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Australia; New Zealand: U.K.: U.8.A.:

Aeriul view of Harbin, capilal'of Hcilongiiang province,H'linfi lloiigxuii

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ChinaReconstructs

11® i iiPUBLISHED MONTHLY IN ENGLISH, FRENCH.SPANISH, ARABIC, GERMAN AND PORTUGUESE BY

THE CHINA WELFARE INSTITUTE(SOONG CHING LING, CHAIRMAN)

VOL XXIX NO. 3 MARCH 1980

CONTENTS

Survey of the Huanghe River Chen Rinong 2She's Chief Engineer of the Shengll Refinery Ouyang

Caiwei 8

Developing Shenzhen Liu Xueqiang 11Aiding Overseas Investors In Guangzhou Xian Zl'en 17Lightening the Load for Working Mothers Ten MannI 19In Our Society: Delinquent Back Irom the Brink 22

Along the Silk Rood Dance Drama Wang Xi and LiuQingxia 24

Do You Know? What About Ownership in China? '29Reminiscences of Chinese-American Friendship Su

Kaiming 30

Car(oor?s 32

Veteran Coach Wants Taiwan Athletes to March withMainland Wei Xiulang 33

New Observatory In Yunnan (photos) 36Hu Jleqing Talking About Her Husband Lao She Xing Zhi 38Ancient Drama and New Friendship — Greek National

Theater in China Zhao Jian 42

Tibet's Potola Palace Ou Chaogui 44The. Pomegranates of Lintong Hu Shiyue and Zhang

Dongshun 51Chinese History — XVIIl

The Song Dynasty; 3 — The Jin Conquest and Southern Song Jiao Jian 52

Tomb of Yue Pel, Song Dynasty Hero Chang Shaowen 55Harbin — Metropolis of the Far North Li Jiyang 58Prawns Move House Lu Zhenhua 63

Debate: How Should China's Economy Be Managed? .64Sketching and Splashing with the Dais Wang Shuhua 66Shi Fengshou and His Calculating Method Ca; Bian 68Language Corner:

Lesson 15; Shanghai Children's Palace 70Stamps ol New China 72

COVER PICTURES:

Front: Yingnlang, heroine of the dance drama Along theSilk Road. Wang Hongxun

Back: Gulangyu Island at Xiamen (traditional-stylepainting). Xia Un

Editorial Office: Wol Wen Building, Beifing(37), Chlno, Coble: "CHmECON" Beijing.Oenerol Distributer: OUOZI SHUDIAN,

P.O. Box 39«, Beijing, China.

Articles of the Month

SILT ON THE HUANGHE (YELLOW) RIVER

A tour with a sunrey team en the river wl^ theworld's highest silt content finds some progress andmany problems still to be solved. P. 2

JOINT • VENTURE OVERSEASINVESTORS IN CHINA

WORKING MOTHERS

How do workingmothers in China copewith housework andchild care? In Shanghai, social service unitssuch 05 nurseries, community cafeterias andhousework-aid groupsare helping eose theburden. P. 19

How such investing works, what benefits Chino hopes fromit ore described Inarticles about twospecial regions, "Developing Shenzhen" and"Aiding Overseas Investors in Guongzhou".

P. It

THE SILK ROAD IN DANCE

Rgures in die Dunhuang cave murals providedinspiration for the exotic dances in this new full-length dance drama set against the Old Silk RoodIn the Tang dynasty. P. 24

THE LATE AUTHOR LAO SHE

Hu Jleqing, wife of LaoShe, the late well-known authorof "Rickshaw Boy," "Teahouse"and other works, folks abouther husband's life. P. 38

TIBET'S POTALA PALACE

Built for a 7th-cen-tury Chinese princess,the massive Potalo andIts ort riehesi once forbidden to oil but o few,ore now open to thepublic: background onits architecture and eul-turol relics. P. 44

Survey of the Huanghe River

TTOUH AFTER HOUR we droveXX over the arid yellow LoessPlateau of north China, accompanied all the way by a cloud ofchoking dust. Then our motorcaravan rounded a low promontory and we saw the HuangheRiver glistening in the harshsunlight before us. We hadreached Hequ, the northernmostpoint for the surveying team Iwas with. Here, at Hequ, theriver rounds into an "S" bend,which gave the town its name,Hequ, meaning "River Bend."

Downstream from Hequ in InnerMongolia are the middle reachesof the Huanghe which the teamwas to study to draw up furtherplans for controlling erosion. Therewere forty scientists on the team,including hydrologists, geologists,geographers and historians, manyof them with years of experiencein combating erosion. It was thelargest expedition the China Society of Water Conservation hadorganized to survey this stretch ofthe river and the work took themover 3,200 kilometers over amonth.

On the Fringe of the Desert

We followed the river south andcrossed it in the night at Baode inShanxi province. On the followingmorning our jeeps were laboringover a road of sand which took usto the edge of the Mu Us Desertin Yulin prefecture, Shaanxi

CHEN RINONG is a staff reporter forCWha Reconstracts.

province. We found great stretchesof the ancient Great Wall buriedin sand, leaving solitary watchtowers rising above the desertwastes like lonely lighthouses,their connecting walls submergedbeneath the sands. Our forefathersin the distant past had built thischain of beacons' across this partof the country to give early warning of enemy invasions. At thefirst sight of invaders fires hadbeen lit, carrying the messageswiftly from beacon to beacon, butthey never gave warning of another invader which today hasliterally poured over the wall andstruck deep into peaceful farmland, leaving in its wake desolatewaste.

To our northwest were' dunesand sparse Chinese tamariskswhich came in very handy forspreading under our tires over astretch of soft sand. Further south

We drove through numerous shallow pools which was quite achange from the dust but whichfrequently held up our progress.Once, one of our vehicles got miredin one and we had to spend hoursbefore we could dig it out and goon our way.

We reached the old city of Yulinin the night. We looked like anarcheologist's find suddenly cometo life.

"Must have been tough on you,Liu," a young technician said,looking at our 72-year-old engineerbrushing himself down in thelamplight. His hair never lookedwhiter.

"Oh, I'm all right. I've beenthrough worse," replied Liu De-run, veteran of many surveys.

Liu Derun spent the past fiftyyears at his job and he knows thispart of the river well. He firstvisited this region 42 years agofresh from college abroad. Thenine-man team he was with, hadtramped, rode on horseback andfloated downriver on cowhiderafts to study erosion and collectinformation on how to fight ,it.They had sent in their report andhad urged immediate action butnothing was ever done by theauthorities to check the widespreaderosion and destruction of farmland. It was not until after thecountry was liberated that Liu andothers like him saw their recommendations put into effect. Since1949, Liu has worked on many ofthe major water conservationprojects which are now helping torestore the productivity of thispart of China.

We stayed two days in Yulinexamining local water and soilconservation projects. What wesaw was heartening. The peoplewere fighting the desert encroachment and they had the state backing them. We saw among thedunes a small reservoir the localpeople had built themselves. Thedam was of sand, entirely of sand,and it had shrubs and trees planted to stabilize it.

Water from this reservoir wentto the newly planted shelterbeltsabout the new fields and orchardsoutside the city walls. Sand dunes

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

CHEN RINONG

had been leveled arid covered with

a layer of soil to create new fields.Aerial sowing of grass to checkadvancing sand was being usedquite successfully as we could seefor ourselves from atop one of thebeacons. Tracts of green grasswith patches reaching out into thedesert marked the newly reoccu-pied territory. The invasion wasbeing driven back and the movingsand stabilized with a subsequentdrop in the silt content of theHuanghe River.

On the Loess Plateau

We left the desert and struck

into the heart of the Loess Plateau.

From the distance the huge high

land appears to be quite fiat, buton coming closer the bare yellowearth is scarred and slashed hereand there by gullies, thousands ofthem, some deep and with steepsides. Two hundred or so yardseast off the road we came acrossa deep gulch. Obviously it was thework of recent rains for its sides

were almost perpendicular. Wetook photos of it for the record.The fury and savagery of the attack by the running water on unprotected loess was plain to see.

The phenomenon of erosion ismore startling when it is at work,as the rain comes pouring down.We drove through a heavy downpour one day to visit a particularlybadly eroded area and saw theyellow earth literally melt beforeour eyes. A myriad of tiny rivulets ran together dov?n a slope toa small stream gouging deeper anddeeper into the ground. Chunksof earth collapsed and crumbledand melted away like pieces ofbiscuits in a wet saucer. The

water at the bottom of the stream

was dyed the color of the earthand our hearts were as ashen as

the sky above."This is where the silt in the

Huanghe comes from," Jiang Da-quan the geologist said, with a sadshake of his head. He has been

working on soil and water conservation on the Loess Plateau for

more than forty years. It wasJiang who, four years ago, observed that the surface of therunning water was like a mirror,reflecting clearly even the bladesof grass, while below the surfacethe flow was saturated with silt.He photographed this phenomenonand measured the silt content andfound' that suspended in everycubic meter of water was 800kilograms of sediment! Accordingto Jiang's estimate, the 11 majortributaries bring about 700 milliontons of soil a year into the Huanghe. The silt raised the riverbedfurther downriver and was thecause of destructive floods whenthe swollen river burst its banks.This depletion of the soil andtransporting away of millions oftons of arable soil reduced productivity and held down standards ofliving. It has been going on for along time and it will need sustained efforts over many years tocheck this. However, a start hasbeen made.

A Green and Prosperous Village

We decided to call on a mountain village not far from the cityof Mizhi with the quaint name ofHigh West Ravine. We heard thatthe people there has been waginga successful fight against erosion.We drove up a long valley andthen crossing a sturdy small

Liu Derun (second left) and other conserrationspecialists. Liu Xiaochao Erosion, Hequ county. Shanxi province.

>fs

MARCH 1980

bridge of stone arrived at HighWest Ravine in which lived 102families. There was an air of prosperity about this little hamlet. Wesaw the trees growing on theslopes and the pastures and fieldsending in stone walls in the littlegullies.

We met Gao Zuyu, who welearned had been a guerrilla beforereturning to the land. He was themoving force behind the sustainedpush to improve the quality oftheir lives by restructuring andimproving their land not long afterliberation. They have managed toget much more from the land thanthe mere 225 kilograms per hectarethey had been getting. The villagers had leveled the small ridgebehind their village and built itinto 2.7 hectares of good land.They had turned 40 hectares ofsunny slopes into terraced fieldsand thrown up rock and earthworks across many little ravines tocheck the run-off and collect siltto gradually build up 17 hectaresof fields. Two smil dams hadbeen erected to impound water forlifting to the fields. One was onthe upper part of the main valleyand the other lower down. Loessis rich soil and with an ensuredwater supply the villagers are nowgetting 3.25 tons of grain perhectare on their 66 hectares each

year. A hundred and thirty-threehectares of poorer slopes weregiven over to orchards, woodlandand pasture. They concentratedon getting bigger returns from asmaller area through high-input,intensive cultivation, instead ofthe old way which was to sowwidely and hope nature wouldhelp.

Gao told us that even with lessland under grain than before theirtotal annual grain output had risenfrom 50 tons to 280 tons. Theorchards and timber trees werebringing in more money and thepastures were supporting a sizableflock of sheep, goats and pigs. Allthis has helped boost incomes andprovided the brigade with morefunds to buy fertilizer, tools andto invest in production. But aboveall, and of longer-term significance,was the fact that the villagers havebasically licked erosion on theirfour square kilometers. In thepast, as late as 1966, it is estimatedthat the brigade was losing some40,000 tons of topsoil a year, Whenthe biggest downpour in 20 yearsstruck in the summer of 1977 verylittle damage was done to thefields and erosion was minimal.

Our team of scientists took agood look around and liked whatthey saw. One old soil engineercongratulated the brigade before

Minima: erosion now in Wangjia Ravine, Lishi county, Shanxi province.

he left, saying, "You're doing fine.Your valley is only a tiny part ofthe area affected by erosion, butyou've shown the way."

Water and Soil Conservation

In 1953, the Huanghe RiverWater Conservation Commissionset up an experimental station onthe banks of the muddy Wuding, atributary of the Huanghe, to studyand solve the erosion problemin the 18-kiIometer-long JiuyuanValley through which the tributary flows. The station staffworked with the peasants in building reservoirs and planting a vegetable cover. Their efforts over theyears are paying off. The Wudingtoday is only half as muddy asbefore and farm production hasgone up. From the start, the fortymembers of the experimental station knew how important it wasto get the people to become actively involved,and know how totackle erosion. To this end theyran short-term courses, to trainpeasant anti-erosion personnelfrom a dozen surrounding counties. Some 200 have been throughthese courses and they are doinga good job today in organizing andsupervising various conservationprojects up and down the area.

Sowing grass and planting trees,constructing walls across gulchesand ravines to hold back waterand soil and build fields by alluvia-tion and building reservoirs invalleys are proving very effectiveon the Loess Plateau. In the past,this work went on rather slowly,mainly because all the heavy workof moving earth had to be done byhuman beings. There was verylittle machinery. Then, a fewyears back, conservation engineerssaw what some of the local peoplewere doing. They were usingwater power to move the soilinstead of using carrying poles andbaskets and carts. The engineerstook over the idea and introducedhydraulic pressure hoses to removethe earth to where it was wanted.

At Zhangzishan commune wesaw this new method being usedby a team of peasants to raise the17-meter-high dam another eightmeters. The peasants, thirty ofthem, were washing away the

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

earth on the two ridges risingabove either side of the dam. Thepowerful jets of water broughtdown a steady flow of sedimentwhich were deposited on top ofthe dam.

Technically, this method is quitesimple, and easy to use. Moreover, it is ten times more efficientthan earlier methods and it halves

construction costs. The erosionexperts on our team were amusedto see the principle of - erosionbeing put to work to fight erosion.For my part, I was impressed bythe crops growing on the broadtop and sides of earth dams completed earlier. I learned that thereare some 8,000 of these darps, each15 meters high, in the two provinces- of Shaanxi and Shanxi.

Rescuing the Reservoirs

On our 3,200-kilometer trip wesaw a lot of good work being doneto bring erosion under control.The overall situation, however, isstill grave. Very grave, an engineer commented when I askedhow serious the problem reallywas.

Erosion has not yet been tackledeffectively in many places alongthe Huanghe, he said, and soilbrought down into the reservoirsis silting them up fast, killing res-

.ervoirs with sediment within fiveto ten years. In Shaanxi, 40 of the120 reservoirs with a capacity of amillion cubic meters have been putout of use and the rest are able tohold only half the water they hadbeen built to hold.

I began to see the dimensions ofthe silt problem and why local reservoir builders and experts alikewere trying so hard to find a solution. One apparently promisingmethod we saw being used to getout the silt was being tested at theTianjiawan Reservoir, They weresiphoning out the sediment.

This reservoir used to hold 9.4million cubic meters until it had4 million cubic meters of unwanted soil dumped into it. A reservoircan only hold so much "dregs" before it has to be abandoned. Whatwas to be done? One young technician came up with a suggestion.He had come across the siphoningmethod in his reading.

MARCH 1980

For Your Reference

The Huanghe River and Silt

HPHE 5,464-knometer Huanghe (Yellow) River flowing through nineprovinces and autonomous regions is second in length only to

the Changjiang (Yangtze) River. It drains an area of 752,443 squarekilometers inhabited by 100 million people. The basin has 20 million

hectares under cultivation and is regarded as the cradle of the Chinese

nation.

Its source is in the Yueguzonglie basin north of the Bayan Har

Range in Qinghai province. The upper reaches end at Togtoh county

in Inner Mongolia and its middle reaches at Mengjin in Henan

province. The river empties into the Bohai Bay at Kenli county in

Shandong province. The Huanghe, or YeUow River, has the highestsilt content in the world, whence it gets its name, It cuts across theworld's largest loess plateau, 580,000 square kilometers of loamy soiland sparse vegetation. Heavy rains wash something like 1,600 milliontons of soil a year into the river, enough to build a ribbon of earth

one meter high by one meter wide 27 times around the earth.

A.large portion of the silt is transported to the sea, but about400 million tons of it is dumped along the lower reaches to raise itsriverbed about 10 centimeters each year. In some places the riveris three to five meters above the surrounding land, a virtual "supra-terraneum river" which has to be confined by high and stout dikes.In the 2,000 years before 1949, when the country achieved its liberation, there were no less than 1,500 dike bursts and 26 violent

changes in its course. Each flood took a huge toll of lives andcreated enormous devastation, which is why the river has been referred to as "China's Sorrow."

In the 30 years since the establishment of new China, the people'sgovernment has built many multi-utilization projects to make theriver do more work and life safer for the millions living along itsbanks. On the upper and middle reaches stress has been on waterand soil conservation through terracing fields, building walls acrossravines to create fields by alluviatlon, planting trees and sowing grass.

Seven major conservation projects have been completed on theriver itself and 136 medium and large projects on the tributaries, andtjikes have been reinforced. The irrigated acreage has risen from0.7 million hectares to 3.5 million hectares.

Although no dike breach has occurred in the past 30 yearsthanks in large part to these efforts, the problem of silt remains amajor headache, which was why the China Society of WaterConservation organized a survey of the middle and lower reaches ofthe Huanghe prior to the symposium on how to tame the Huangheheld in October 1979. The 220 specialists and technicians attendingpresented 140 reports and papers and put forward tentative plansdesigned to improve soil and water conservation in the Huanghe basin.

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A flow of water carrying earth to build a dam, Zhangzishan' commune, Zhongyangcounty, Shanxi province.

Couldn't they try siphoning outthe silt? he asked. Two years werespent in trying before they couldput the idea into effective practice.Then in the next three years theysucked out something like 80 percent of the silt from the reservoir.

We climbed to the top of thedam of red granite blocks to seehow the siphon idea at work.

There was a boat anchored out on

the artificial lake with a huge pipeleading from it to a conduit onshore. Water containing 300 to500 kilograms of sediment percubic meter was spilling out of theconduit into a canal to dischargesilt over a thousand and three

hundred hectares. The local man

showing us around said that thelayer of .silt was more than justcovering the land, it was also fertilizing the land.

When we got off the dam tohave a look at the canal we raninto the inventor of this silt-siphonmethod. We found him squattingby the canal, watching the operation. He is Fang Zongdai, 67 thisyear. A foreign journal in the1940s had published his articleabout siphoning off the silt butnobody had paid much attention to

it. Anyway, there were no reser

voirs even to silt up in China then,

he said ruefully. Reservoirs andtheir problems came only after thecountry's liberation when the peasants were organized to farm col

lectively and reservoir building aspart of flood-control projects on

the Huanghe began. Fang hadtaken part in many flood-controlprojects but now he is applyinghimself to the problem of stoppingthe reservoirs from silting up. Heclaims that his method is the an

swer, but not all share this view.

But whatever the case may be, thesubject is a new one and is gettinga lot of attention today. A definitive solution to the problem ofsilt in reservoirs has yet to befound.

. Great Yu and Dragon Gate

In its long south-flowing stretch,the river has Shanxi on its left and

Shaanxi on its right and nearYichuan and Hancheng the river

begins to course through defiles sonarrow and the walls so sheer that

the water has to fight its waythrough. The local people haveaptly named one very narrow sec

tion "the bottle neck." Sixty kilo-

•meters further south the Huanghe

has to squeeze through the famous

Dragon Gate, which got its name

from the steep walls rising almost

perpendicularly out of the water.Li Bai, the Tang dynasty poet, had

described this spot thus: "The

Huanghe River cleaves the Kunlun

Range ten thousand li to the west/To roar and pound through theDragon Gate." Legend has it that

some 5,000 years ago lived Yu the

Great, who cut a channel throughthe mountains here to open an

outlet for "the Nine Rivers."

