. The corruption of officials does not win the loyalty of equally corrupt opportunists. This is a tragic process, with China's internal control out of control and external forces out of reach.
And the idea of extreme xenophobia also stems from the shame of those who are overly sensitive to patriotism. As for foreign aid, for example, I have been trying to help the professors of Southwest Associated University for a long time, but they think that they are interfering in internal affairs, a new form of imperialist invasion, and vainly trying to gradually manipulate China.
According to Confucianism, benefiting others without being able to reciprocate is a blow to one's self-esteem. One needs a new attitude of transcending oneself and Confucianism, and one should not be concerned with face issues or even rejecting reciprocity.
What do they think of us: Ta Kung Pao's literary editor and a good observer once said that walking down the streets of China, ordinary people think that foreigners are a favored and affluent category, so Chinese are jealous and easily turned angry because of the disparity in wealth between them.
Similarly, the Chinese have the same sentiment towards their own chaebols. However, as an individual, I can understand their feelings and would have reacted in this way if I had been in the same situation.
However, this situation will continue to exist, because China's material level will still not be able to catch up with the United States, and in the long run, it is foreseeable that many troubles will arise.
I'm going to pack up and go back home, so I'll sort out what I've seen and hear again and send it to Arger Heath.
Currie didn't pay much attention to China, I didn't get a reply from him, and Humbek was in a position of authority and always acted like a businessman, so I couldn't write to him directly.
As Hembek's assistant, Arger was clearly the best person for me to contact Washington, and at the same time, I sent Wilma a copy:
Dear Arger,
It has been a long time since I last wrote to us, and it would be a difficult summary if I did not describe it from a broader perspective now.
During my time here, I gradually learned more about the current situation. At the same time, I also believe that the current situation is getting worse and worse, and based on what I know, I am afraid that the situation will develop to the worst.
For now, I think there is a good chance that China will have serious internal political upheaval after the war, because the current government has plunged it into a "primitive fascism" situation.
They are a small political group, but they stubbornly cling to power and hope to use industrialization as an instrument for the permanent consolidation of their ruling power. And their thinking is too conservative to keep up with the times.
For example, it is clear that industrialization will further disrupt the development of agriculture, which is the main body of the country's economy, but I have found that no political leader has made any favourable land schemes, and has simply allowed the situation to continue to deteriorate.
At the same time, in the process of industrialization, the development of communications provided the peasant masses with the opportunity to come into contact with a new type of Western society, but the politicians in power had no time to pay attention to the popularization of mass education, and in fact they did not believe in this – they did not trust the people as the minority ruling strata that had ruled the people in the past.
In short, the day is coming when the Chinese people will be subjected to the direct and powerful impact of modern industrial life, and today's national leaders, such as politicians in power, simply cannot understand this, seeing only the power side of industrialization and not the social side of it.
Moreover, they don't have any social planning. The formulas of Western science, with the virtues of ancient China, simply cannot cope with the current situation.
In the absence of any practical ideas, their only option was to rely on force to maintain the status quo, and they were ready to do so.
The pervasive system of spies and censorship is the best proof of this, and if the armed and military forces of the United States can also be fully absorbed and used by it, they will certainly use it as a means of repression.
Organizers who believe in authoritarianism can also use increasingly xenophobic nationalism as a means of domination.
Nowadays, it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain friendly contacts with a small number of government officials, and I am inclined to believe that it is probably the chairman of the committee who has issued an order against excessive contact with foreigners.
At the moment, the opposition has gained a lot from its contacts abroad, and I believe that the Left Opposition, in particular, will find much in common with the Americans, with whom most Americans are willing to keep in touch.
The left-wing opposition includes CCP members and intellectuals. The former took a public position and was intimidated by the KMT, while the latter was a large number of people who did not accept communism but were critical of censorship and the secret service system.
In fact, over the past year, the authorities have been implementing a program to "abandon intellectuals", which some historians see as a precursor to the outbreak of the Great Revolution. At the same time, I can attest that many of the former staunch anti-Communist and pro-American liberals, as well as most Americans, now hold the same views as the Communists.
I do not think that the more objective Communists would think that the campaign they have launched will yield significant results in the near future, or that they will awaken the peasants through Marxist dogma.
However, their importance is far from being measured by their current numbers or power, as they are the only organized minority opposition group.
For foreigners, they describe themselves as idealistic reformers. And the increasingly authoritarian and tyrannical authorities, no doubt only told to try to isolate themselves from foreigners.
Unfortunately, they were unable to prevent foreigners from engaging with the opposition, and eventually their xenophobic policies drove us all into the arms of the opposition.
I believe that many Kuomintang members were unhappy with the critical attitude of their American friends, just as many Germans and Japanese were caught up in a revolution that brought them into unforeseen and undesirable situations.
Still, I'm not worried, because I've developed a very low opinion of the character of China's politicians, who seem to me to be just an immoral opportunist rather than a religious fanatic.
At the moment, the country does not even have the qualities of fascism, because people have always been just grasping at every straw for survival, therefore, will never let go easily.
