My Years in Nanking

CONTENTS Frontispiece Map of Nanking Prologue This volume by Inyeening Shen was completed in 1954 in Bangkok, Thailand. For a great many years she was reluctant to have these reminiscences published, for fear that her criticism of the corruption pervading the Chinese Nationalist Government would offend the high officials involved. Now ready, the world can learn her views about a pivotal time in the history of her country. About the Author Remarkably talented and an accomplished artist, Inyeening Shen authored books, essays and poetry, became a university professor of Chinese literature, and for her writing was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree. This book is her only work written in English, a personal account of her experiences as the First Lady of China’s capital of Nanking from 1946 to 1948. Included here is her “Auto-Bio-Poetry,” a beautiful poem recounting the first 42 years of her life that she had been encouraged to write by a leading educator/philosopher/diplomat of modern China, her close family friend Dr. Hu Shih. Historic Foreword To place this work in context, this section records the status of China in 1946 when Inyeening Shen’s reminiscences begin―including the role her husband played in the May 4th Student Movement of 1919 that excited the China public before the onset of the Sino-Japanese war, and an account of the 1937-38 Nanking Massacre that set the stage for her arrival as the wife of the Mayor of the city, the nation’s new capital. Summarized also are the effects on China of the 1945 Yalta Agreement that brought a close to WWII, a pact regarded by the Chinese as a “great betrayal." Chapter 1 Shanghai to Nanking The year was 1946 when China reclaimed Nanking as its capital from the occupying Japanese at the end of the Sino-Japanese war. Nanking had been devastated by the rape and massacre of its citizens. A new feeling of sweet peace filled the city as Nanking’s newly installed mayor, Dr. Shen Yi, the Author’s husband, assumed his post and his family joined him from Shanghai. Chapter 2 A Day on Hsuan-wu Lake Nanking’s Hsuan-wu Lake had existed for nearly 600 years, its five causeway-connected islets symbolizing the five continents. In summer, the lake would be ablaze with lotus blooms. On its western edge stood the city wall and the Xuanwu Gate, dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1643). The balmy spring of 1947 was a tender green when the Author and her family enjoyed a Sunday outing until Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek summoned her husband. Chapter 3 “White House” of Nanking During the Nanking Massacre of 1937-38, the grounds of the mayor’s residence were inside the Safety Zone established by John Rabe, China’s “Oskar Schindler.” By 1946, when the Author and her family arrived to occupy this home, its buildings and grounds had fallen into deep disrepair. With much hard work and the help of the city’s architect, the Author restored this site―dubbed the “White House” by foreign diplomats―to functional splendor. Chapter 4 Mayor’s Household With effort and hardship, the Author provided the mayor’s household a lifestyle in keeping with his rank as the leader of the Nation’s Capital. However, this presentable household of Author’s perseverance and ingenuity, and the aid of her hard-working godmother, brought ridicule and heartache. In spite of this, and the rampant corruption in high places she so abhorred, the Author was at peace, writing that “There still is the purity of a lotus rising from the muddied earth. I am so proud of my husband and I love him for his purity!” Chapter 5 Audience with the First Lady China’s First Lady, Mme. Chiang Soong Mayling, wife of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, was educated in the United States. Her English, rendered with an American southern lilt, was flawless. During the peak of World War II, her address to the U.S. Congress drew rave reviews and a four-minute standing ovation. But though Mme Chiang seemed an “intelligent and highly perceptive woman of knowledge and ability,” the Author’s audience with the Madame in Nanking in 1947 led her to view China’s First Lady as “nothing more than a robber-baron.” Plates 1-10 Photographic Atlas The plates record the moments of the Author and her family and friends, China’s War-time leaders, and Nanking before and after WWII. Chapter 6 Events Leading to My Baptism The Author came from a Buddhist family having the traditional view that a girl of such a home deserved a good husband to whom obedience and a cultured “mindless” demeanor would be a virtue. Because her parents viewed Western education as being more or less vacuous, they sent her to missionary schools where her time would be occupied but her mind would not be overly taxed. They were mistaken, as she wrote articles under an assumed name for popular magazines and deserted her family’s Buddhism religion to become a Christian. Chapter 7 Friends of “Wine and Meat” In the hope that China would fill the post-WWII power vacuum in Asia, the U.S. continued its support. Nanking was abuzz with diplomats and their formal social functions, not always pleasant. But by early 1949, the city had fallen to Mao Ze-dong’s Red Army and Nationalist President Chiang Kai-shek had retreated to Taiwan. Deeply dismayed, the Author recounts Shakespeare: “Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly…” Chapter 8 Envoys from the United States In 1947 and 1948, Journalist William C. Bullitt, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, repeatedly conferred with Mayor Shen on China’s dilemma. A proposal to counter China’s massive economic problems by initiating a large-scale Public Works Program proposed by U.S. General Albert C. Wedemeyer was welcomed by the mayor, who had prepared a detailed and orderly plan of action. But when Wedemeyer and the mayor met at the residence of U.S. Ambassador John Leighton Stuart to discuss the plan, Wedemeyer rebuffed it out of hand. The Author and China-born Ambassador Stuart, both hailing from the same hometown Hangzhou, forged a friendship. Chapter 9 New-Life Movement, Nanking Women Work Committee With China besieged by poverty and runaway inflation, the National Women Work Committee of the New-Life Movement, chaired by Mme. Chiang Kai-shek, was formed to provide relief to the country’s poor. In Nanking, the Author headed the regional headquarters of the program, the Nanking Women Work Committee, which was inundated by refugees pouring in from the raging civil war. Despite set-backs and many difficulties, the Author and her staff persevered, doing what they could to help the needy and counter the desperate living conditions that had provided a breeding ground for the communist cause. Chapter 10 Farewell Nanking, Fare Well! With Mao Ze-dong’s Red Army surging toward its city walls, the fall of Nanking was imminent. The capital was in triple darkness―civil war, winter, and continuous electrical outage. Despite being urged by American-born communist-sympathizers to switch allegiance to Mao’s side, in late-December 1948 Mayor Shen resigned. A senior military officer from the Generalissimo’s staff took his place. Borrowing words from the Tang poet Li Bai about the city she had come to love, the Author laments: “Thou that hast seen six kingdoms pass away [and] called down the dreams of sunset into stone.” To her, departure from Nanking was yet another passage in her life. Transliterations―Definition, Origin, Pinyin (old [chapter proper] and new) References Index Author Biography