We saw nothing of the ancient

sage. We met numerous peoplelike him engaged in taming the

river. At Dragon Gate, we .saw a

hydrographic station perched half

way up a precipice. The only ac

cess to it was by an iron cage hang

ing from a cable. We crossed over

in the cage to visit those lonelysouls who worked in all weather

to record the river's flow and silt

content, assiduously collecting

data for more projects to tame the

Huanghe.

Desilting Sanmen Gorge Dam

Through Dragon Gate and thenbursting -out of the Yumenkou

opening, the Huanghe reachesopen, flat country again before itis forced east by the impenetrableQinling Range on its south. Further east the river has forced away through the Zhongtiao Moun

tains at a place called Sanmen(Three Gates) Gorge. This narrowstretch once had two rocky islesdividing the flow into threestreams. Since ancient times the

three narrow gaps have beenknown as Man's Gate, God's Gateand Spirits' Gate, and collectively,"Three Gates."

A dam was built here between1957 and 1959. It was the biggest

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

water conservation project undertaken by China at that time. In1960 the dam began to impoundwater and the project has beenplaying an important role in controlling flood, ice runs, generatingpower and irrigating fields. Butdue to inadequate experience noone foresaw the danger of silt filling up the reservoir. Within a fewyears silt became a major problem.The huge dam was seen as a poten^

tial threat to a vast area and a

crash program was started in 1965to eliminate the danger. Outletswere built to improve silt discharge and after 1973 the problemhere was considered by and largesolved.

The Three Gates are no longer

in view. Only the legendary rockcalled "The Midstream Pillar"

stands solitarily above the water

below the great dam, pounded byangry, churning water. The reser

voir feeds water to a million hec-

Sanincn Gorge hydropowcr station.

• mm

tares of farmland and to the gener

ators which supply 2,740 millionkilowatts of electricity a year to'central China.

As the Sanmen Gorge project

alone is unable to solve entirely

the problem of silting and theflood threat on the lower reaches

experts are suggesting that another project should be built in oneof the valleys below the Sanmen

Gorge. This, they argue, wouldmake fuller use of the Huanghe'shydro-power potential and alsobring a greater area under irrigation. When will this be done and

where will be decided soon, but

even to a layman like myself I

could understand that an enor

mous amount of effort is needed

to solve the silt problem.Sanmen Gorge was the last stop

on our'trip. On board the hydro-logical observation boat teammembers were animatedly discuss

ing further plans to deal with the

.ai' '

^. OS

^ j I >

various problems of the river, orworking silently on theses. Themonth I spent traveling with theteam, made me aware of some of

the many difficulties involved intackling erosion and the silt .problem, and the economic and scientific significance in solving them.It will probably take several generations of efforts before the

Huanghe River is brought fullyunder control. Nevertheless, with

the whole might of the peoplemarried to modern science and

technology the work is speedingup and the river will be made tocontribute more towards China'smodernization program. •

Addition to our arUcle onHans Shippe in the December1979 issue:

Hans Shippe wrote under thepseudonym Asiatlcus.

Photos by Han Xuezhany

r.r-

m...-

f-!'": :..m

MARCH 1980

She's Chief Engineer of the Shengli Refinery

Early every morning aslendergraying woman of 50 clad in

overalls and work shoes and a bluecloth work cap jumps on herbicycle and pedals around to thetowering distillation column, thecatalytic cracking installation andfour others at the refinery of theShengli oil field to plan 'the day'swork with workshop heads andengineers and technicians. Thenshe goes to the control room toinquire how production went theday before and deal with anyproblems that have come up.Then she begins a series of conferences with technicians andworkers on how to improve thingslike work processes or raise theefficiency of equipment.

She is Xu Qian, chief engineerand deputy director of productionand technology of the refinery ofthe huge Shengli PetrochemicalComplex in Shandong province,which processes 28 percent of theoil from China's second largest oilfield. Under her guidance, remodeling was done on the refinery, originally built in the 60s,which raised its capacity from thedesigned annual 2,5 million tonsto 3.5 million tons. She has beenhonored as a wornan who hasmade an outstanding contributionto modernization.

Early Ambition

Xu Qian was one of four womenwho graduated in petroleumengineering from Qinghua University in 1952, She had enteredthe university four years earlierjust before liberation, because shebelieved, like many young peopleof her generation, that China'ssalvation lay in developing its own

OUTANG CAnVEI Is a reporter for theXinhua News Agencj'.

OUYANG CAIWEI

industry, and she wished to playher part through engineering.

In her childhood and youth, XuQian had lived in the port city ofTianjin under Japanese occupationfor eight years. Her father foundit difficult to support their familyof eight on his salary as a middleschool^^teacher, She saw a Chinathat was poor, backward andbullied by Japan and otherpowers. As the country had littlefoundation in science and technology, the people had to use imported petroleum and manufactured goods. When Xu Qian was insenior middle school, a womanteacher of history, possibly anunderground Communist, helpedher to realize how imperialistpowers had oppressed China in thelast 100 years since Opium Warin 1840. This aroused in her thedetermination to do somethingfor her motherland.

In the summer of 1950, notlong after liberation, a deputydirector of the State' PetroleumAdministration cama to QinghuaUniversity. He talked about thecountry's urgent need for petroleum but made no secret of theharsh conditions in the remoteareas where most oil fields werethen located. Xu Qian was inspiredand saw petroleum refining asher life work. When stating whereshe wanted to work after graduation, she wrote in her application:"I want to work in a remote area.Even if I have to go through thishardship or that all my life sothat my country can have herown petroleum, I think I will feelhappy."

After graduation she wasassigned to work in the StatePetroleum Administration superintending safe shipment ofpetroleum. She always askedto go to different oil fields

Petrochemical engineer Xu Qian in herwork garb. Liu Libinj7

and often traveled with convoysof tank trucks, and sometimeswas the only woman. Onewinter night when she waswith a convoy in the northwest,she almost froze to death In thecabin of a stalled truck and hadto be revived by her companions.When the convoy arrived at itsdestination her legs were so swollen from frostbite that she foundit difficult to take off her fur-lined boots.

Undaunted by hardships, shepressed for a job with more responsibility under tougher conditions. In 1955 she was assigned tothe Xinjiang Petroleum Admini^stration. at Urumqi, capital of the

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

conditions were rough and childcare was a far greater problem,than it is today at the oil field.A motherly woman, a relative ofone of their colleagues, agreed tolook after Caoying at home untilshe was three. Then the child wassent to a day nursery. The familyate supper together before thebaby's bedtime and then the parents often went back to their offices to work. A neighbor wouldlisten if the child woke while theywere out.

Once Caoying had bronchitisfor three weeks, and Xu Qian hadto take leave of absence to takecare of her. After that, the parents decided it would be betterfor her to go to live in Tianjin.There her grandfather and auntand uncle have lovingly broughther up since.

About this Xu Qian says,"Whenever my husband and Ihad some leisure we felt sad thatwe could not see our daughterand our home seemed empty, butI do not regret the decision,"Since they found that Tianjin hadbetter educational facilities thanthe new oil field, Caoying remained there. Now 20, she willgraduate from senior middleschool this summer. She has goodrecords and grades in school andloves music and sports.

In 1966 Xu Qian was made avice-head of the technical depart

ment in the ShengU OilRefinery, which was then underconstruction.

Shengli is only eight hours bytrain from Tianjin. So wheneverXu's work brings her near by, shetakes the opportunity for a visitwith her daughter. The wholefamily gets together on longerholidays. Caoying spends summervacations with her parents.

After Caoying left, Xu Qian gaveup what free time she had to teachin a spare-time technical schoolrun by the refinery, but she didhave some fun in the refinery'sphotography club, one of severalsUch groups whose activities include amateur painting, music,drama and sculpture. She has aphoto album with 500 photographsof Caoying, mostly taken by her.

When Xu Qian and ZhangShouming married, they made apact .to help each other in theirwork and have done so ever since,even after Xu Qian was promotedto head post at Shengli in 1974.They have lunch in the canteen,cook and eat supper together athome. Sometimes she goes backto her office at night and ZhangShouming reads at home.

On Sundays they make somefavorite dishes or dough-wrappedmeat jtaozi. Sometimes they takea bus to the nearest small dty tovisit a park, do shopping or dineat a restaurant.

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Re- igion in the remote northwest, but ishe was not content. Finally theleaders had to consent to give hera post as an engineer at theDushanzi Oil Refinery in a vastexpanse of flat, arid, stony andformerly uninhabited area.

She asked for no special favorsas a woman. She often climbeddistillation columns 30 to 40 me

ters high to inspect them, andmade it a point to be the first togo into dirty distillation columnsthat needed overhauling, evenwhen the temperature inside wasnearing a suffocating 50 degreescentigrade.

"My ten years' life at Dushanziwas busy but rewarding," she recalls. "Although the place is far

• from major cities, I didn't feellife was dreary. All of us wentinto production single-mindedly.We rejoiced at its growth." Bythe time she left Dushanzi to work

at the Shengli oil field ten yearslater, the refining capacity hadincreased several fold and it was

making many more kinds oflubricants.

Marriage and Career

Dushanzi means even more to

Xu Qian. It was at this remoteoil field that she was married, atthe age of 27, to Zhang Shouming,a mechanical engineer two yearsher senior, He is also strong-willed and equally dedicated tothe country's petroleum industry.They had met at an oil field inthe northwest in 1953. Zhang got acolleague to write to Xu Qian toask if they might correspond, andthey did. 'When in 1954 he wasoffered the choice of working inBeijing or Xinjiang, he decidedon Xinjiang.

"I thought even more highlyof him because of his decision,"Xu Qian says. A year later theycame together again at Dushanzi.They married in 1956. After theirbaby girl Caoying was born in1959, they agreed not to have anymore children so they could workbetter for the petroleum -industry.

"My husband was content witha daughter," Xu Qian says. "Heis not one of those who thinksboys are better than girls." Living

The Shengli oil refinery where Xu Qian is chief engineer. Xinhua

MARCH 1980

Women oil drillers at Sbengli oilfield.Xinhua

Hoiisework is shared. As Xuputs it, "We're very democratic.Whoever is the least busy doesthe most housework." Her flat oftwo sunny rooms is neatly butsimply furnished. Rent, waterand electric lighting account foronly one percent of their combined income of 250 yuan. Themajor outlay is for their daughter's keep and books.

Women Are Not Inferior

Early in 1963 Xu Qian wasalready nationally-known as a'nengineer in her industry. For heroutstanding contribution in Xinjiang she was received by Chairman Mao at a national conference.Last year she was elected a deputyto the National People's Congress.

She is proud and happy aboutall that the Shengli Oil Refineryhas achieved-. The extra capacityachieved by one renovation in 1970alone under her leadership is equivalent to building a new refinery atone-third the cost. The profitturned over to the state by the refinery over the years is enough tobuild 21 others, each capable ofrefining 2.5 million tons of crudeoil a year.

Long Shouxin, the presentdirector of the oil refinery, hasworked with Xu Qian since theXinjiang days. "Her knowledgecomes mostly first-hand," he says."She is good at delving intotechnology and analyzing problems. Her work on the innovation has tested all her qualities:her determination to persist whentime and again there seemed to befailures, and her skills as a technologist and a leader."

He recalls that Xu Qian'smaturing as a woman pioneer insuch a male-dominated industrywas not smooth sailing. Therewere times when men ridiculedor rebuffed her. Once when shedisagreed with an official of theShengli Complex on a technicalproblem, he lashed out at her, "Ifyou don't want to go ahead, you'dbetter go home and look after yourchild." It turned out later thatXu Qian was correct and the official apologized to her.

Recalling her experiences overthe years, Xu Qian says, "Maleprejudice still regards women asneither capable nor resourceful,but finicky, weeping easily, oftenasking leaves for trivial mattersand not conscientious enough inwork.

"The only way we can do awaywith that sort of thing is with ourown actions. It is not so difficult,at least in oil refining. It's truethat women do not have thephysical strength of some men,so not many of them do work likedrilling, but they do have as muchstaying power as men. They arevery careful in their work andalso thoughtful in planning.

"Leaders have to canvass theopinions of many people andorganize personnel. Women cando well at this sort of thing."

Xu Qian has proven this truein her own life. When she cameto the Shengli oil field in 1966, itwas rent by factionalism andideological confusion. Her ownbest qualities stood her in goodstead: drawing on her determination and modesty and her skill asa technologist and leader she wasable to pull together a technicalteam and get things going.

In 1976 during the heyday ofthe gang of four, when technicalknowledge made one subject toattack as a bourgeois intellectual,most of the technical personnelwere taken out of technical workand sent to work in the shops. AtXu Qian's encouragement theytook their plans with them andtalked them over with the workers, resulting in. improvements.

The workers admire her for herthorough knowledge of the refinery's equipment and pipelines,her capacity to direct work on thespot and solve difficult problems,She readily turns up at anytrouble spot early or late, rain orshine.

The younger generation oftechnicians appreciate her constant efforts to train them. TheShengli Oil Refinery has twoother women engineers and 67women technicians. Xu Qianplaces strict demands on heryounger colleagues, but is alwaysthere to help and encourage. In1968 a college graduate namedLi Yizhong was assigned to workwith Xu Qian. He developed adesign for a new installation inless than two years. Although thedesign had a number of defectsand insufficient data, Xu affirmed its good features and pointedout its shortcomings. She evenwent with him to a chemicalplant in northeast China to acquireaccurate reference data. Thus shehelped him draw up a successfuldesign. The young man took partin five major design projects inseven • years and became anengineer in 1977.

"We work for a great cause,"Xu Qian says, "but one individualor one generation, can't do it.Thousands upon thousands oftechnicians and engineers, bothmen and women, are needed." •

CHINA IlECONSTBUCTS

The cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, both close to Hongkong, are two of a few selectedareas in China where overseas investors have been granted favorable conditions for a limitedperiod in order to stimulate economic development. This is viewed as one means of speedingup China's socialist modernization with quick capital, and by facilitating training of personneland importation of new technology, equipment and systems. The article below and one on p. 17tell what is being done in these two cities.

Developing Shenzhen

SHENZHEN is the place wherenpnolp cro.<:.<; I.tirthu Bridi?p from' people cross Luohu Bridge from

Hongkong to enter the People'sRepublic of China. As a resultof this area being made one of thespecial districts which may attractforeign investment, a lot ofindustrial development and construction is under way in Shenzhen. From a quiet town- of 20,000inhabitants only a year ago, Shenzhen has grown to be a city of330,000. The city and its environshave been promoted to the statusof a special municipality directlyunder the Guangdong provincegovernment.

"From the viewpoint of aninvestor," the chairman of a Hongkong financial group told me,"Shenzhen has several advantages— suitable geographical and socialconditions, convenient land andwater communications and a vast

area of undeveloped land. Rentscharged on property and groundare low." The area also has a

large labor force, and he also Citedthe low cost of labor.

The 2,000 - square - kilometerShenzhen district lies on the fertile

LIU XUEQIANG

Zhujiang (Pearl) River delta. Itssubtropical climate provides lushcrops the year round. Beautifulbays and excellent sites for harbors line its 195 kilometers ofcoast. The Hongkong-Guangzhourail line passes through the city.EveiV year two million Chineseand foreign travelers and compatriots from Hongkong and Macaocome and go via Luohu Bridge andthe Wenjin ferry. The railwaystation has been enlarged severaltimes, but is always packed.

Street Scene

The street scene in Shenzhen

seems more relaxed: beneath the

horsetail beefwoods and royalpoincianas there are strollers, bothvisitors and local people clad inthe colorful garments of the south,which flutter in the sea breeze

from Shenzhen Bay, taxis oftravelers shuttling to and fro. Morerestaurants and quick-lunchcounters are being built.

On the outskirts of Shenzhen anendless flow of tourist buses,tractors and trucks loaded with

Shenzhen railway slation. with Hongkong on the right.

-'s rri.-

building materials stir up clouds ofdust. All along the highway onepasses sites where hillsides arebeing blasted to fill in hollows tocreate new level ground. Onepasses a gigantic automobile assembly plant which will be completed soon. Built with joint investment by the municipal government and the agent companies ofthe U.S. Ford Motor Company andthe Japanese Mitsubishi MotorsCorporation, it will produce passenger cars and deluxe touristbuses. Work has begun on thefoundation for a big printing plant.From an official in the municipaladministration I learned that the

central and Guangdong provincialgovernments, too, had greatlyincreased available fimds to belinked with overseas capital ondeveloping .the city.

Contracts Signed

Plans call for building Shenzheninto a sizable port for the export ofindustrial and agricultural products from China, an industrialprocessing center and a tourist

area." The Office of Economic

Relations with Foreign Countrieslocated in the Workers' CulturalPark has become the busiest placein the city. Between January andOctober of last year representatives from 380 overseas firms came

there for investment negotiationsor disciissions on other matters.

Among them were representativesof 45 financial groups and multinational corporations, and businessmen from the United States, Japan,West Germany, France, Canada,the Netherlands, the Philippines,Singapore, Malaysia, Australia,Belgium and from Hongkong andMacao.

Within the short time of a yearnearly 200 contracts were-signedembracing industries in electronics, textiles, clothing, automobile assembly, printing, leathergoods, toys, precious stones, foodstuffs, tourism, building materials,ocean fishing and equipment forfishing grounds. Total capitalinvested topped 200 million U.S.dollars. Business is done in theform of processing raw materialssupplied from elsewhere, compensatory trade, cooperativeproduction, joint-venture enter-

Imported automatic welding machineprocesses radio-cassettes in joint-venture plant. Photos by Zhu Yongqing

I

12

\\

prises or enterprises financedentirely by overseas capital.

Shirts and Knitwear

The earliest of such undertakings is the Shenzhen GarmentFactory in the center of the city.As an initial investment, a Hongkong manufacturer provided asmall factory with 256 sewingmachines worth 120,000 U.S.dollars. The present factory hasan anticipated capacity of 65,000dozen men's shirks. The Hongkongfirm supplies the raw materialsand, in the form of compensatorytrade, the factory repays the investment with shirts over a periodof three years.

A new production system wasset up. Now, instead of workingon one shirt from start to finish —as was previously done in thisparticular small plant — eachmachine operator processes a different set of pieces. Daily outputhas increased from five shirts permachine to 18, a higher rate ofproductivity than in factories ofthe same kind in Hongkong. TheShenzhen factory now has 397workers and technicians but only11 administrative personnel. Inits first year the Hongkonginvestor made a sizable profit, thefactory paid back 80 percent ofthe initial investment and was ableto double the workers' wages.

Construction on ' the ShenzhenWoolen Knitting. Factory wasbegun last January with investment of 250,000 U.S. dollars froma Hongkong company and 300,000yuan Reminbi in Chinese investment. The factory went into

operation last May, producing 54varieties of wool knit goods.Ninety-five percent of the totalworkers are young women — 350'of them'—with an average ageof 20.

Visiting its bright new workshop, I asked a technician fromHongkong how he found these newworkers at operating the machines.

"It usually takes three monthsto train for such jobs in Hongkong,but the young people here arehard workers," he said with asmile. "They finished their apprenticeship in a month and theirquality is not bad, but of coursethere's room for improvement."Because the items the factoryproduces are up to standard, theHongkong investor ia willing toexpand production and buildanother shop with a floor space of4,000 square meters.