The quality here is patience and stubbornness, not courage, and now that we are facing a situation that is so bad, it is also a good time to break new ground.
I am more convinced than ever that when we find these good people, we should do our best to help them, so that the bad people can at least not take the fat from us and thrive.
From the above, you should understand why I did not expect to talk to Washington, because I have already discovered that the Kuomintang is trying to prevent the opposition from reaching the Americans, and to get the Chinese who allow access to the Americans to build a fake democratic patriotic front.
In essence, between the curses of civilized American soldiers and the posturing of official Chinese representatives, it is difficult to explain to the American public the current chaos in China.
And once my friends make these secret comments completely public, then I will soon lose my status as a "loyal friend of China".
China's problem is a question of ideas and ideals, not a question of so-called economics or technology. If the government or high-level people can have a real ideal, they can naturally bring about earth-shaking changes by leading the people, but these changes will not strengthen their position.
The end result is that we have to wait for the day when a great Chinese revolution breaks out, and I wonder how the people of 17th Street will feel when they hear this.
I hope you can come here too. As I said before, it would be incorrect and irrational for those in charge to not be able to be there but only to work through personal experience, and at the same time, there is considerable danger to the success of U.S. policy toward China.
To me, it's unbelievable that this kind of thing is happening. I think the U.S. presence in China is doing a good job, but given the limited resources and the chaos of all wartime agencies being run by embassies, I can't imagine how Washington could have a comprehensive and correct understanding of it based on mere written material without field visits.
Fairbank Forever Yours Chongqing, November 9, 1943
On December 8, 1943, I left Chongqing with General Donovan, and although my term of office had expired, it was not easy to completely emerge from the Chinese political sphere.
Travelers during the war often needed help piggybacking on personal letters, and Zhou Enlai's secretary, Chen Jiakang, approached me and asked me to help deliver a letter in India.
At the same time, Mrs. Sun asked me to forward a letter to Mrs. Carter in New York. As a messenger for my friends, I was able to circumvent censorship, but I couldn't escape the attention of the Dai Lia Agency, who had already installed fake service agents in my office to spy on me.
In fact, Donovan had already cut off the Sagita's contact with Melles and Dai Li, but they were kind enough to see me off at the airport. But as soon as I left, there were rumors that I had been sent back because I was too close to the left.
Old photos of Song Qingling and Stilwell in Chongqing The picture comes from the Internet
In April 1944, having already returned to Washington, I heard rumors about it, and I countered it with a letter from Bill Lange, director of the Research and Analysis Division:
"This is a ridiculous statement, and we will try to dispel such rumors as much as possible...... Your achievements in China have been extraordinary, beyond everyone's expectations, and have been effective in moving the work forward. I don't see any behavior from you that goes beyond the instructions...... You have been recalled to Washington only because your term of office in China has expired. ”
Still, this is not something that Dai Lisa agrees with, and in his opinion, he can make up a series of crimes for me out of thin air.
In retrospect, I can see that my interest in Chinese leftists was influenced by my family's tendency to support the persecuted's liberal views.
My mother, under the influence of her brother-in-law, Gilbert Roy, had long since become a devoted friend of La Follet's family.
Among our political greats, Senator La Follett and his wife, Bell Cays La Follet, are revered figures. They fight for the rights and welfare of ordinary people and oppose the stated interests of big business.
This populism, which opposed existing rights in favor of democratic rights, eventually led to the progressive movement, in which my aunt and uncle in New York and the Roy family were involved, admiring Emma Goldman and Lincoln Stephens as close friends.
I met Stephens in 1928 at the Liberty Society at Harvard. The Society is located in an old house on Winthrop Street, which is now home to the Lutheran Church. Lincoln Kirstein also painted murals on the theme of industrial machinery in the lobby.
In 1928, on behalf of the Liberal Society, I had a debate on the topic of racial intermingling in the Temple of Trement with a team from the Tuskegee Academy. One of the main black speakers, Richard Hirst Hill, also became a good friend of mine.
Ten years later, Dick Hill came to live at our house on Winthrop Street for a while. At the time, he was fighting to expose the lung disease of blacks on Southern plantations. If he were still alive, he would have become the leader of the human rights movement.
As a result of this background, I am also prepared to join the opposition in rebellion against the established order, and although I do not believe in any doctrine, I believe in the supremacy of law and individual rights.
I believe that comprehensive reform is needed, but not to change the all-encompassing ideology. In China, however, I clearly saw that reform turned into stupidity and ridiculousness, and in the end revolution became the only way out.
When I returned to Washington in 1944, the main beliefs I brought back were:
China's revolutionary movement is an intrinsic product of China's real life, and neither the CC nor Dai Li's secret services can suppress it. The ideals of the peasants, which demanded the liberation of the peasants and the ideals of science and democracy inherited during the May Fourth Movement 20 years earlier, were the patriotic fervor and vitality of the people, and Chiang Kai-shek could not confront them at all.
In a sense, this belief stems from the personal experience of those who share the true faith, except that I am not a member of the organization or a participant, and I have no interest in revolution in my own work and life.
In the revolution, I was just a nosy bystander, but I could feel the winds of the revolution.