Flans for Shekou

Thirty kilometers west of thecity is Shekou, a promontory inShenzhen Bay separated from thetown of Yuanlang, a satellite ofHongkong, by 27 nautical miles ofwater. Along its shore the Hongkong Merchant Steamship hasinvested heavily in construction ofdocking and related facilities.Since Shekou has a lot of landunsuited for farming but suitablefor factories, it will also be builtinto an industrial area.

First-stage projects begun lastJuly include an 8-kilometer highway, a 2-kilometer coast road, a600-meter dock capable of berthing3,000-5,000-ton freighters, dredging for the port and navigation

Joint-Venture LawfTlHE Law of the People's Republic of China on Joint Chinese

and Foreign Investment proihulgated oh July 1, 1979 states(Article 1):

With a view to expanding international economic cooperation and technological exchange, the People's Republic of Chinapermits foreign companies, enterprises, other economic entitiesor individuals to incorporate themselves, within the territoryof the People's Republic of China, into joint ventures with Chinese companies, enterprises or other economic entities on thepririciple of equality and mutual benefit and subject to authorization by the Chinese government,

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

Shunz-hon Reservoir and the Red Towerare popular tourist spots near Shenzhen.

I

Photos hy Zhu Yon'gtiing

Local and an overseas technicians exchange pointers at the Guangming Electrical Instrument Plant.

Making toys for export

Australian duck-raising specialist (right) at a joint-venture duck farm.

Technician from an overseas firm (left) helps solvea production problem at the Luohu Leather Shoe Factory.

/

C3

Nanlou commune shop processessilk flowers for overseas firm.

%

Electronic watch shop at Shenzhen Electronics Knciory.

Worker in joint-venture shirt factory seems to like what directorand technician from overseas firm have to say about quality.

channels, a substation, a waterplant-, and the accompanying pipesand cables. Factories — a dozensizable ones — will follow as soonas this construction is finished.

In the development office of thisarea, a row of cream-coloredbuildings set among lush horsetailbeefwood trees near the shore, Ilearned from Xu, its energeticdeputy director, about plans forthe future. Standing before ahuge map, Xu pointed out thesections for heavy industry, lightindustry, chemical plants, a commercial area and a residentialarea, One portion is to be reservedfor development as a pleasurebeach with resorts.

Xu • took me out onto a

hilltop at the tip of the promontory's headland commanding abroad view of the future industrialarea. In the bay, muddy jets ofwater were shooting out of thepipes of a dredger and on thenewly-leveled ground all kinds ofmachinery were at work. Pointingto the open land below us, Xu said,

' "Over there will be a ship salvageyard. There will be a steel rollingmill. A new dock will be builtin the bay. In a few days this hillwe are standing on will be direc-tionally blasted to fill in a smallinlet."

Seaside Playground

The Shenzhen area has manyscenic spots of interest to touristsand vacationers, including theShenzhen and Xili reservoirs, YuluHot Spring and Meisha Beach. 1visited a vacation resort camp atXili Reservoir jointly run by theShenzhen Travel and Tourism

Company and a Hongkong counterpart, For 15 U.S. dollars a day,holidaymakers from Hongkong canrent a tent for sleeping on thebeach for a night and enjoy thearea's facilities for boating, swimming, fishing, mountain climbing,golf and bicycling. The price includes gourmet food and thefamous fresh fruit from the nearbyorchards. When I was there it had

been open less than a month buthad already received severalthousand guests. Accommodationsare now being expanded. •

MARCH 1980

Aiding Overseas Investorsin Guangzhou

XIAN ZI'EN

There are quite afew UnitedStates corporations which can

and are willing to render servicein China, I learned from an oldclassmate of mine at QinghuaUniversity years ago who has returned to China from the U.S.But most of them do not knowhow to go about negotiating forinvestment in China. I told himthat financing capital constructionand production with foreign investment is still a new thing inChina. We have not had muchexperience with it and it may notalways run smoothly. I also suggested that he might find it helpfulto study the Law of the People'sRepublic of China on Joint Ventures Using Chinese and ForeignInvestment adopted by the National People's Congress and wentinto effect on July 1, 1979.*

Not long ago I had the opportunity to visit a number of factories in Guangdong provincewhich are cooperating withforeign investors. As of August31, 1979 there were 368 such enterprises in Guangzhou usingforeign investment to manufactureproducts with imported materialsor doing assembly with importedparts, and 12 involving compensatory trade and joint venture. Ivisited five factories in the city ofGuangzhou, four in Panyu cormtyand four in Huaxian countymaking clothing with importedmaterials and assembling electronic products such as electronicwrist watches, "television sets andradio-cassette recorders. Foreign

• investment in each of these factories is between 100,000 and5,000,000 U.S. dollars. Contractsfor most of these were settled

within a few months.

Of course some negotiations takelonger. Negotiations for all of the368 were done after the Guangzhou export fair in the Autumnof 1978, and operations began inthe spring of 1979.

Most of the factories I visited

have adopted modern methods ofmanagement and operation. Thecost of processing in these factoriesis a little lower than in Hongkong.They have been able to meet theirproduction plans in time and turnout products to foreign specifications. In one Guangzhou electronics factory producing TOQtriodes the rate of qualified products is 97 percent.

Larger Projects

A number of projects on a largerscale are stUl in the process ofnegotiation or waiting for governmental approval from Beijing.One foreign investor I know ofsaid that he had drunk innumerable cups of green tea duringtalks in government offices fromGuangzhou to Beijing, but thoughmost of the cadres he talked to

were quite interested in his proposal, the contract had still notbeen signed. It is evident that.small-scale investments can beapproved more quickly whilelarge-scale compensatory itemsand joint venture items take moretime.

After studying the foreign investment law and regulations Ifeel this is not unreasonable, because investment contracts areapproved by different governmentauthorities according to the sizeand character of the. investment.

The following forms of foreigninvestment are possible:

XIAN ZI'EN Is a member of the economic and Construction group of theGuangdong Province People's PoliticalConsultative Conference and has wideexperience in industrial economics.

• The text of the joint ventures lawappeared in full in the July 20 (No. 29)issue of Beijing Review.

17

Tit

TV assembly witb imported parts at the Guangzhou BroadcastMaterials Plant. Yue Gao

Making electronic wrist-watches.

1. Manufacturing products asrequested by foreign concernsusing imported materials.

2. Assembling products as requested by foreign concerns usingimported parts.

3. Medium and small-scale

compensatory trade, that is, manufacturing products as requestedby foreign companies using imported machinery and equipmentand imported materials and parts.

The first two forms are approved by the local governments,municipalities, provinces or autonomous regions and can therefore be handled rapidly. In thethird form in which foreign investment in a compensatory enterprise is repaid through sale ofits products abroad, the contractswill be approved either by theState Planning Commission andthe Ministry of Foreign Trade orby a local government.

Importing Technology

All the three kinds of enter

prises may import advancedtechnology, machinery and equipment. Local governments areauthorized to approve such agreements up to the limit of one million U.S. dollars. If a sum overthis figure is involved, the contract will be approved by theState Planning Commission andrelated ministries.

-If the proposal for foreign investment is in the form of a large-scale joint venture, the process of

iDvcstmcnt In this shop making denim for blue jeans will be paid for in compensatory trade.

negotiation is longer and morecomplicated. The most importantpoint is that the proposed investment should be in accord with the

general plan of development andthat' the technology, machineryand equipment to be imported arethings China needs for her development. Foreign investors may.initiate negotiations either withlocal governments or directly withthe related ministries at the central government level.

I found that the foreign tradeunits, local government, and industrial and commercial enter

prises, as well as tourist and service units in Guangzhou are alleager to do what they can tosmooth the way for foreign investors. They are now making astudy of their work thus far withthe aim of improving it andcutting down on unnecessaryformalities. •

Investment Information

INQUIRES concerning joint ventures can be addressed to theChina International Trust and Investment Corporation

(CITIC) which was set up last July expressly for the utilization offoreign investments on behalf of various Chinese central andlocal authorities, and the introduction of advanced technologyand equipment for running joint enterprises. Its address is: P.O.Box 9021, Beijing. Cables: CITIC BEIJING. Telex: 22305 CITICCN.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

Lightening the Loadfor Working Mothers

TAN MANNI

How do working mothers cope with the problemsof children and housekeeping? Fathers, of course, arehelping out more. In addition there are many socialservices such as nurseries and cafeterias run byfactories and other places of work. Neighborhoods,too, help in this way, and by organizing people withfree time for housework aid services, for a small fee.Below we tell how these things work, through thestories of two families in Shanghai.

compared herself to a juggler,catching the "ball" of her work forthe country's socialist modernization and snatching at the secondball of running a household. Sheattributed her ability to keep bothballs going at the same time tohelp from neighbors and society asa whole.

"I listen to the weather forecast

as I wash and dress. At six, I take•a basket and go do my shopping.I come back half an hour later

with our breakfast and the day'sgroceries. Meanwhile, my husbandhas dressed our six-year-old son

Chuandong, made the beds andtidied up the place. After breakfast, our 11-year-oId daughter,Yanmei, goes off to her school. Ileave the apartment at seventhirty, dropping Chuandong off atthe kindergarten on the secondfloor. It's run by the neighborhoodoffice. If there's time I have a wordor two with his teacher. I usuallyget to the office by 7:50, whichgives me a few minutes. And that'show my busy day starts."

Zhang Zirong is a graduate ofChongqing Institute of Civil Engineering in Sichuan province.Since her graduation in 1965 shehas designed defense projects,factories, research establishmentsand hospitals in Shanghai andother places. At the moment shewas working on a design for alarge purification workshop for anintegrated circuit factory.

"My husband and I have lunchat our Institute's cafeteria. Yanmeicomes home and eats in the lunch-

ONE evening last winter Iknocked on the door of apartment

5'01 in the huge ten-story apartment building, H6bin Mansion, beside Suzhou Creek in Shanghai. Itwas opened by Zhang Zirong,short, plump and smiling. A fewhours earlier I had seen her as a

brisk professional, an architectbent over a drafting board at theShanghai Institute of IndustrialDesign. Now she was a typicalhousewife, with apron and sleeveprotectors, and a little boy ather heels. She welcomed me

warmly to come inside. Herhusband, Zhang Yongxiao, a 40-year-old sub-chief of a designingroom in the same institute, was

busy cooking. He greeted mecheerfully from the kitchen, fryingpan in hand.

Three hours later, supper andwashing up over and the childrenput to bed, we settled down at lastfor a qiiiet chat. Signs of fatigueshowed on her face, but when shelaunched into an account of theirdaily routine in their household,with her husband contributingevery now and then, she began torelax a bit.

"My day begins with the alarmclock going off at five thirty," saidthe 37-year-old mother of two. She

TAN MANNI Is a staff reporter forChina Beconslructs.

Lunch is delivered to school children from the neighborhood cafeteria on ZhapuRoad.

MARCH 19B0

rMfy

Many are finding bread, as from neighborbood-run bakery Physical check ai kindergarten where Zhang Zirong's sonabove, easy to keep and serve. goes.

room for children of workingcouples. The food comes from thecafeteria run by the neighborhoodoffice, and women on the residents'committee take turns taking careof the childr^. They have fish ormeat with every meal, as well asvegetables. They charge at cost,which comes to about twentyfen per meal.

"During the half-hour breakafter lunch I run through the dailypapers or shop on Nanjing Roadjust down the way. Yesterday Ibought Yanmei a sweater with aturndown collar for her birthday.

"Yanmei gets back from schoolat half past three. While she doesher homework she puts the rice onthe stove for supper. The residents'committee has someone on duty 24hours of the day on each story ofour building, and two retiredwomen workers living next to usare always very helpful. Yanmeigoes to them if she has any problems, so we aren't worried abouther being at home alone. At fiveshe fetches her brother home fromthe kindergarten. He has alreadyhad his supper there.

"After supper my husbandchecks Yanmei's homework, .'andbefore the children's bedtime heplays with them a bit. On weekendevenings if we don't go to watchTV at a neighbor's we sometimeshave a family musical. The four ofus entertain ourselves." I was told

that the couple are popular soloand chorus singers at amateur concerts held at their institute.

"After the children have gone tobed, my husband sometimes doeswork he's brought home with himor reads. I do some mending orknitting. Sometimes I look overbooks or journals, like The Architects' Journal, for instance. Well,that's our routine on most weekdays. The pace on Sunday is gruelling. My husband cooks the twomeals we have and I do the shopping, The rest of the, day we dolaundry or I sew on .the machine."

Zhang Zirong said she hatedhaving to spend "so much timeshopping and washing clothes. Thetime could be better used, say,reading. She cited housework aidservices now available through theneighborhood office, but felt herfamily couldn't take advantage ofthem yet. "If cur salaries werelarger we could become more'emancipated' and have more freetime like neighbor Yang Mengliu.She has someone from theneighborhood service group do hershopping and washing."

Monthly Budget

Zhang Zirong's family budget isabout average for technical peoplein their late 30s and early 40s.Their incomes add up to 146 yuana month. They have two old people to help out in addition to sup

porting their two young children.Their monthly budget works outmore or less as follows:

Rent, water, electricity &gas , 14 yuan

Nursery fees, including twomeals a day 12 yuan

Lunch at cafeteria, husbandand wife 15 yuan

Lunch for Yanmei - 6 yuanFood for meals at home and

sundries 58 yuanCigarettes, candy, fruit 10 yuanOther expenses (including cloth

ing, holiday giftsfor relatives and

medical expensesfor the children)

16 yuanSavings 5 yuan

Since shopping service for theirfamily would cost three yuan amonth and laundry six yuan theyfelt it would be too much of astrain on their budget.

A Better-Off Family

Zhang Zirong is neighbor ofYang Mengliu, ' a 49-year-oldwoman architect, who has beenworking 14 years longer and earnsover 70 yuan a month. Her husband, a dean of studifes in a middleschool, makes more than 90 yuan.Their two sons, one a factoryworker and the otlier a bank clerk,both unmarried, bring home atotal of about 1'20 yuan, includingbonuses. So this family is able to

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

The neighborhood laundry on Zhapu Road. Phoios by XinhuaThe Zhapu Road medical station sends b^pwhen someone in the family is sick.

have their shopping and washingdone by others. They can also afford to pay the local service groupto do such chores as spring cleaning, knitting, mending and waxingthe floors, Their sons also helpabout the %ouse and do the cooking. So Yang Mengliu can often,work on at the office until afterseven. She was promoted to therank of engineer last year and isin full charge of designing projects. Her husband, who spendsmuch of his spare time directingstudents' extracurricular science

and technical activities, seldomhas to be concerned with housework. Last winter he went to Bei

jing with an. exhibition of hjsstudents' achievements.

Being better off financially, thisfamily can afford a richer culturallife. "They own a TV set, often goto concerts, and Yang Mengliugoes to the hair-dresser's everyweek. They save about 60 yuanevery month, which they plan tospend on their sons' weddings andtouring the country after theyretire.

Social Services

The services mentioned above

are only part of those run by theneighborhood offices — the grassroots-level government administration, to make life in generaleasier for working couples, especially for working women. There

MARCH 1980

are 1,169,000 working women inShanghai, making up 36.6 percentof the total work force. Since

almost all married women under

45 have ^obs, ten percent of the' families with both husband andwife working have no one at hometo look after children of primaryschool age and under. As theirproblems differ according to theirincome and housing, services required also vary. Most neighborhoods operate small enterpriseslike electrical appliances plants,watch parts workshops and so on,and some of the proceeds fromthese help support the serviceunits. The main staff for these ser

vices are retired workers. There

are 8,300 of them among the 62,000inhabitants of the area under the

Zhapu Road neighborhood office towhich Hebin Mansion belongs.Many of these people are in goodhealth and still want to do some

thing useful. They do some of thethings on a volunteer basis, gladto be of help to their workingneighbors.

The ihain services provided include:

Neighborhood cafeterias. Manyresidents' committees (there areseveral under each neighborhoodoffice) run non-profit cafeteriaswith food about 35 percent cheaperthan that in restaurants. Workerswho do not wish to cook at homehave lunch and supper and buy

their next morning's breakfastthere.

Kindergartens. There are 680,000kindergarten-age children inShanghai and its suburbs. Of these30,000 in the city proper and 70,000in the suburbs are still waiting forplaces. The kindergartens run bythe neighborhood offices havebeen trying hard in recent yearsto expand and take in more. Someof them now are able to offer aday and night service, where aparent can leave the child thereduring a night shift job or a nightout at the opera. The Board ofEducation'provides the kindergartens with a subsidy of four yuana month for each child. The chargeper child for tuition is generallyeight yuan, but parents actuallypay only one to two yuan; the restis covered by the mother's workunit.

After-school Homework Help.Every afternoon at 3:30 the seniorcitizens' clubroom in Hebin Mansion is turned over to the primaryschool children for homeworkunder supervision of retired teachers and workers, storytellingand organized games'. There areseveral such groups in the building. This service gets special attention in neighborhoods made uppredominantly of factory workers.It is very much appreciated byparents who are unable to help"their children themselves. During

summer vacations, primary schoolpupils can come to these centersfrom eight in the morning to studyand play, or sometimes be takenout on excursions or to see films.

They have lunch there, take a napafterwards, have a mid-afternoonsnack and go home at five whentheir parents are about to comehome.

Aid to Youth. Many workingparents with youngsters waitingfor work to be assigned themworry that their children maypick up bad habits or fall into badcompany. It is a problem. Of the20,000 young people living in theZhapu Road district today, 1,000are waiting to take college entranceexams or to be assigned work. Theneighborhood office finds themtemporary work in the cooperativesand service trades it runs. Some

neighborhoods have organizedspecial tutoring classes in primaryschool rooms after hoiors for youngpeople planning to take collegeentrance exams or proficiencytests which will help them get jobsin factories. Parents often expresstheir gratitude to the neighborhoodleaders for such help, which hasenabled the young people tomake better grades. For certainyoung people who have got introuble, the neighborhood asks retired workers to make friends with

them and try to help straighten,them out.

Service Groups. The services provided by the groups organized bythe neighborhood offices are staffed mainly by retired women workers and are geared to the needs ofthe local inhabitants. They includewashing and ironing, house-cleaning, shopping, waxing floors, babysitting, household repairs, polishingpots and pans, tidying up gardensand mowing lawns. Charges arelow, ranging from ten fen to oneyuan for each item of service. Theyalso do sewing and mending, knitting and tailoring at pieceworkrates.

Neighbors Help Each Other

The problem right now is thatlow-income families cannot affordmany of these services, and oftensuch services are not available inresidential areas where higher-

income people predominate. Somutual assistance among neighborsis being promoted as a way ofhelping low-income families. Housing being short in Shanghai,several families often share one

house and use the same kitchen.

Where the residents are^on goodterms an elderly woman or retiredwoman worker voluntarily takesup the post of "housekeeper" forall the families. Working couplesleave their house keys with herbefore they go to work. She willsee their children to the kinder

garten if they are pressed for timein the mornings, bring in theirwashing when it rains and warmup lunches for gchool children.Some also keep an eye on thechildren to see that they don't getinto mischief. If working couplescome home late, she fixes supperfor their children, takes them towatch a TV show at the neighborhood club, and afterwards washesthem and puts them to bed. Thechildren have come to love these

"housekeepers" and because ofthem some families have even re

fused the chance to move into a

new apartment when offered one.On Sundays, the working couples,in their turn, help with heavierchores at the "housekeeper's"homes, such as carrying up coal,buying rice at the grain store andtidying up the house. .

In workers' residential districts,it is retired workers, too, who taketurns seeing that children do notmake too much noise and disturb

sleeping night-shift workers.Where possible, factories arrangethings so that two women workersin the same house go on differentshifts, so there is always a womanaround the house to look after the

chUdren of both families.

As Zhang Zirong says, "Our lotis not easy. But when your husband shares the chores, when theold lady living next door offers todo things for you, when cadresfrom the residents' committeecome asking you what they can doto help, when you feel that societyas a whole in concerned, and istrying to help make life easier forworking women like myself, youget a warm feeling and the loadseems lighter." •

In Our Society

Delinquent Backfrom the Brink

ZHANG YUHAI is a bricklayerwho lives happily with his

wife and children in the city ofBaicheng in Jilin province. Not somany years ago this young manwas a familiar figure loiteringabout on the streets — and in the

local police station where he wasfrequently brought for stealing.Today Zhang Yuhai has turnedover a new leaf and is "going

straight". Much of the credit forit goes to Sun Guilan, a warmhearted woman in the neighborhood.

Zhang Yuhai's mother had diedwhen he was only three. Leftmuch on his own by his ailingfather and his stepmother, thesmall boy spent much of his timein the streets, where from olderboys he learned to pilfer and steal.As the years went by he becamebolder; after his father died andthe stepmother remarried when he

was 16, he had nothing to restrainhim. Police detention became an

everyday occurrence.Both the local police and the

neighbors were concerned aboutthe boy. Among them was SunGuilan, head of the neighborhoodcommittee, who lived in the same

courtyard as Zhang Yuhai. Feelingthat a proper •home would helphim give up his bad ways, shedecided to take him in hand.

She invited the scruffy, unkempt16-year-old to live in her home,and made a place for him to sleepon the warm kang platform bedwhere her own sons slept. Oneof the first things she did was tomake him a new set of paddedclothes. Decent lodging andregular meals improved ZhangYuhai's health which had been in

bad condition from the vagrantlife he had been leading. Knowingthat the boy liked movies, Sun

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

Zhang Tuhai at work.

Guilan several times bought ticketsfor him to go with one of her sons.She told Zhang time and again,"If you need anything just let meknow, but no stealing."

For the first time Zhang Yuhaiexperienced a mother's love.

But he could not understand whythis woman treated him so welland was on guard against her.Well, stay a while and see howthings turned out, he decided.

Several days later, some ofZhang's old cronies came to lookfor him. They threatened tosmash up the house if Sun Guilandid not let him go with them. Shesternly ordered them out.

Once 'a man barged into thecourtyard and beat up Zhang,claiming that the boy owed himmoney. He threatened to takeZhang away if he did not returnthe sum. Although Zhang himselfwas not certain whether or not he

owed him anything, Sun Guilangave the man the money.

After these incidents some

neighbors began to fear that theywould not be able to live in peacewith Zhang around. One of themwrote Sun Guilan's eldest son, whowas serving in the army, sayingthat his mother was harboring anundesirable element. Not knowingthe truth of the matter the son

wrote to his mother advising herto get rid of the boy. Sun Guilan'sother children also Jelt it wasdangerous to associate with Zhang

MARCH 1980

Yuhai and that his coming put astrain on the family budget.

Sun Guilan saw it differently.She maintained that Zhang Yuhaiwas a son of the working class andthat it was the duty — hers as wellas others' — to stop him fromdoing harm to society. Patiently"she talked to the neighbors andher children to bring them around.

After a period of time ZhangYuhai became bored. One day

he sneaked out and went back on

his old ways. If he could stealmoney he spent lavishly. If not,he went hungry. After a few daysof this his stomach trouble

returned. Finally, with nobody toturn to, he came back to SunGuilan. Without a word she

treated him as before. But when

she tried to make him see the error

of his ways he refused to listen.He ran away two more times.

The last time he became

seriously ill. His cronies abandoned him one by one, leaving himto shift for himself. In his plighthe remembered the warmth he had

found in Sun Guilan's home. But

he felt he did not have the face togo back. At this juncture, withthe help of neighborhood policemen and acquaintances. SunGuilan found him. The dirty,ragged boy threw himself into SunGuilan's arms. Tears ran down

his cheeks as he said, "Mother, I'llnever i^n away again."

.Sun Quilan saw that Zhang-wasreally determined to repent andturn over a new leaf, so she took

him around to look'for a job. No.factory would accept Zhang Yuhaiwhen they heard of his notoriouspast. Sun Guilan and publicsecurity workers did a lot persuasion. They told factory leaders itwas the responsibility of society toreeducate young people likeZhang. To deprive them of theright to a job meant pushing themback into their old ways. Finallya construction team took ZhangYuhai on as a bricklayer. SunGuilan talked with the team leader

and enlisted him in her campaignto transform Zhang into a usefulmember of society.

Zhang Yuhai took his firstmonth's pay straight to SunGuilan. She took care of his livingand put the rest money into thebank in his name. This helpedZhang form the good habit ofsaving. Everyone was happy tosee the change in Zhang Yuhai.

Years later it was Sun Guilan

herself who introduced ZhangYuhai to the young woman hewould marry. As his wedding dayapproached, workmates andneighbors helped him build a newhouse, and members of theneighborhood committee made himbedding and bought cookingutensUs and furniture.

Though not particularly well-offas money goes, Zhang has not lethimself be led into temptation. Hehas never stolen again. Once whenhe found a wallet he gave it to histeam leader to be returned to the

owner with the contents intact.Another time he helped the policecatch a thief. •

Guilan often visits Zhang (right) and his lamilr.Photos by Han Fengzhu ond Coo Wenju

Along the Silk Road

Dance Drama

WANG XI and LIU QINGXIA

The new full-length dancedrama Along the Silk Road

presented by the Gansu Song andDance Ensemble has been widelyacclaimed for its color and sheerbeauty, as well as its new depar-tiures in staging and bringing tolife ancient dance motifs,

Set against the background ofthe Old SUk Road, main artery oftrade with the west in the Tangdynasty (618-907), the drama reflects the friendly relationsbetween the Chinese people andthe peoples of countries to the westa thousand years ago. Artisticallyit draws its inspiration from thefamous grotto murals at Dunhuangin Gansu province along the oldroad.

The curtain rises on somestriking and unusual stage effects— a pair of celestials with flowingsilk girdles floating among mistyclouds. Then, as the lights comeup, three figures of the six-armedgoddess of mercy are silhouettedagainst the backdrop .moving theirarms in unison. The tinlde of bellsis heard and a camel caravanpasses across the stage which nowevokes the boundlessness of thedesert in early morning.

As the story proceeds, Enus, aPersian merchant traveling theroad is about to perish in a desertsandstorm. He is saved by MasterPainter Zhang and his daughterYingniang, who happen to bepassing. Zhang gives his last water•to save Enus, but meanwhile hisdaughter is kidnapped by bandits.

Several years later Zhang findshis lost daughter at the fair in Dun-

24

huang. She was sold into slaveryand became a dancer in a theatricaltroupe. When he does not have themoney to redeem her, Enus, whohe also meets, offers to do so. Butthe loc^ official in charge of tradehas designs on Yingniang. Tokeep her from falling into hishands, Zhang entrusts Yingniangto Enus and she goes to Persia withhim. There she develops closefriendships among the Persian people, learns their dances and teachesher own.

Later Enxis is sent to China on a

mission and Yingniang returnswith him. The bad official plots togain his revenge by getting thugsto. attack the caravan with whichthey are traveling.' Zhang againcomes to Enus' aid by lighting abeacon fire to summon troops, butbefore they arrive the painter iskilled.

At the Dunhuang fair Yingniangexposes the official and he and thethugs are captured. The dramaends on a note of joyous friendshipamid performances by people fromthe 27 countries whose traders and

artists have come to the fair.

Trade and Contacts

Economic and cultural exchangebetween China and foreign landsflourished during the early Tangdynasty. One of the most livelywas that of Chinese silk for pearlsfrom Persia. At one" time about10,000 foreign princes and aristocrats lived in the Chinese capitalChangan (today's Xi'an), along

with envoys, merchants andscholars from Arabia, Rome,Japan, Persia and other parts ofCentral Asia. Some of their dancesare presented at a gathering towelcome distinguished foreignguests at the magnificent visitor'shostel there.

The choreographers started frompostures of musicians and dancers— both Chinese and Persian —shown in the Dunhuang murals,and went on to design the dances.They did considerable historicalresearch to get them as authenticas possible. Figures in the muralsof dancers or musicians playingthe pipa, a mandolin-like stringedinstrument, behind their backswere the inspiration for a dance byYingniang in Scene Two. Reflecting the character of Yingniangas a bold and intelligent youngwoman of political integrity, thisdance like a musical theme runsthrough the entire drama. Ying-niang's solos in the first, secondand fourth scenes begin from it.

The murals were also theinspiration for the floating celestials in the prologue, the dance ofsmall children who appear out ofbig lotus buds, the Plate Dance, theWhite Silk Dance and the dancesof_ goddesses who Master PainterZhang sees while he is dreaming ofa reunion with his daughter in apalace in heaven.

The colorful costumes, representing many refreshing departures in stage costuming, are alsofrom the murals, as are the stagesettings, which include a mag-

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

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Yingniang teaches girls at the Persiancourt how to do Chinese embroidery.

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The painter's dream of reunion with his daughter and his Persian friend.

Dance movements based on Tang dynasty murals.

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Yingniang's return with the merchant, now Persian envoy to China

Dances from centraJ Asia.

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nificent Chinese palace and atranquil Persian garden.

For many years choreographershad longed to bring the riches ofthe bunhuang murals to life, buthad only done experiments with asingle solo dance.or part of a dance.Celestials had appeared on thestage before, but only as figureson the painted backdrop or firmlybased on the ground, never as inthis production "floating" as theyare pictured in the murals.

Clues in Poems

The choreographers made acareful study of the poses in themurals, and called on historiansand specialists in the Tang periodto aid them in developing thedances. They made an extensivestudy of historical records andliterature of the time, particularlyof references in the works of well-known Tang poets. The Dance ofthe Many-Colored Veils was very

popular at the time. The music issaid to have been adapted by Tangdynasty Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) from a famous Indian song.But the dance had long been lost.Fortunately it is described in apoem by the great Tang poet BaiJuyi (772-846) and this was ofgreat value in recreating themovements.

By drawing on the riches of thepast the choreographers have mademany new additions to China'sdance vocabulary. The dances inAlong the Silk Road are entirelydifferent from those based on theChinese classical dance which havebeen presented on the Chinesestage of late, but are also trulynational in style. •

DO YOU KNOW?

What About Ownership in China?

Today there are two mainkinds of ownership in China

of the means of production. Bothare socialist in nature.

Ownership by the whole people.Mineral deposits, waters, and thoseforests, undeveloped lands andother marine and land resources

owned by the state are theproperty of the whole people.Units and enterprises which play avital role in the national economy,such as large industrial plants,mines, railways, post and telecommunications, navigation, aviation, banking and foreign tradecame to be owned by the wholepeople and operated by the stateafter the founding of the People'sRepublic of China in 1949. Today97 percent of China's industrialfixed assets are of this nature.

Socialist collective ownership.The main means of production ofrural people's communes, such asland, machinery, draft animals and

MARCH 1980

big farm tools, as well as farmproducts and income belong tocommune members collectively. Atpresent the people's communeshave a three-level ownership — bythe commune, the productionbrigade below it and the production team, a subdivision of thebrigade, with the production teamas the basic accounting unit. Aboutninety percent of the farmland,irrigation and drainage equipment,and about 80 percent of tractorsand big livestock in the rural areasare collectively owned. The_^bulkof the rest is in the state farms

which are owned by the wholepeople.

In cities and towns, some enterprises are under collective ownership, such as small factories,handicraft and service cooperatives, teams or stations run byneighborhood or resident's committees, The means of production

and the product and income belongto the members of the enterprisescollectively.

In China's countryside, communemembers are allowed to work onsmall private plots and engage inhousehold sideline production (inpastoral areas, commune membersmay keep a small number oflivestock). All products from theseplots and sideline occupations areowned privately and can be soldat fairs.

Individual non-agriculturalworkers are permitted to engagein legitimate businesses withoutexploitation of others, such, asshoe-repairing and barbering.Income from this work belongs tothe individual.

China's Constitution providesthat the state protects the right ofcitizens to ovn lawfully earnedincome, savings, houses and othermeans of livelihood. •

2'."'

Reminiscences

of Chinese-American Friendship

IN the early spring of 1940, thePhiladelphia Orchestra was

having one of its regular rehearsalsat the Academy of Music in thecenter of that city. As secretaryof the newly-formed Philadelphiachapter of the China Aid Council,a national organization with headquarters in New York, I had beenurged by its executive committeeto ask the musicians to give abenefit concert. The proceeds wouldbe sent to Soong Ching Ling(Madame Sun Yat-sen) of theChina Defense League in Hongkong to help continue the medicalwork begun by the late Dr. Nor-

SU KAIMING (Frank Kai-ming Su)earned degrees from (he University ofWisconsin and Harvard University.After living 26 ' years in the UnitedStales, be and family returned to newChina in 1953- He has been on the staffof China Reconstructs.

SU KAIMING

man Bethune in the guerrilla areasin northwest China. One of the ex

ecutive committee members knew

that if the Philadelphia Orchestrawould agree to give such a concertimder the batons of LeopoldStokowski and Eugene Ormandy,one of the leading broadcastingcompanies would be willing to putit on coast-to-coast hookup.

I went to the Philadelphia Academy of Music where the orchestrawas rehearsing and, during a'break, was given the opportunityof speaking to them. In a brieftalk I likened China's war againstthe Japanese invaders, then goingon, to America's own war for independence and the Chinese guerrilla fighters to the ragged andhungry soldiers under GeorgeWashington at Valley Forge. "TheChinese people are the frontline

Eugene Ormandy, couductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, rehearsing with China'sCentral Philharmonic in Beijing. 1973. Zku YonoQing

fighters against fascism in defenseof democracy in the Far East,'' Isaid. "They will eventuallytriumph, and will be forevergrateful to you for your generoushelp in their days of trial." Thenand there, the members of theorchestra voted unanimously to-give a "China aid concert." Theword that our funds would be for

warded to Soong Ching Ling,whose patriotism and integritywere known to all, brought agreement to conduct from bothStokowski and Ormandy. Theorchestra of the city's famousCurtis Institute of Music and four

outstanding soloists, includingviolinist Joseph Szigeti and singerRose Hampton, also took part.The performance was truly agrand one. The whole programwas broadcast live from coast to

coast and helped to make the nameof the China Aid Council known

in many American homes. Soonafterwards, Mrs. Sara DelanoRoosevelt, mother of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, became its • national honorarychairman.

Early Support

There was widespread sympathyin the United States for China's

resistance to Japanese aggressionfrom the first invasion of her

northeastern provinces in 1931.Soon after Japan set up her puppetgovernment of "Manchukuo"there, a group known as AmericanFriends of the Chinese People andmembers of some trade unions

marched to and picketed the NewYork docks to protest the shipment of scrap iron to Japan. InJuly 1937 when the entire Chinesepeople rose to resisf the Japaneseimperialist attempt to swallow upall China, the majority of Ameri

CHINA BECONSTRVCTS

cans regarded China's war of resistance as just.

As field representative of theChina Aid Council I traveled farand wide explaining the vital importance of the Chinese people'sstruggle to the peace and securityof the American people. I foundsympathy everywhere. Coal miners in a West- Virginia towndonated a day's wages, and members of a black congregation inLexington, Kentucky, contributedtheir dimes and pennies at achurch service. They identified theChinese people's struggle withtheir own.

Soong Ching Ling's name opened many doors. To cite a fewexamples: In Northampton, Massachusetts, Mrs. Grace G. Coolidge,wife of the former U.S. president,poured tea at a party for Chinaaid. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,Governor Earle received me and

expressed his sympathy and support for China's cause. In themiddle west, students and facultyof universities in Wisconsin, Ohio,Illinois and other states formed

China aid groups to collect fundsfor China.

In many cities I was asked tospeak on the radio to explain towide audiences China's cause and

the guerrilla tactics used by theChinese people against a muchstronger foe, as taught by Chairman Mao Zedong. Local newspapers interviewed me about this,and some wrote editorials predicting China's eventual victory,which they had previously doubtedbecause of the superior armedpower of Japan.

In Philadelphia where I lived,one event after another was arranged to keep the Chinese war inthe public eye and raise funds. InMay 1941 a "Stars for China"concert was held in a large hotelballroom at which the great Negrosinger Paul Robeson and thepopular Calypso Troubadours performed for thousands. Robeson'smemorable' singing of Chee Lai!(March of the Volunteers with"words by Tian Han and music byNie Er which later became newChina's national anthem) broughtdown the house. He refused anyfee and even travel expenses.Later that year, Edgar Snow and

MARCH 19S0

T.

Maud RusselL Ida Prultt (risht) with friend inPhiladelphia.

his first wife Nym- Wales passedthrough Philadelphia on their return from China, We arranged alarge meeting in the Town Hallauditorium, where he spoke on theChinese people's unyielding spiritand showed a film on Japan's.barbarous bombing of Chongqing(Chungking).

There were many other organizations appealing for funds forChina. Among the major oneswere the National Council ofChurches' Committee for ChinaRelief and Committee for ChristianColleges in China, the AmericanBureau for Medical Aid to China,

the Committee for Indusco headed

by, Ida Pruitt to help build theChinese industrial cooperatives inwhich Rewi Alley was playing aleading role, the Committee forChinese War Orphans (later combined with China Aid Council), theAmerican Friends Service Committee and the Unitarian Service

Committee. Being approached byseveral to give aid to China wasconfusing to many people, so therewas a move to unite these organizations. This was done in June

1941 as the United China Relief.

The China Aid Council became a

participating member.On December 7, 1941, Japanese

warplanes bombed Pearl Harborwithout warning, shocking theAmerican people into action. TheUnited States entered the war andChina became her main ally in theFar East. To help China againstthe common enemy became UnitedStates government policy.

The surrender of Japan onAugust •15, 1945 did not bringunity and peace to China. ChiangKai-shek, bent on -wiping out theChinese Communists and theirarmies, launched a civil war. Inthe gigantic trial of strength between the old and a new resurgentChina, many farsighted and honestAmericans stood out and courageously took the side of the newChina despite the fact that contrary winds were dominant formany years.

True Friends

Among the many true friends ofthe Chinese people, I well remember General Stilwell, who statedthat he was eager to shoulder agun under the command of General Zhu De (Chu Teh) to fightthe diehards in China. ProfessorOwen Lattimore, then director ofthe Page School of . InternationalRelations at Johns Hopkins University, linked the interests of theUnited States with a democraticand forward-looking China. Atireless champion of the Chinesedemocratic cause was Maud Rus

sell. She became the spark plugin the progressive American Committee for a Democratic Far

Eastern Policy set up at the endof the Second World War. Throughits publication, Far East Spotlightand many other activities, shecalled for a change in U. S. policytoward China. Courageous andindefatigable, Maud traveled from

, coast to coast asking her listenersto organize and demand that the

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TalJtha Gcrlach on the Great Wall.

United States adopt a realistic andfriendly policy toward China.

In the Philadelphia area I gratefully remember the Society ofFriends for giving me the opportunity to tell the truth about whatwas going on in China at that timeto churches, men's and women'sclubs and other organizations.Members of the ambulance unit

organized by the American FriendsService Committee during theanti-Japanese war, returning tothe United States, took the sameview as I did. Later, in the summer of 1951, after the People'sRepublic of China had been found-,ed, the organizers of the Friends'International Seminar at Lake-

ville, Connecticut, were to inviteme to speak on the Chinese situa-

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tion to students and young peoplefrom many parts of the UnitedStates and abroad.

China Welfare Appeal

For two decades after the found

ing of the People's Republic ofChina, the United States made nomove to reestablish diplomatic relations. To maintain the tradition

al friendship for the Chinese people, some progressive Americansset up the China Welfare Appeal,of which Talitha Gerlach, a goodfriend of Soong Ching Ling and alongtime YWCA worker in China,became chairman. It collected

money for "friendship cargoes" ofmedical supplies and other thingsto support Soong" Ching Ling's

work for Chinese women andchUdren through the China Welfare Institute in Shanghai. As amember of its board of directors,I collected medical journals forChina among Philadelphia doctors.

After Miss Gerlach accepted aninvitation to join the China Welfare Institute staff in Shanghai,Ida Pruitt, daughter of a missionary family in Shandong provinceand another devoted friend of the

Chinese people, took over thechairmanship of the China Welfare Appeal and continued its activities. Today both are still activein their old age on behalf of newChina.

In November 1971 the People'sRepublic of China regained itslawful position in the United Nations. Realistically, PresidentRichard Nixon visited Beijing inthe spring of 1972. The Shanghaicommunique laid a new foundation for understanding and friendship between the two countries.The resumption of diplomatic relations and the signing of a tradepact between the two governments in 1979 augur well for thefuture. The goal for which manyAmerican friends fought for yearsis being attained. As I look back,I am filled with warm feeling andgratitude toward them all, and amconfident that the traditionalfriendship between the Chineseand American people will developeven more under today's newconditions. •

Awotra

Safety AwardLiu Qingtao

Don't be afraid. He 9$rarely sboots. .

Hua Junwu

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

Veteran Coach Wants Taiwan Athletes

to March with Mainland

I KNOW that athletes on bothsides of the Taiwan Strait

love their country and wish tobring honor and glory to theirland. It is my fervent wish thatat the 1980 Olympic Games theymarch together into the arena inone contingent,"

That was what Taiwan-born LinChaoquan, a leader in nationaland Taiwan sports circles, said ata tea party held in Beijing latelast November to celebrate therestoration of the legitimate seaton the International OlympicCommittee to the Chinese OlympicCommittee of the People's Republic of China. He said that healso earnestly hoped to see the 30-year split of Taiwan provincefrom the rest of the country endedvery soon. "The separation goesagainst the interests and aspirations of the people," he said.

Lin Chaoquan, who made thetrip to Beijing especially for theoccasion, used to be a member ofthe Chiria National AmateurAthletic Federation, director-general and standing committeemember of its Taiwan branch,chairman of the Taiwan BoxingAssociation and honorary chairman of the Taiwan Baseball As

sociation. Today, in addition tobeing a member of the All-ChinaSports Federation, he is a memberof its Shanghai branch, vice-director of the Shanghai branchof Chinese Baseball and Softball

Association and a research fellow

of the Shanghai Institute ofPhysical Culture Sciences. Theparty was attended by Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People'^Congress Deng Yingchao andluminaries of the sports world.

After the meeting I went to interview Lin Chaoquan.

MARCH 1980

WEI XIUTANG

Ming dynasty general ZhengChenggong to Taiwan to fight theDutch invaders, and had latersettled down there. Patriotism

flows strong in the Lin family.Teaching Chinese in a middleschool when the island provincewas. under Japanese occupation,Lin's father instilled into his

pupils and his own children alove for their motherland and

their forbears. The father had

been a keen cyclist and had oncewon the island championship.

The children took after their

father, Lin Chaoquan's elderbrother set a record for Taiwan

in the 20s for the men's 100-

meter dash. The "Dong NingTuan," the first mass sportsorganization in Taiwan, ' wasorganised by the Lin brothers withthe help of their father. Theelder brother, who headed theorganization, sold almost everything he had to equip and run it.All the outstanding athletes onthe Island were members. The

organization did much to popularize sports in Taiwan and helpedtrain many athletes. Although itwas forced to close down in 1931

when the Japanese invaded themainland, people still rememberthe organization and its organizersfor their contributions to Chinese

sports,

Taiwan Sports

Being a native of Taiwan andhaving been active in sports foryears on the island, Lin Chaoquanis well-known in the sportscircles in Taiwan, In the dayswhen the "Dong Ning Tuan" wasin existence it included manyprominent sportsmen who Linthinks are still alive and active.

Among them is Xie Zhennan, an

Despite his 74 years, Lin Chaoquan is extremely fit so that it' isnot hard to visualize what he waslike in his youth. His father andbrothers were all keen sportsmenand at the age of seven Lin Chaoquan was already a promisingyoung catcher in a children'sbaseball team. Later he was a

good man on the football field,too, but that did not hinder himwinning the pole vault in Taiwanat the age of 18. By the time hegraduated from the Tokyo University of Physical Culture in1937 he was an all-round sportsman. From 1938 to 1944 he was a

professor in Beiping Teachers'University and head of its physicalculture department. He wentback to his native Taiwan in 1946

to continue teaching and otheractivities in his chosen field. In

1950 he returned to the mainland

and has been doing all he can inthe sphere of physical culture forthe country.

"The IOC's executive boardresolution is an acknowledgementof the fact that there is only oneChina and that Taiwan is onlyone of its provinces," Lin Chaoquan said. "In view of the situation with regard to Taiwan, theresolution leaves the way clearlyopen for athletes from Taiwan totake part in the Olympic Gamestogether with the athletes from themainland. It is a good resolution,fair and reasonable. It accords

with the general trend of thetimes and concurs with the aspirations of the Chinese people including sportsmen and other people in Taiwan."

Sporting Family

Lin Chaoquan's ancestors camefrom Quanzhou in Fujian province. In the middle of the 17thcentury they had follcjwed the

outstanding baseball pitcher andLi Shiji, a member of the Taiwanmiddle school students' baseball

team which came second in a

tournament held in Japan. "Thesetwo played a key role in makingTaiwan baseball what it is to

day," Lin said.Track and field athletes in the

organization included Zhang Xing-xian, who represented China inthe T932 and 1936 International

Olympic Games. He is now

engaged in sports activities inTaiwan under Xie Dongmin. "Mr.

. Xie Dongmin is another oldacquaintance of mine," Lin Chao-quan said. "When the Taiwanteam took part in the All-ChinaSports Meet on the mainland in1948, he was the delegation headand I was deputy head." WangXiang is another outstandingathlete in the organization. Hecame over to the mainland in the

50s.

Rods Gaoiang (second left), deputy director of Physical Culture and SportsCommission, with Lin Chaoquan (first left) at a party in Beijing marking China'sreturn to the International Olympic Committee. Gtian Tianyi

m

Winner of Second Asian Women Valleyball Championships, the Chinese women'steam wili represent Asia at the 1980 Olympic Games. Huang Benqiang

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Lin Chaoquan's uncle, YangZhaojia, had recommended WangXiang and Zhang Xingxian to Japan's Waseda University. Bothhad won first and second placesin short-distance running at schooland in national meets in Japan."Another member of the 'DongNing Tuan' was Bing Mingtian,of Gaoshan nationality. He oncewon the shot put in Waseda University," Lin recalled. "There aremany more. And how I wish Icould see them all again!"

Besides being a well-knownathlete, Lin Chaoquan is also ofnote in the field of physicalculture education and has taughtand trained many Chinese athletes."I have taught students on bothsides of the Taiwan Strait, butthey have not been able to meeteach other. I am sure they willmeet when the country is nolonger separated. And I hope itwill be soon," the old sportsteacher said wistfully.

Some of Lin's students had goneto Taiwan to find their teacherafter his return to the island inthe 405. Among them were QiPeilin, Yang Jirong and LuHuiqin. Qi Peilin, who is nowthe head of the physical culturedepartment of Taiwan University,had taken part in the last All-China Sports Meet held by theKuomintang on the mainland in1948 and had won the discus andshot put. Yang Jirong, who madea name in track and field, is nowa coach with Taiwan Teachers'University, Lu Huiqin, a woman,is a physical culture instructor inTaiwan University.

Mainland Associates

Many of Lin's former studentson the mainland today are keyfigures in the field of physicalculture. Zhai Jiajun is an associate professor in Qinghua University, deputy head of its physicalculture department and was No.1 football referee at the recentFourth National Games. LiuShiliang is, a Beijing Teachers'College associate professor, andhead of its physical culture department, and was chief judge offield events at the Fourth Na

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

tional Games. Liu Shiying is aprofessor and heads the physicalculture department of BeijingUniversity. Liu Jingcun is a professor in Hebei Teachers' Collegeand a member of the All-ChinaSports Federation.

"It is a good thing to havetaught a lot of students," said LinChaoquan, "because I get a lotof satisfaction from seeing themdoing their bit for the country.I run into them very often and itis always a pleasure."

Lin recalled how he celebratedhis 34th birthday at the North-China Sports Meet held in Shanxiprovince's Taiyuan in 1939. Heand sixty of his students in thephysical culture department ofBeiping Teachers' College whowere taking part had gatheredtogether to have a noodle dinner — a Chinese custom, becausenoodles are long and thereforedenote "longevity." In Taiwan,too, his students would alwayscelebrate the occasion with theirteacher. In March 1979 when Linwas in Beijing for a meeting ofthe All-China Sports Federation,24 of his friends and former

students invited Lin to dinner at

a Beijing duck restaurant. WhenLin Chaoquan had his 74th birthday last year, the Fourth National Games was in progress andLin met with a dozen of his for

mer students to celebrate the

occasion.

The veteran physical culture instructor treasures his former

students like a connoisseur his col

lection of fine wines. If wishes

could come true, he said, he wouldwish a huge get-together with allhis friends, colleagues and formerstudents now scattered all over

China, to celebrate the reunification of the country.

"Athletes on the mainland andin Taiwan province have madegreat progress in the last threedecades," he pointed out. "Over100 new world records have beenestablished. Ji Zheng of Taiwanprovince, who broke threewomen's world records in one dayat a 1970 sports meet in the UnitedStates, was acclaimed an athleteof the year. Yang Chuanguangwho once established a world rec-

MARCH 1980

ZhoDgr Shitoogr at press confcrcQce held by the Chinese Olympic Committee thanksfriends everywhere for their support. Guan Tianpt

ord for the decathlon, later camein second in the event at the 17th

Olympic Games. Baseball hasimproved and a Chinese team hascome first three times in world

junior baseball. Athletes on themainland have done even better."We are behind world standards

in many events," Lin Chaoquansaid, "but, in some, we have verygood prospects."

"China's seat on the International Olympic Committee hasbeen restored. That was someth

ing we've all been hoping for,"Lin Chaoquan said, smiling. "Mybiggest wish now is to see Chinese athletes from Taiwan and

from other parts of the countryjoin forces to win honor for themotherland and the nation."

Deng Yingchao, Vice-Chairmanof the Standing Committee of theNational People's Congress, hasasked us all to give a big welcometo athletes from Taiwan who joinus at the International OlympicGames. Personally, I look forwardvery much to seeing Taiwanathletes participating in the 1980Olympic Games with us atMoscow. I have been active insports for many years in Taiwanand here and I'm eager to meetwith and talk to my colleagues

working in Taiwan. I havealready spoken to leaders of thePhysical Culture and Sports Commission about this. I'd like nothingbetter than to help build a bridgelinking up the sports circles onboth sides of the strait. I think it is

high time that sportsmen on bothsides took the initiative in

eliminating any antagonism, arrange exchanges as soon as possible and make progress together.It is our responsibility to do aUwe can toward the reunification

of the country."Lin Chaoquan ' lives with his

wife and three children. Three

other children and three brothers

reside in Taiwan. He has one

daughter living in America. Hehopes to have a huge family reunion on the day the country isunified. •

Correcfions

In the December 1979 issuenn p. 58 the Bullets playerwith a Chinese colleague isWes Unsold, not Elvin Hayes.

Oops — on the cover of ourFebruary 1980 issue there arethree schoolgirls of Jinuo nationality, instead of the twostated in the caption beforethe picture was changed.

llnf

China's first observatory filled with a one-meter diameter telescope.

New Observatory in YunnanAnew observatory atop Phoenix Mountain, 2,000-

some meters above sea level in Yunnan province, has begun its work following completion of apart of its construction. Work on the project wasbegun in 1975. Located in the eastern suburbs of thecity of Kunming, it is a general-purpose observatorywith emphasis on astrophysics, including solar andstellar physics.

A view of the Yunnan Observatory.

f ^

Centimeter wave length,data on solar radio crup'lion of solar activity.

St

f; ,

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

1979 INDEX

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CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

1979 INDEX

No. , ,1^9,Issue Issue

Edgar Snow's Vision Liang Shichun 5China and the International Year of the

Child* Talitha Gerlach r 6Music and Friendship — The Boston Sym-^ ;•

phony Orchestra in China*Tan Aiqing :..7

Seiji Ozawa as I Know Him Liu Dehai 7American Basketball Team in China : - -s .7An Indian Doctor We Will Always Remeni4

ber (Dr. S. Kotnis) Zhi Exiang 8Lyons Orchestra in Beijing Zhao Feng 8Prof. Tsung Dao Lee Lectures in Beijing^

He Zuoiiii' 9My Contacts with Chaplin Situ Huimin, . .9Badminton Championships Fu Xipehg" 9London Festival Ballet's Beijing Visit ,

Tan Aiqing 9Virtuoso Isaac Stem Charms Chinese Au- ,,„a

diem», „

Australian Yputh Orchestra in China, ijRA Second Life — In Memory of Dr. Norman .,,r

Bethune on the 40th Anniversary of HisDeath Zhou Erfu ,jl'l"

Memories of Bethune Yang-Yaofa 11Sri Lanka Dances Come to China's Stage

Jiang Shimei --ll'Cooperation, Friendship and Results — Joint

Research with a Danish Scientist

Zou Shichang 11Noted Japanese Orchestra in Beijing

Zhao Jinglun 11He Died on China's Soil — The Story of

Hans Shippe Wang Huo l2Cultural Links with Thailand 12Twin Dramas from Two Countries

(Thailand) Yu Haiyan l2The 'Washington Bullets' in China 12

NATIONAUTIES

Twenty Years of- the Ningxia (Ningsia) HuiAutonomous Region*

Ma Yuhuai (Ma Yu-huai) 2Vignettes of Hui Life — I 2

The Wedding Was on Friday'Seed-Crazy' '

For Your Reference: The Ningxia (NingiSa) 'Hui Autonomous Region '2

GENERAL

To Our Readers 1The Tian An Men (Tien An Men) Incident

in 1976— A People's RevolutionaryMovement* 2

A Selection of Tian An Men (Tien An Men)Poems 2

Record of a Fighting Life — Exhibition onZhou Enlai (in two parts)

Su Donghai 3 & 4Zhou Enlai in the May 4th Movement

Hu Hua 5

Memories of General Peng Dehuai (in twoparts) Htuing Kecheng 6 & 7

Memories of Zhu De and Chen Yi (in twoparts) Su Yu 8&9

Crucial Steps in China's ModernizationWen Zong 10

To the Readers of China ReconstructsSoong Ching Ling 10

POLmCAL

The Election for Shop Heads Zhi Exiang 5China's Trade Unions — An Interview'with

Chen Yu, Vice-Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions 5,

A New Life on the Mainland Gang Xuan 6'Reunification Is Every Man's Responsibi

lity,' Says Noted Taiwan Figure ChenYi-sung 8

The Beijing PrisonYou Yuwen and Huarig Jun 9

Election for Team Leader Liu Baocheng 9Seven Returns to the Homeland — An In

terview with Zhao Haosheng 10Strengthening China's Socialist Law — An

Interview with Han Youtong 12Ma Yinchu and.His Theory of Population

You Yuwen 12

RELATIONS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES

The Joy of Reunion Mikiko Matsuyama 1Normalization Has a History —A Two-Way

Street Ma Haide 3

Recalling Some 'Good Americans'Rewi Alley 4

The Pehce Rose Zhang XueUng 4n

_ 2 —

No.

Issue

Vignettes of Hui Life — II 3The Imam of NiujiafangA Liberated Woman

For Your Reference: The Guangxi ZhuangAutonomous Region* 6,

With the Dong People of GuangxiYou Yuwen 7

•fitet's Menba NationalityZhang ^Jianghua and Wu Congzhong 7

Tibet — I Came over to the PeopleLhalu Tsewong-Dorje 9

Lhasa's Zuglakang Temple Xiao Zhi 9Dochhen Drolma's Wedding*

Zhang Huaijing and Zhou Baohua 9China's'Manchu Nationality

Aisin-Gioro Pu Jie 11

Types of Houses-of China's MinorityNationalities . • Ji Lie 12

SOCIALg. I ,

Reev^uating Attitudes on Love, , You Yu-iucu (Yu Yu-wen) 1

A Chinese Love Story" Zhang Lihan (Chang Li-han) 1

When a Young Man Gets into Trouble• You Yutuen 6

Betwem Husband and Wife Liu Hongfa 6raree Senior Citizens Tell Their Stories 7i4.i Story of an Officer 7Monthly Magazine for the Blind

Zeng Shuzhi 8Thirty You Yuwen 10Going to Night School in Tianjin

You Yuwen 10City Co-op's: More Jobs for Youth

Lu Zhenhua and Liu Chuang 11Where Workers Go After Workt Li Chuang 12

i WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Good 'Neighbors' 2China's Women in Our New Long March*

Soong Ching Ling 3The Women's Movement in China — An

inte^rview with Luo Qiong 3The Women Meet (poem) Rewi Alley 3A Slow Pupil Catches Up 4Today's Children: Taller and Stronger

Zhang Xuan 6'I Love-tb Paint'* , 6It Happened on a Train Gao Ai 9A Young Mountain Eagle 10

CITIES AND REGIONS

Sichuffiar<Szechuan): Calamity and RecoveryFei Xiaotong (Fei Hsiao-tung) 1

Travel Notes: From Guangzhou (Kwang-chow) to Guilin (Kweilin) — I* Lin Mu 1

-a

No.

Issue

Along the Southern Border —I*Medicine for the Dais (Tais) — 'Demons'to Doctors Zhang Yan (Chang Yen) 1

Travel Notes: From Guangzhou (Kwang-chow) to Guilin (Kweilin) — H* Lin Mu 2

Along the Southern Border — IIBallad Singer of the Dais (Tais)

Zhang Yan (Chang Yen) 2Geography of China: Bird Islands 2Qingdao — Port City and Summer Resort*

Zeng Xiangping 3Home of Overseas Chinese: Shantou or

Swatow — New by Any Name*Wu Tong 4

Geography of China: The Taihang Moun- _tains Hou Renzfii 4

Raising 'Ships of the Desert'* Liu Chen 4South Fujian — 1

Quanzhou — Town of Twin Pagodas*Wu Tong 5

Yunnan's Yulong Mountains*Zhao Jingxiu d

Revisiting the Mountains of the Yao People °Fei Xiaotong 5 & 6

South Fujian — 2Zhangzhou — Home of the Narcissus*

Wu Tong 6The Western End of the Great Wall 6

South Fujian — 3Xiamen (Amoy)* Wu Tong 7

An Imperial Mountain Resort at Chengde* 7Tomb of the Yellow Emperor Lan Cao 8The Gardens of Suzhou* Zhong Guojun 9Beijing Scenes (Photos) 10The Karst Caverns of Yixing Han Qilou 10Shanghai — Window on Chinese City Life*

Tan. Manni 11

Nantong, My Home Town Qiu Jian 12The Giant Buddha of Leshan 12

ECONOMIC

Economic Briefs: Capital Construction in1978 4

Economic Readjustment to SpeedModernization 7

China's Modernization: Some Current

Problems Xue Baoding 11

INDUSTRY AND TRANSFORTA'HON

Economic Briefs: New Oil Field at Renqiu(Jenchiu); Oil Pipeline; More Railways* 1

China's Steel Industry RecoversRong Ye (Rung Ye) 3

The Water Is Clean Again* Bian Hui 3.What About Energy in China? 4Changshu Arts and Handicrafts*

Btan Hut 4Jiangmen Sugar Chemical Plant 5

No.

Issue

Minerals for China's Modernization 6Viimen Oil Field Plays Its Part Qiu Jion 6Modernizing the Textile Industry

Wu Fumin 6

More Attention Paid to Food, Clothing,Shelter Lu Zhenhua 9

Building Up China's Rail Transport — AnInterview with Guo Weicheng, Ministerof Railways 10

Self-Reliance and toported Technology —How Shanghai's Petrochemical ComplexBelates the Two* Bian Hui 10

New Rail Artery Serves New IndustriesLiu Hongfa 11

Panzhihua — New Southwest SteelComplex* Tarig Zhongpu 12

AGRICULTURE

Feeding One Fifth of the World's PeopleLi BoniTig 4

Weather Forecasting Rao Xing 5A Han Dynasty Irrigation System Today

Chen Rinong 7The People-Land Problem —An Investiga

tion in Five C^sias VillageChen Rinong 8

China's Agriculture and Its Future 8A Well-Managed Forest Area

Peng Xianchu 9The Da Hinggan Ling Forest (Photos) 9Thirty Years of Controlling China's

Greatest River* Lin Yishan. 10Country Fair* Rang Lie 10Lighting Up in Xinhui County Qiu Jian 11How a Farm Family Gets Its Income

Liu Chenlie 11

A Test-Case of Farm Mechanization*Won Laixi, Sun Changfu and. Tie Ying 12

' FINANCE AND TRADE

China's Foreign Trade — Interview withWang Yaoting (Wang Yao-ting) 1

The 44th Chinese Export Commodities Fair*Qiu Jian (Chiu Chien) 2

CULTURE AND ART

The Weifang New Year Pictures*Zhang Shixin (Chang Shih-hsin)

and Zhao Xiudao (Chao Hsiw-tao) 1Cultural Notes: National Folk Song

Festival Mao Jizeng (Mao Chi^tseng) 1My Father, the Composer Ma Ke (Ma Ko)

Hai Xing (Hai Hsing) 2Playwright Discusses Modem Drama 2Cultural Notes: New Cartoon Films*

.. Zhang Songlin (Chang Sung-lin) 2'The Donkey Seller'* Bao Wenqing 3Wood Carving Continues* Fu Tianchou 3

No.

Issue

The Silence Explodes — A Play about theTian An Men Incident

Ren Zhiji and Fan Jiacai 3Cultural Notes: 'Women Skin Divers', a

Color Documentary* Li Wenbin > 3New Spelling for Names and Places 3Cultural Notes: Drama on a Talented ••

Woman —'Cai Wenji' by Guo Moruo* 4New Spelling of Chinese Place Names • 4The Famous Cizhou Porcelain* . 5Cultural Notes: The Oriental Song and

Dance Ensemble* Ton Aiqing 5My Mother and Her Paintings*

Lioo Chengzhi 6Cultural Notes: Exhibition of He Xiang-

ning's Paintings i 8")The Fabulous Reproductions by the Rong

Bao Zhfli Shop* Chen Sheng 7A Major Musical Event Zhao Jinglun 7Films in China (in two parts)*

Uwe Krauter and PatHcia Wilson 8 & 9Amateurs Show Fresh Approach*

Jiang Feng 8The Paintings of Huang Yongyu*

Primerose Giglftsi 8Miao Embroidery* Li Mianlu 8The Animal World of Painter Han MeiUng*

Bao Wenqing and Wang Jiashu 9Tang Three-Color Glazes* • . ,

Mci Chien^ihg '9Sixty Years in an Artist's Life

Li Kuchan 10

Fierce or Fanciful: Folk Animal Toys CanBe Both* Xiao Qing and Wen Zhen 10

The Clay-Figure World of Zheng Yuhe*Zhang Fenggdo 11

Miniature Trees and Landscapes* llThe Photography of Chen Fuli*

Huang Xiang 11Traditional Beijing Opera Returns to the

Stage* Hu Jinming and Liu Xuetao 12Papercuts of Yuxian County*

Zhang Fenggao 12

MEDICINE

Neurosurgery in ChinaWong Zhcmgcheng (Wong Chuhg-cheng) 2

Progress in Treating Cancer of the LiverXimen Lusha .4

Microsurgery in China Chen Zhongwei 6A New Drug for Malaria Ximen Lusha 8Largest Acupuncture Symposium. Ever 10China's Widening Research on Acupuncture

Qion Xinzhong 10' 3 •

CULTURAL RELICS

Capital pf One of the Warring States* 1Qin (Chin) Emperor's Capital . j

Liu Qingzhu (Liu Ching-chu) 2

. No.Issue

Han Armory Shows Progress from Bronzeto Iron Weapons 3

'Ten Thousand Volumes' of Fossils*Zhou Mingzhen 4

Rare Find of Ancient Instruments*WuZhao 5

Brick Reliefs Reveal Lost Painting ArtsYoTig Hong 7

The First Sm Djmasty Vessel Discovered 8Archeologicjd News: More Early Hemp Pa

per; Xinjiang Clan Commune Site;Zhou Dynasty Palace Sites 9

Treasures from Abroad Prized in Sui-TangTimes Vi Shui 10

Scenes of Tang Court Life* Yang Hong 11' Collector Donates Valuable Historical Cur

rency 12

.'I" HISTORYChinese History — IV

, The, .Warring StatK Period — FeudalSociety Begins

.( Jiao Jian (Chiao Chien) 1Chinese History—V _

Tl^.Qin (Chin) Djmasty: Unified Feudal. Rule Jiao Jian (Chiap Chien) 2

Chinese,Pflistory —VIW^^rn Han—A Time of Prosperity

Jiao Jian 3

(^inese; History — VIIEastern Han Peasant Revolts

Jiao Jian 4

(Chinese History — VHITroublous Times — Three IQngdoms,Western! and Eastern Jin Jiao Jian 5

Chinese History — IXThe Northern and Southern Dynasties

Jiao Jian 6

Chinese History — XCulture from the Third to Sixth

Centuries Jiao Jian 7Chinese History — XI

The Sui Dynasty — Rexmification andCanals 'Jiao Jian 8

Chinese History — XIIThe Glory That Was Tang: 1 — National

Economy Jiao Jian 9Chinese History — XlH

The Glory That Was Tang:, 2—Relations with Many Peoples

Jiao Jian 10

Chinese History—XIVThe Glory That Was Tang: 3 — HighPoint in Culture Jiao Jian 11

Chinese History — XVThe Era of Tang: 4 —Crisis and Fall

Jiao Jian 12

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Science News: Super-High-Energy ParticlesObserved; Davidson Prize Award 2

No.

Issue

Zhang Heng and lingtai Observatory•Lei Congyun 4

Advanced Oil Field Research Jing Wen 5Science: When the 'Roof of the World' Was

Formed Zheng Benxing 5The Rocky Road to Science—A Husband-

Wife Team GudnYingqian 5Science and Technology: Fossils Show Eu-

caryotes Earlier Than Thought; NewSpectrum Lines of Fluorine Atom

. Laser; Multd-Antimycin Fungicidefor Agricvilture 7

Einstein and China . Zhou Peiyuan 7.Einstein Commemoration Activities 7'Wild Man' — Fact or Fiction?

Yuan Zhenxin and Huang Wanpo 7Shennongjia Forests: Home of Rare Species*

Xiao Zhi 8

'Roof of the World' Still Moving NorthwardTeng Jiwen 10

After Insulin Synthesis: Progress in Pep-tide Research Niu Jingyi 11

Vignettes of a Pacific Survey Wu Jin 12

EDUCATION

The Way Elvery Teacher Should BeZeng Xiangping 11

Sdiool Children and Teachers in VacationCamps and Resorts 12Five Days in Beijing's Western Hills*

Lu Xiaohai

My First Time by the Sea* AderTeacher's Holiday Guan Qiulan 12

SPORTS

Sports at Anshan SteelDong Junsheng (Tung Chun-sheng) 1

A Marksman Returned from Taiwan 2Ice Hockey Friendship Tournament 3The 8th Asian Games in Bangkok

Tan.Aiqing 4Grade School Trains Table Tennis

Champions 5American Basketball Team in China 7Career a^ Family —a Sports Couple

Tan Aiqing 8Badminton Championships F% Xipeng 9The 'Washington Bullets' in China 12

things CHINESE

A Giant SalamanderLaoshan Mineral WaterThe'Mei Flower: Harbinger of Spring*

Chen Junyu 4The White-Headed Leaf Monkey*

Wu Mingchuxm 5The Rhododendrons of Mount Emei* 10Panda Preserve Ge Xianjun 12

1

3

— 5 —

NaIssue

DO YOU KNOW?

About China's Provinces Etc. 1

About China's Climate 2

Chinese Tea 3

CAAC — China's Airline 4Festival of the Poet Qu Yuan ^ 5China's Wines and Spirits . 6Jiaozi, Known as Dumplings 7Moon Cakes in Mid-Autumn 8

China's Well-Known Rivers and Mountains' 9

Tian An Men 10

China's Currency: Renminbi 11The Twenty-Four Solar Terms in China's

Old Calendar 12

IN OUR SOCIETY

A Premature Baby 1To Live Like Anyone Else 3The Search for a Family Liong Yinglin 5Readers Condemn Unfeeling Sons 7A Wife and Her Mother-in-Law

Yu Guohou 9

ACADEMIC NEWS

Debate Among Historians: A Forum on theTaiping Revolution 10

Debate: Should Changjiang (Yangtze)Waters Be Diverted North — and How? 12

FABLES

The Iron Pot and the Pottery Pot 1The Monkeys of Mount Emei (Omei) 1Two Pigeons '' 2The Rabbit's Prescription 2Good Reason for Laughing; A Tall Hat 5The Stupid Bookworm; The Vase and the

Pot Zheng Boshen 6The Race of the Frog and the Tiger

Guo Sijiu 7

CARTOONS

by Hua Junwu (Hua Chun-wu) 1by Zhang Leping (Chang Lo-ping) 2by Wang Letian 3by Hua Junwu, Mao Yongkun and Ge Yuqi 4by Hua Junwu and Ding Zhaoqing 5by Hua Junwu, Zhu Yanling, Li Shimin and

Fan GuangUn 6by Zhao Liang, Chen Xianqi, Wang Da-

zhuang and Jing Da 7by Liu Qingtao, Zheng Tongxiao, Li Bin-

sheng and Xiao Li 8by Ye Jian, Shen Pei and Pan Wenhui 9by Miao Yintang, Li Fengwu, Li Shimin and

Fan Guanglin 10by LI Binsheng, Wang Yisheng and Zhao

Liang 11

• /•/No.

Issue

by Li Shimin,' Fan Guanglin, Zhang Fang,Li Binsheng and Hua Junwu 12

ACROSS THE LAND

Reclamation of Land in Heilongjiang . ,(Heilungkiang) 1

Southwest China Institute of Physics . 2New Shanghai General Petrochemical

Works 3Frozen Reservoir 4

China's Biggest Dam 5!Huaiji County — Famous for Bamboo . , 6The Luoyang Bearing Plant , 7-Taiwan — Beautiful Island , ;• 8Torch Festival of the Yi People* ...High Energy Physics Experimental Cen.ter, 10

STAMPS OF NEW CHINA

The Stamps of China • .Dong Fang (Tung Fang) 1

Chinese-Japanese Friendship' vat , 1Commemoratives for Three Congresses; The.

Ningxia (Ningsia) Hui AutonomousRegion , 2

Arts and Crafts • *3Commemoratives for the Guangxi Zhuang

Autonomous Region; Medicinal PlantsArched Bridges in ChinaCommemoratives of the May Fourth Move^,

ment; May Day Commemorative; Issues for ifear of the Child; AncientPaintings; Golden Pheasant; NewScenes in the Water Country 8

Children Love Science 12Albert Einstein Commemorative ' 7

LANGUAGE CORNER

Lesson 1: A Tourist Group Arrives 1Lesson 2: At a Hotel . 2

Lesson 3: At a Restaurant 3

Lesson 4: Shopping 4Lesson 5: Hotel Service 5

Lesson 6: Making a Telephone Call 6Lesson 7: At the Fair 7

Lesson 8: Visiting the Palm Country 8Lesson 9: In Guilin 9

Lesson 10: Going to Yangshuo 10Lesson 11: Visiting West Lake 11Lesson 12: Longjing Tea 12

CHINESE COOKERY

Succulent Crisp-Skin Chicken (Xiang Su Ji) 1Oyster-Sauce Beef (Hao You Niu Rou) 3'Squirrel' Fish 5Almond Float (Xingren Doufu) 7Sizzling Rice with Shrimp and Tomatp/fj

Sauce (Guoba Fanqie Xiaren) 9Fried Duck with Spring Onion (Cong You

Ya) 12

•it.Srgr. -irj

— 6 —

COVER PICTURES

No.

Issue

FRONT

We Have a Reservoir! (Weifang New YearPicture) Shi Banghua (Shih Pang-hua) 1

A vertical granite column hanging to withinfive centimeters of the ground, said tohave been cut in two by a sword according to a local legend.

Zhang Shuicheng (Chang Shui-cheng) 2Woman Skin Diver Li Hanjun 3Chaozhou embroidery Xie Jun 4Items performed by the Oriental Song and" Dance Ensemble 5Vice-Chairman Soong Ching Ling and

•' Friends. Zhou Yourua 6•^he "Thousand-armed and Thousand-eyed"" Buddha in the Pu Ning Temple,

Chengde. Xie Jun 7The revolutionaries going to their execution,

a scene from Red Crag, with Zhao Dan' and'Yu Lan, directed by Shut Hua in

1964. Yu Zhenyu and Li XiYoun^l'ibet Liu ChenVictory Dance Zheng HuaningNiu Jingyi (center), Gong Yueting (right)

and Du Yucang who have scored newbfSakthroughs in biochemical science.

-iT'' Chen Yi

^ghting in the dark, a famous scene fromthe'Heijing opera "At the Crossroads"— played by Li Guang (left) and LiuXizhong Zhang Shuicheng

INSIDE FRONT

A cataract at the Dragon Pool in Zhaoqing(Chaoching), 118 km. from Guangzhou(Kwangchow). Han Dezhou

(Han Teh-chou) and Sun Shuming(Sun Shu-ming) 1

Hua Shan (Mural Hill) where rock faces ofvarious hues suggest nine horses in different postures. 2

Haibin Park. . Qingxuon 3Phoenix Pagoda in Chao'an, Guangdong

province. Xie Jun 4Black Dragon Pool with Fan Mountain in

the background, Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County, Yunnan province,

Zhu Yongqihg 5Yiling cave (a karst grotto), in Nanning,

Guangxi. Lin Guozhi 6Jinshan Pavilion at the Chengde Summer

Resort. Xie Jun 7View at B'adongya in the Shennongjia

Mountains. Li Deiu 8

The famous Humble Administrator's Garden(Zhdozheng Yuan) in Suzhou.

Zhang Shuicheng 9

8

9

10

11;

12

No.

Issue

Midsummer (a Chinese traditional painting)Li Kuchan

Patient mother in a Shanghai park.Zhang Shuicheng

Waterfalls at Jingbo Lake in northeastHeilongjiang province.

Zhang Shuicheng

INSIDE BACK

Giant Panda (traditional-style painting)Wu Zuoren (Wu Tso-jen)

Morning Mist over the Lijiang (Likiang)River (traditional painting)

Bai Xueshi fPai Hsueh-shih)Camellia and Bird (traditional painting)

Liu Haisu

Birds and Flowers Lou ShibaiMountain and Water (traditional painting)

Wu Guanzhong

Lion He Xiangning (1914)Lotus (traditional painting) Qiu ShouchengWhite Lotus and Birds Huang YongyuBoats Have Passed Through Ten Thousand

Mountains (traditional-style painting)Song Wenzhi

The Imperial Garden in the Palace Museum,Beijing. Xie Jun

Flowers on Yandang Mountains^ (traditional-style painting) Pan Tianshou

Mountain Village Deng Ke

BACK

Spring on Mt. HuaFan Deyuan (Fan Teh-yuan)

The Liupan Mountains in Ningxia (Ningsia),which the Red Army led by ChairmanMao crossed in October 1935 to reachnorthern Shaanxi (Shensi) province.

Ningxia (Ningsia) pictorialAutumn on Tianchi Lake in Xinjiang

(Sinkiang). Liu YunlaiA drilling platform at sea Zhang HaishanSpring over West Lake XinhuaNarcissus, the flower of Zhangzhou.

Gao Mingyi

A Cataract in the Yulong Mountains inSichuan province. Jiu Xuqi

The Sun Comes Out After the SnowLuo Xiaoyun

Autumn in Jilin province Wu JinshengThe Great Wall Goo HongWei Wei, the first giant panda ever trained

to perform, does his stuff with theShanghai Acrobatic Troupe.

Zhang ShuichengSummer Palace, Beijing, after a snowfall.

Xie Jun

• With color pictures.

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The one-meter telescope at the observatoryused for wide field astrophotography andspectroscopy and photometry of individualcelestial bodies.

Observation data is processed by computer.

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X

Hu Jieqing Talking AboutHer Husband Lao She

ONE morning after an autumnrain, we' visited the house

where Lao She, a celebrated writer,had once lived. We were welcomedby his wife, Hii Jieqing, now over70 and a noted artist.

This ordinary Beijing courtyard,surrounded by rooms, has attractedvisitors from all over the world

wishing to pay their respects to thegreat writer. We entered a roomfacing south, which had onceserved as Lao She's study andsitting room,

A large oil painting immediatelycaught our attention. It was aportrait of Lao She in his 60s.Gazing at it, we could not helpthinking of the awful time he musthave undergone in his last year. Wefelt very sad.

When we asked Hu Jieqing totell us something about Lao She,a shadow of sadness flitted overher face. Having poured us tea,she said, "Those terrible times inwhich we all suffered have gone.I'm very grateful to our friendsboth at home and abroad for theirconcern for us. Well, I think, I'lljust talk away."

Lao She Began Writing in London

For 42 years from 1924 to 1966,when he died, Lao She neverstopped writing. Though nearly allhis' works are about Beijing, it wasin London where he began writingnovels, completing his first three

, there. He had gone to Englandwhen he was 20, not for education,but to earn a living teaching. '

He was from a poor family. Hisfather died very early, and hismother had to take care of thewhole family mending and sewing.When he left school, Lao She wasasked to hand in two photographs

XING ZHI

of himself for his certificate. But

he couldn't afford it, His motherhad to sell an old suitcase to getthe money to have his picturetaken.

When he graduated from a teachers' training college, he was only19 years old. Unfortunately hecould not afford to continue his

education. In order to support hisfamily, he began to teach Chinesein middle schools in Beijing andTianjin. In 1924 he luckily meta British professor teaching atYanjing University who, recognizing his talents, sponsored him to

teach in England. The salary washigher than in China, so Lao Sheaccepted.

He taught British students Chinese and the Beijing pronunciationat the School of Oriental Studies,London University. He regularlysent home most of his monthlysalary of 30 pounds. Apart frompreparing his lectures, with theaid of a dictionary, Lao She spentall his time in the library reading English books, especially fiction. Gradually, some charactersand stories of his own beganto form in his mind. Though

Lao She and Hu Jieqins on their weddin; day In Beijing, 1931.

I

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

far away from Beijing, he couldnever forget his home and people.Lonely and to while away the time,he wrote his first novel The Phi-

losophy of Lao Zhang.He was a fast writer and soon

his drawer was full of exercise

books in which he wrote his story.He never dreamed that this would

be a success. Later, when Xu Di-shan, a writer, came to London,Lao She read him a few paragraphsfor fun. To his surprise, Xuthought highly of it, and thenposted the manuscript back toZheng Zhenduo in China. It wasserialized in the magazine MonthlyFiction. The first part was published under his name, Su Sheyu,but afterwards he adopted the pen-name of Lao She. Then he wrotetwo more novels, Zhao Ziyue andTwo of the Ma Family.

He made many British friendsduring his five years' stay in London, one of whom was his roommate, Mr. Clement Egerton. Theyroomed together for three yearsand got on very well. Unfortunately they later lost touch with eachother.

A Chinese friend remembershaving hstened to a Chineselanguage Linguaphone course whenhe was in Britain fluently read byLao She in the idiomatic Beijingpronunciation. That record, orperhaps a set, was probably forteaching purposes. Hu Jieqingsighed for a moment, "I wish Icould have heard him!"

Our Marriage

When he returned home, Lao Shefirst lived in Shanghai and continued writing novels. Then hemoved to Beijing in the late springof 1930.

I was then in my last year atBeijing Normal University. Someof my classmates and I were veryinterested in literature and so weformed a small literary society andhad our writings published in thesupplement of the Capital Daily.

When we learned that Lao Shehad come back to Beijing, we decided to invite him to give us a talk.I was sent to contact him. I methim in the house of Bai Dizhou,the dean of the university. LaoShe accepted readily after exchang

MARCH 1980

ing a few words with me, and thenwe fixed the date for the talk.

When I got home that day, mymother asked me if I had met Lao

She and what he was like. "He

was thin and weak," I told herbriefly, "but he seems an honestman." I was puzzled by her keeninterest in him. She was rather

old-fashioned and hadn't been veryhappy about my going to university. She often warned me not tohave anything to do with the boystudents. "What's on her mind?"

I wondered. It was some time later

that I discovered she had her eye

on Lao She as a possible husbandfor me. She had also asked mybrother's friend, Luo Xintian, tohelp her in this matter, as he hadbeen Lao She's schoolmate and was

a very close friend. Both he andmy mother thought that Lao Sheand I had a lot in common, ourtemperaments and interests wereabout the same. Besides, both ofus were Manchus with the same

customs. However, they had keptthe whole thing a secret. And itreally'was a coincidence that oursociety had sent me to contact him.

When Lao She gave us his talk,neither he nor I had the faintest

idea what was afoot. It was not

until Lao She became a professorin the Literature Department ofQilu University some time later inJinan, that my mother confessedand told me all about it.

As his life became a little easier,Lao She's mother and some of hisfriends persuaded him it was timeto get married. When he returnedto Beijing for the winter vacationin 1930, Luo Xintian invited himand me to a dinner. Then Bai Di

zhou and Dong Lu'an each threwdinner parties for us. It wasclear what' they were up to —matchmaking! So Lao She wroteme a letter, saying that we didn'thave to always meet at other people's dinner tables. We could confide in each other through letters.After he went back to Jinan, hewrote me at least one letter a day,sometimes even two or three.

In 1931 I graduated and we weremarried that summer in Beijing.The wedding ceremony was heldin a fashionable restaurant, with

LfWith Luo Changpei (right) in theUnited States, 1917.

over 100 relatives and friendspresent. Bai and Luo were ourwitnesses. You can say our marriage was neither traditional normodern, for though it was arranged, both of us were wilhng. LaoShe had hoped to rent a room inthe Fragrant Hill or the SummerPalace for our honeymoon so as toavoid the complicated ceremonyand being teased. But as mymother wouldn't listen to it, he hadto give in. On such matters, hedidn't want to disappoint the oldlady. That year, he was 33 yearsbid and I was 27.

Some days ago, Comrade BaiChuan, Bai Dizhou's son, gave mea copy of our wedding photo. Weused to have one ourselves, whichhad survived the wars, but it wastaken away during the culturalrevolution as "evidence of a

crime!" I was very grateful tohim.

From Jinan to Qingdab

Before he was 50 years old, LaoShe was always on the move.However, there were short periodsof peaceful and happy times. Theyears Lao She missed most laterwere those from our wedding tothe outbreak of the anti-Japanesewar in 1937 in Shandong province.

After our marriage. Lao She wasa professor in Qilu University inJinan for four years and ShandongUniversity in Qingdao for threeyears, while I taught in middleschools. Our house on Second Jin-

kou Road in Qingdao was only tenminutes' walk from a beach. Manyof our friends often changed theirclothes in our house before goingswimming. But Lao She neverwent swimming even once, becausehe just couldn't tear himself awayfrom his desk. His lame excuse

. was, "We are too thin. Better notshow our old bones on the beach!"Even the cherry blossoms in springin Qingdao's Zhongshan Park,which attracted a lot of people,didn't appeal much to him. Occasionally, he took the children fora walk around the cherry trees onthe university campus. That washow he enjoyed the wonderfulspring!

He spent all his time and energyon teaching and writing. Duringterm-time, he was busy all daylong reading books, looking forreference materials, preparing lectures, planning the curriculum andtalking to students. He was neversatisfied with his knowledge andfeared he might let the studentsdown. Only in the vacations couldhe find the time to write fiction.So virtually he hadn't had a singleday's rest all year round. As a result, he suffered from anemia,aches and pains in his later years.Then he regretted not having paidenough attention to his healthearlier.

The seven years in Shandongwere a most prolific, period. Hewrote several dozen novels andshort stories including Divorce,The Life of Niu Tianci, CamelXiangzi, Doctor Wen, Black Li andWhite Li, On Duty, The Death-Bearing Lance, The Woman fromLiu Village, Vision, Sunshine, TheCrescent Moon and This Life ofMine. He wrote even more humorous prose and poems. Qingdaowas not the setting for most of hiswriting, for he didn't have muchtime to enjoy the beautiful scenerythere. Still one can find traces ofthe place in his collections of shortstories, such as Cherries and theSea, Clams and Seaweed OTdStories Written by the East Seaand under Bashan Mountain. Alltheir titles have something to dowith the locality.

It was also in Shandong that hemade many close literary friends.

He also got to know some boxers,performers, rickshaw pullers andpedlars, who often dropped in fora chat. By the way, Chinese boxing and exercises with a spear andstick were also his forte.

Lao She was extremely busy andnaturally felt very tired thoseyears. Time went too fast for him.

Moreover, I had three children inseven years. The eldest was adaughter, Shu Ji, then a son ShuYi and then another daughter ShuYu. The two eldest were verynaughty and created lots of troublefor their father, who could donothing but sigh. But he neverlost his temper. When he waspestered too much, he would putdown his pen smiling and join intheir fun. He was very fond ofchildren, and our friends' childrenliked him too, because he was verygood at telling stories and jokes.

Vow to Serve the Country

In mid-August 1937, when ShuYu, my second daughter, was justtwo weeks old, we moved fromQingdao back to Jinan, for LaoShe was invited to teach again inQilu University.

It was only one month after Lu-gouqiao (the Marco Polo Bridge)Incident near Beijing, and life inthe university was seriously disrupted, Teachers and students,who were going south or home,kept coming to say goodbye to LaoShe. As the war loomed near, thislarge campus, without laughter andsongs, seemed empty and desolate.

Lao She was very worried aboutthe situation. He read the newspapers every day, anxious to get asmuch news as possible, and theJian Nan Poems by the Songdynasty poet Lu You. He repeatedagain and again those lines: "Although there were only threefamilies left in the state of Chu,/They could overthrow the power ofQin./ How can a big country likeChina be without talents?" "Atnight I look at the Taibai Star,/Which seems to have withdrawnits splendor,/ Though I resolve todie for niy country,/ There is nobattlefield where I can go." Pacingthe room, Lao She sighed, some

times, looking at the sky throughthe window, tears quietly coursingdown his cheeks. I knew that he

had dgcided to join in the wareffort, but he didn't know what todo with his family. Should he takethe whole family with him or goalone?

That night when the news of thefall of Cangzhou reached Jinan, wehad to make an immediate deci

sion. Lao She was still hesitating,for he couldn't bear to leave be

hind his old mother, the childrenand me. The scene of that night isstill vivid in my mind. Fondlinghis children's hair, he couldn'tutter a word for some time, keeping his head down lest they shouldsee his tears.

"Don't worry about us," I toldhim, "You'd better leave rightaway. So long as I don't get hit.bybombs, I can manage, I can teachand bring up the children. If yourmother should die, I will arrange aproper funeral for her. I will neverlet you down. But in case I shoulddie in the war. . . ." Looking atmy children, I broke off. My mindwas in a turmoil. All I could hearwas his voice, "Qing . . . DearQing. . . ."

I packed his luggage, but he justcouldn't bear to leave us. By thenthe Japanese invaders had alreadyreached the northern side of theHuanghe (Yellow) River and theretreating Kuomintang troops blewup Luokou Bridge on the railway,which was only several miles awayfrom Jinan, The buildings in thetown trembled at the sound of thegreat explosions. People thoughtthat Japanese must have enteredthe town, Jinan was in chaos. Ithrust a small suitcase at Lao She,urging him to leave at once. Carrying the two older children in hisarms, he looked at me and histhree-month-old daughter, notknowing what to say. Then he putthe children down, picked up thesuitcase and went to leave. At thedoor he turned back and said tome, "If there's no train at EastStation, I'll be back at once!"

He hurried off and soon thesound of his steps ,died away. Thetwo eldest children waited fortheir father to return, refusing tosleep no matter what I said. I too

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

sat through the night, worried todeath; It began to get light and hestill didn't appear.

It was five years later that wewere reunited. He had left us a

little money and asked me to lookafter his mother. He himself onlyhad 50 yuan in his pocket.

I learned later that he had firstgone to Wuhan where he had takenpart in the struggle against theJapanese aggressors. When theAll-China Art Workers Union forthe Fight Against the Enemy wasset up. he was elected a standingcommittee member and thedirector of the general administration department because of hisnonparty background. He was soenthusiastic, it was felt that hewould surely be able to win overmore writers and artists. In facthe was actually the leader of theunion. Led and helped by ZhouEnlai, he did what he could for thewar of resistance.

After Japan was defeated, LaoShe wrote a long article entitled"Wind and Rain," which was a detailed account of his experiencesduring the anti-Japanese war. Thisarticle was serialized in the newspaper Xin Min Boo in the springof 1946. It was also included inthe first issue of Historical Materials for New Literature, editedand published by the People'sLiterature Publishing House lastyear.

During the war, Lao She wasalways concerned about us. In1938, in a letter to a friend, hewrote, "I'm missing my wife andchildren and feel sorry for them.I can only express my gratitude toQing. I must work desperatelyhard, so as to live up to her expectations. I turn my worries abouther into encouragement. A womanwho is not modern cannot help, aman like me! As husband andwife, we depend on our mutualunderstanding and assistance. Intimes when our nation is sufferingfrom foreign aggression, the relationship between husband andwife is based on vows madethrough tears; they respect eachother and work hard for the country together."

For our part, we, too, worriedabout Lao She's poor health. In

MARCH 1980

% r

Lao She (right) in a discussion about the play "Teahouse" in 1962 with Xia Chun(center) and Tong Chao (first left).

1942 his mother died, and afterher funeral arrangements, I wentwith my three children to joinLao She. After much hardship,we broke through the Japaneseblockades and traveled for 50 daysuntil we finally reached Chongqing, where we were reunited.

When we got to Chongqing, LaoShe was just out of hospital andrecuperating in Beipei. Althoughwe had not seen each other for

five years and he seemed mucholder and thinner, I felt he had become tougher. The ideologicalchanges were more striking thanthe physical ones. He told me howhe had represented the writers'union in legal struggles with theKuomintang. Zhang Daofan, headof the Kuomintang propaganda department, tried hard to fomentdisunity and dissention among thewriters, doing his utmost to destroy the resistance literature andmaking trouble whenever he hadthe chance. "When I have someproblems," Lao She said, "I con

sult Guo Moruo and Mao Dun inZhou Enlai's place and ask theirsupport and help. Zhang Daofanis just like the grasshopper in thefable which wants to stop thechariot. He only exposes himselfmore. In recent years perhaps Ihaven't made much progress, butI've come to know who's right andwho's wrong. To save China, wemust rely on this — " He drew thefigure 8 (referring to the EighthRoute Army led by the ChineseCommunist Party).

Thus, the Kuomintang regardedhim, a person without party affiliations, as becoming more andmore "Red" and sent secret agentsto spy on him. Very often LaoShe saw their spies as he left hishouse. He was always preparedto be arrested by their secretagents. If he went out to do somebusiness, he would ask his son Shu

» V

Yi, who was less than ten yearsold, to tail him, so he could tell usif something happened to hisfather, (To be continued) •

Ancient Dromn and New friendslilp—Greek Mational Theater in China

ZHAO JIAN

At a reception for the Greek National Theater given by the Greek Embassy InChina, Chinese cultural workers read a poem in honor of the Greek artists.

Kj Linwei

T^HE first-ever staging in China-I- of two classical Greek trag

edies, Prometheus BouTid,and ThePhoenissae, premiered in China inlate October, when members of theGreek National Theater toured

Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing.Their performances, ten in all,

evoked strong interest amongtheater-goers and drama circles.Packed houses, and the hushed,rapt viewers following the actors'lines in translation through-earphones dispelled any fears thata Chinese audience might not beable to appreciate dramatic worksso vastly removed from their usualfare in terms of time, distance andlanguage. They were obviouslystirred by the ideas of the tragedies, the actions of the hei'oes,the clear-cut loves and hates andthe beautiful language.

IN retrospect, however, one findsthat the Chinese people are hot

so unfamiliar with the Greek

ZHAO JIAN Is a teacher in the ActingDepartment at the Central Drama Institute and an editor of the journal"Theatrical Studies".

tragedy. Chinese scholars andtranslators in the 30s had alreadyacquainted Chinese readers withthese treasures from mankind'scultural heritage. The notedscholar Professor Luo Niansheng,for instance, who studied in Athensas a young man and is well-versedin ancient Greek literature anddrama, between 1936 and 1947translated and published such well-known tragedies as The Persians,OedipiLs the King and PrometheusBound. Much more work was doneafter China's liberation in 1949 intranslation and study of ancientGreek literatru-e and drama. Playsby the three great tragediansAeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were published in translation, including three volumedTragedies by Euripides translatedby. Professor Luo and another person in the late 50s. The latter contained 18 plays, all of the completeplays of Euripides that have survived. Also published were Professor Lug's translations of theworks of two other tragediansand the comedies of Aristophanes. Other scholars and trans-

lators in China have also translatedclassical Greek dramas or writtenarticles on them for literary andtheatrical journals.

At the Central Drama Institutewhere I teach, the Greek tragedieshave always figured prominentlyin our courses on the history offoreign drama and literature andare compulsory subjects forstudents. Students in the directingand acting departments have performed exerpts from Oedipus theKing.

Despite oiu- interest inclassical Greek drama, few of.

us, even among the older generation of translators of foreign literature, had ever seen a Greektragedy performed. We had foundit hard to visualize how these

2,400-year-old dramas looked onstage. It was with this questionthat many of us went to see theperformances by the GreekNational Theater.

We were, of course, familiarwith the heroic- image, of Prometheus, that benevolent god punished by the Olympian ruler Zeus

The cast at (be Ming tombs outsideBeijing. Zhao Tianpin

for stealing fire of heaven for thebenefit of mankind. As the curtainrose our fancies were stirred by thesuccinct, explicit and archaicallysimple stage setting, immediatelyrecognizable as the cliffs of theCaucasus. The opening gongsounded and in a solemnatmosphere the play began: thebinding of Prometheus, followedby dances and dialogue by thechorus and long speeches by Prometheus. We were carried awayby the uncomplicated yet profound

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

stage setting to achieve a multiplicity of effect, whether by the-positioning of the actors or throughmaneuvring the chorus. At thesame time full scope was given tothe audience's imagination.

Moving performances by theactors contributed to the estheticcharm of the drama. The treat

ment of the ending left a deep impression: After the tragic melee,Antigone buries her dead brotherPolyneices and resolves to go intoexile with her father. One sees

the blind Oedipus, supported byAntigone, walk off with halting,despairing steps as on this intensely

tragic and emotional note thelights dim. The acting of AlexisMinotis and Maria Skountzou, whoplayed the role of Antigone, wassuperb in this last part.

Last summer when the firstChinese Beijing opera troupe tovisit Greece performed the WhiteSnake — a traditional item on therepertoire of Beijing opera —Greek audiences were generous

with praise. Now the Greek National Theater's visit to China hasbroadened our horizons. A newchapter has been added to thehistory of cultural exchangebetween the two ancient civilizations of Greece and China. •

ip;

action that unfolded before oureyes. In this drama, based on alegend, the playwright Aeschylushas embodied the hopes, will andsympathies of the Greek demos ofhis time, and as such it isenormously edifying and educational.

The 2,400-year-old play represents a relatively early stage ofthe development of the drama andthat makes it all the more difficult

-to perform. Prometheus is boundto a symbolic cliff at the center ofthe stage, masked and unable tomove, so that the actor must relysolely on the way he speaks hislines to bring the meaning across.But Alexis Minotis, a famous actornow in his seventies as well as artdirector of the Greek NationalTheater, is a true master. Hisspeeches expressively conveyedPrometheus'' fearlessness in theface of tyranny and death. His delivery was sincere and meticulouslynuanced; lyrical and rythmic aswell as deeply expressive of thephilosophical depths. Our Chinesestage actors gained much from theplasticity and durability of. hisvocal techniques and superb breathcontrol and diction.

EURIPIDES' The Phoenissaetakes as its central theme the

tragic story of the legendary royalfamily of Oedipus. With Euripidesthe drama reached new heights inboth ideas and dramatic technique.The present staging, while retaining the ancient form, endeavored to create new effects.

The stage setting of ThePhoenissae was highly original. Itsmain body consisted of an archedstone structure open at both endslike a bridge. With remarkablesymbolism and versatility, the topof the bridge could be used to represent a gate tower, mountainsummit or throne; the stepsbeneath it a hill slope, riverbank,terrace or staircase; the opening in

' the structure a gateway in a citywall, the doorway of house or amountain pa?s. The platform underthe structure and between thesteps on both sides served as aversatile and spacious performingarea.

In this play the director andactors made ingenious use of the

MARCH 1980

Scenes from Prometheus Bound (Prometheus in back, and members of the chorus)and The Phoenissae (Oedipus on right) as performed in China by the GreekNational Thcaler. Zhang Jingde

Tibet's Potala Palace

The Potala Palace, in the heartof old Lhasa, capital of the

Tibet Autonomous Region, wasbuilt in the seventh century byKing Songtsan Gambo (617-650),unifier of Tibet, for his bride Princess Wen Cheng sent to him fromthe Tang dynasty court in Chang-an (today's Xi'an). Extensive renovations have restored the palaceto its ancient splendor. Now eachyear many visitors from in Chinaand abroad visit this once-forbidden place.

The 13-story palace, standingatop a cliff in 3,700-meter-highLhasa, is the world's highest palace. It is a rare piece of architecture in traditional Tibetan style.The original Potala had 1,000chambers. It acquired its namelater as Buddhism spread in Tibet.The Buddhists believed the palacesite to be "Buddha's Mountain," aplace sacred to them so the palacebegan to be called Potala, as thisis pronounced in Sanskrit.

Little is left of the original palace. It was first damaged by firecaused by lightning during theeighth century and then destroyedagain in a war in the ninth century. The Potala we see today wasreconstructed in the 17th century.It was rebuilt by the Fifth DalaiLama (1617-1682) who establishedthe Tibetan local government atthe Zhebang monastery in 1642and started to rebuild the Potalain 1645. He moved the governmentinto it when the main part, theWhite Palace, was completed in1653. Constructions of newsections on either side, known asthe Red Palace for the color oftheir walls, was begun in 1690 andcompleted three years later, Thestone tablet erected in front of it

OU CHAOGUI does historical researchwith the Committee for the Manage-tnent of Cultural Relics ot the TibetAutonomous Region.

44

OU CHAOGUI

at the inauguration ceremony stillstands there today.

The reconstruction of the Potala

Palace was a grandiose project.To mix the mortar for its walls,so much earth was taken from

behind the hill on which it standsthat a deep depression was created. This was made into a lake and

became known as Dragon KingPool after a temple built for thatdeity in its center. Historical records show that over 7,000 serfsworked daily on construction ofthe Red Palace, and still moreworked at quarrying stone andfelling trees in the mountains.Transportation of the tree trunksand huge blocks of stone was doneby human power and many serfsdied in the process. The construction scene is recorded in a mural

in the palace. Although the laborers brought their own food andworked without pay, the cost ofbuilding the Red Palace came to2,134,138 taels of silver, an astronomical figure for those days.

Massive Structure

The foundation of the palacelies at the southern foot of the hill.The main building rises againstthe hill slope for 110 meters to thetop of its gilded roof tiles. Thepalace is the biggest and best-preserved ancient structure in Tibet.

After mounting the stone stairsat the front of the.palace, oneenters the eastern gate and reachesa wide platform halfway up thehill. Celebrations used to be heldhere on holidays or religious oc-

Mural of Princess Wen Cheng's arrival in Tibet. Zh/Jr}iinlun

,llu' fi'i aSw ' 3 i.t' I

X-' '

I

i

r

mm IffUininfTT

UUIUI

tItitUiimnMiinmi

mm

The Potala Palace.

Zlians Htiiivi ami Yaiin Kclin

i

Detail from mural of the four lokapalasrhside the cast gate of the palace.

Gil Siumkanfi

Outer wall of the Red Palace. Zlxifif'okio

.1 .:'/-

h .. • . „ '0:-.

The Whit^ Palacecompleted In 16S3.Zha^uoliio

9

%• ^ -i

Lama in front of a chanting room (ill Slimikiiii!;fronted by a Tibetan-style dagoba.

•9

Brackets under the eaves. Gii Slninkiiii!; Intricately carved beams. Li Ih'hiii

M

casions. Songs and dances, including the one to dance out devils,were performed here for the Da-lais and their officials. East of theplatform is the former seminaryfor senior monks. On its west are

chanting halls and dormitorieswhere the palace's 154 lamas lived.

Moving upward from the platform through a winding corridorone comes to the East Main Hall.With 64 pillars,- it is the biggesthall in the White Palace. Hereceremonies for the assumption ofoffice by the Dalai Lamas werepresided over by ministers fromthe Qing dynasty (1644-1911) central government. The West MainHall is the Hall of Sacrifice, thebiggest building in the Red Palacewith a floor space of over 700square meters. Here are the stupascontaining the salt-dried andembalmed remains of most DalaiLamas, including the Fifth, theSeventh through the 13th. "Thestupas, similar in shape, but ofdifferent sizes are covered withgold leaf and studded with jadeand precious stones. It is recordedthat 110,000 taels of gold wereused on the stupa of the FifthDalai and that the jewels inlaidon it were worth ten times more.In front of the stupas are incenseburners and ever-burning butterlamps.

Dalai Lama's Rooms

The Dalai's living quarters wereat the top of the White Palace.They included prayer halls, hallshousing the Buddhist sutras, sitting rooms and bedrooms, allluxuriously furnished and decorated with jewels and other valuables. They are now open to visitors.On the gate hangs a pair of maceswhich used to be covered with tiger skin — symbols of supremeauthority. The throne the Dalai^at on while chanting scriptureswas situated north of the sutra

hall. Beside the throne are drumsmade of human skin and winecontainers' made from humanskulls. Only high-ranking officialswere allowed to come here to dis-Quss official business.

The earliest extant building inthe Potala is Guanyin Hall now

MARCH 1980

Buddha In a chapel in Ihe Polala.

part of the northeastern section ofthe Red Palace. It is said to havebeen the nuptial chamber of KingSongtsan Gambo and PrincessWen Cheng. The original stove isstill there. The elegant and graceful statues in the room are' rare

art treasures. On the second flooris a statue of Songtsan Gambo. Alegend about it says that a lamapassing through a forest in south-em Tibet came upon a shiningtree which could speak. He felledIt and began cutting it into sectionsin order to take it home. Eachsection turned into a Buddha statue. The fourth was later movedinto the Potala Palace and is said

to be this statue.

In the highest hall of the Potalahangs a portrait of the Qingdynasty Emperor Qian Long whoreigned from 1736 to 1796. Before

Wang Shoxiliang

it stands a memorial tablet inscribed with the words "A long, longlife to our emperor" in Han, Tibetan, Manchu and Mongolianscript. On New Year's Day theDalai would come here to pay his'respects.

From this hall one climbs to theroof of the palace. From it onelooks over the ramparts down thesteep cliff. In the past, on January2 of .the Tibetan calendar, this wasthe scene of daring ventures onropes. Four leather ropes morethan 100 meters long were letdown with one end fixed to the

palace wall and the other tied toa pillar at the foot of the hill. Theparticipants, chosen from amongthe serfs, wore a short jacket witha piece of rawhide affixed to thefront of it. Suspended by them andholding a white flag in each hand,they slid down the ropes head

49

first. If a man was able to repeatthis three or four times, he wasexempted from corvee labor for ayear. But many were al.so killedin such attempts.

Valuable Murals

The Potala's stone foundationsgo deep into the hill so that itseems to grow out of the solidrock. The outer wall, several meters thick, had copper poured intoits interstices to make it strongerand earthquake resistant. The upper walls are girdled with bundlesof the stalks of a local plant, dyedred, so as to create the effect ofa colorful sash.

The upper structure of the palace is made of wood, consisting ofpillars surmounted by beams andrafters, and laths spread with atype of local earth containing limeto form the floors and ceilings.The roofs of the main buildings arein traditional Han architectural

style with upturned eaves withtinkling bells at each corner. Thebrackets and eaves are fitted to

gether without using a single nail.The colorful murals inside the

palace, outstanding as works ofart, were done by Tibetan artistsin the 17th century. Some are onreligious themes, others show the

Ancient copies of the Buddhist sutrasstored in the Potala being analyzed andsorted. Wang Shouifonff

life of the Tibetan people at thetime. There is archery fromhorseback and wrestling, and aweightlifting scene showing menraising stones of different sizes.

Many of the wall paintings tellinteresting stories. One of them isabout the envoy sent by the kingof Tibet to Changan, the Tangdynasty capital, to ask for the handof a Chinese princess. The envoyhad to win the princess by answering five difficult questions putto him.

Another mural tells the story ofTang Princess Jin Cheng who wassent to Tibet to be married in 710.

She is said to have had a magicmirror which could foretell good orbad fortune. Learning that shewas going to be married to a Tibetan prince, she wanted to havea look at him first. She said the

right things to the mirror and sawthe visage of a handsome youngman in it. She was delighted.Then, on her way to Tibet, one dayshe unaccountably felt veryuneasy. She looked into the mirror again, but this time saw an oldman with gray hair. It so happened that the prince, leading a delegation to welcome her at the Tibetan border, had fallen from hishorse and been killed, so on reach-

i-

The well-preserved Sanskrit sutras Inthe Potala Palace. Kangsong

ing Lhasa the princess had tomarry the old king she saw in themirror.

Many of the palace murals areof considerable historical value.

One shows the Fifth Dalai presenting himself to Qing dynasty Emperor Shun Zhi. Another shows a1908 meeting of the 13th Dalai withEmperor Guang Xu and EmpressDowager Ci Xi. All the frescoesare drawn in perspective, withdistance indicated through shadingand color. Figures are outlinedwith a line usually of black orgold, and filled in with the sharply-contrasting colors, typical ofTibetan style. But some charac-'teristics of Han painting can alsobe seen in them.

Protection and Research

Protection of this ancient edifice

has received considerable atten

tion from the Communist Partyand the people's government.There is an annual allotment of

funds for its repair. In' 1959 it suffered serious damage during theshort-lived armed rebellion stagedby the Tibetan reactionary upperstrata. When the rebels fled theytook away many valuable relics,including a priceless robe made ofpearls.

In 1961 the State Council placedthe Potala on the list of culturalsites to be given special protection,and set up a research group to sortout and study the innumerable objects preserved and stored there.Tens of thousands of them havebeen identified as valuable historical relics.

(Continued on p. 691

. .» • 1 1

'•ji.'if !ji1lit,!'.i'S"'i I't-- Irf!il-iii ^ uj

ts.l?

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

WHEN you think of Lintongyou think of pomegranates"

is a well-known saying in northChina. Lintong is a county 15 kilometers northeast of Xi'an, capitalof Shaanxi province. It has longbeen famous for this fruit. It is

also known for two other things:for the life-size pottefy statues ofwarriors and horses unearthedat the tomb of Qin Shi Huang(259-210 B.C.), the first emperorwho brought all China under onerule, and for the Huaqing HotSprings, imperial spa and resortbest known for its most famousresident, the beautiful Yang Gui-fei, concubine of Emperor MingHuang of the Tang (618-907)dynasty.

The pomegranate was introduced into China, according to historical records, in the secondcentury B.C. by Zhang Qian, thefamous envoy from the WesternHan dynasty court who establishedcontacts with many regions to thewest of China. He brought backthe seeds on his return from Per

sia and Afghanistan. Pomegranates were first grown around thecapital, Changan (present-dayXi'an) and later spread elsewhere.By the time of the Tang dynastythey were widely grown aroundChangan,

The dozen varieties of pomegran

ates fall roughly into two groupings: sweet and tart. Best of thesweet are Dahong (Big and Red),Jingpi (Clean Skin) and Sanbai(Three Whites). The first twohave red or pink skin and thick,juicy pulp. Each fruit weighsfrom 200 to 360 grams. The topquality is the Three Whites—so

MARCH 1980

named for its white flowers, whiteskin and white vesicles. Because

of its extreme sweetness it is

sometimes called "rock sugarpomegranate."

First among the tart group areLintong Tart and Luyu Egg, withthick skin and soft, juicy pulp. Afruit usually weighs 100-500 grams,but sometimes up to 800 grams.These two types have a high resistance to cold, drought, insect pestsand disease.

The Lintong pomegranates usually have a 11 percent sugar contentand 0.77 percent acid content.They have twice or three times thevitamin C of pears and apples, andare also high in phosphorus andcalcium. Pomegranate, juice is arefreshing drink. From the skinand leaves are extracted tannin,used in tanning and- cotton andwool dyeing. The skin also hasmedicinal properties for stoppingdysentery and diarrhea.

The pomegranate flowers, daz-zlingly beautiful with a ratherlong blooming period, have longbeen regarded as a garden decoration in China. They have been thesubject for poets through the centuries. In Lintong pomegranatebushes blanket the hills near

Huaqing Hot Springs. The flame-red flowers blooming in May andJune make a sharp contrast to thegreen of the hillsides.

The trees begin to bear fruitsomewhere between the ages of 3and 10 years. Each yields about30 kilograms per year and goes onfully bearing for 40 to 60 years.Even after this a plant will bearfor another 20 or 30 years, butwith smaller output. It can livefor a century. With good care it

can last for 200 years with anannual yield of 100 kg.

Symbol of Fecundity

Because it is so full of seeds, the

pomegranate became a symbol forwhat was in the past viewed asthe good luck of having manychildren. In Chinese the character

for "seed" also means "sons". A

popular New Year poster used tobe that of a fat baby holding apomegranate split open with manyseeds exposed. It evolved from anearlier picture in use some 3,000years ago of the first king of theZhou dynasty surrounded by hismany children. Today a pair ofpillow cases embroidered withpomegranates is still given as awedding gift, though the meaningtoday is not having many sons buthaving one soon, son or daughter.

Pomegranates are also consideredpropitious food for family reunions. On the night of the traditional Mid-autumn Festival, families sit around the table enjoyingthe full moon and eating moon-cakes and — pomegranates. •

Pomegranate harvest. Zhong Zheng

Chinese History — XVill

The Song Dynasty3—The Jin Conquest and Southern Song

JIAO JIAN

The Nuzhens (also known as the Nuchen Ta.rtars),who were to control most of north China as the

Jin dynasty (1115-1234), became known to history inthe tenth century as nomads living along the Heilongand Songhua (Sungari) rivers and the ChangbaiMountains of the northeast. A branch of the Mohe

people, in summer they lived along the rivers in tentsof bark, and in winter in dugout shelters. They weresuperb hunters, horsemen and archers, famed fortheir ability to lure a deer out of hiding by imitatingits call on a horn of birch bark. They bartered horses,trained falcons, gold, pearls, ginseng and beeswaxwith neighboring peoples in exchange for iron implements and other articles,

In the 11th century the Wanyan clan of theNuzhens learned to farm and began to lead a settledlife. They also learned to make weapons of- iron.Gradually they united all the Nuzhen clans. Theywere treated as vassals by the Qidans (Khitans), anearlier group of northern nomads who had settleddown and developed -the powerful Liao state acrossnorth China (916-1125). From the Nuzhens the Liaorulers extorted high tribute in falcons and other products. Early in the 12th century the daring andastute Nuzhen leader Akutta led his people in revolt.In 1115 he set up the Jin (or Kin, meaning gold)kingdom with capital at Huining (in present-dayAcheng county in Heilongjiang province). Fierceconflict between Jin and Liao followed and Jin seizedmuch Liao territory.

The Liao regime had lost its early vigor and itscourt was becoming increasingly corrupt and deca

dent. While the emperor lived in luxury and indulgence, the people suffered greatly and many also rosein revolt. Jin made an alliance with the Northern

Song dynasty, which ruled central and southernChina, to attack Liao from both sides. In the springof 1125 Jin troops captured the Liao emperor, endedthe dynasty and laid claim to much of north China.

The Song troops had proven inept in the fighting.Seeing this, the Jin ruler continued to marchsouthward against Song. In the winter of 1125 Songgenerals north of the Huanghe (Yellow) River eithersurrendered or fled. For a while the Northern Songcapital Kaifeng was heroically defended by troopsunder Prime Minister Li Gang (1083-1140), appointedto do so by the Emperor Qin Zong under pressurefrom the army and the people. But then, yielding toa faction at court who favored peace at any price, theemperor secretly sent emissaries to the Jin camp anddismissed Li Gang.

Jin took the capital in January 1127, burned thecity and captured Emperor Qin Zong and his fatherHui Zong, who had abdicated to his son. Gao Zong,another son, fled south with some of his ministersand, eventually made his capital at Linan, today'sHangzhou in Zhejiang province. Thus began theSouthern Song dynasty (1127-1279).

Resistance to Jin Invaders

Jin's overrunning of north China by plunder andcarnage aroused strong resistance, particularly in theHuanghe River region. In Hebei and Shanxi prov

A floely-decorated Southern Song lacquer box with gold inlay unearthed InJian^u province.

Split bamboo fan with lacquer openwork handle frontSouthern Song tomb inJintan county, Jlangsuprovince.

Coat worn in Southern Song times ofyellow crepe and one of its black borderspainted with gold and multi-color designs,Fuzhou, Fujian province.

CHINA nECONSTIlUCTS

inces the people built fortresses and fought the Jintroops. Seven thousand Song soldiers led by WangYan burst through Jin encirclement and set up headquarters in the Taihang Mountains where theygathered a rebel force of 100,000.

They became known as the "Eight CharacterArmy" from the motto they tattooed on their .faces:"Defend our country with heart and soul and pledgeto kill the Jin invaders without mercy." They werea serious threat to Jin so that for ,a long time it couldneither consolidate control over the central plains norexpand southward as it liked. Such armed resistancelasted for over a century.

General Yue Fei

In 1129 Jin crossed the Changjiang (Yangtze)River and continued raiding southward, even burningthe capital Linan. They were given a hard time bya fleet of Song ships on the Changjiang underGeneral Han Shizhong. Some generals, of whom YueFei (also spelled Yo Fei, 1103-1142) is most outstanding, led their troops northward and with help fromthe people recovered much lost territory. Yue Fei's•army of northern peasants were famous for their discipline. "Don't tear down a house for firewood eventhough freezing, nor steal from the people even whenhungry" was their motto.

In 1140 Yue Fei's troops dealt a crushing blowto the Jin forces at Yancheng in Henan province. Inhigh spirits, with rebel forces in north China cuttingJin supply lines, they were prepared to roll Jin backto its headquarters in the northeast. His words tohis troops have become famous: "We'll marchstraight to Huanglong and there drink together to our'heart's content."

But Southern Song Emperor Gao Zong orderedthem to withdraw, and even sent him 12 urgent messages to do so. He and Prime Minister Qin Hui hadbe5n carrying on secret negotiations for" peace withJin, and in fact feared their armed people more thanthey feared Jin. "The achievements of ten years arebeing thrown to the winds in a day" was "Yue Fei'ssorrowful comment. Both the people and army were

sad and indignant. Yue Fei was imprisoned on atrumped-up charge and murdered, but he is stillremembered by the people today.

The Jin army reoccupied many areas from YueFei's army and.in 1141 a peace treaty was concludedunder which Southern Song agreed to be a vassal ofJin and pay it an annual tribute of 250,000 taels ofsilver and 250,000 bolts of silk. All territory northof an east-west line from the Huaihe River to a pointin western Shaanxi province was ceded to Jin. ThusChina was again divided between north and south formany years.

Throughout this period, Jin, to strengthen itsdomination, had brought many Nuzhen troops fromthe northeast to garrison the central plains. A scriptfor the Nuzhen language had been created shortlyafter the Jin kingdom was set up. Now, exposed tothe more highly-developed political, economic andcultural influence of the Han people, the Nuzhensgradually took on the habits and attitudes of Hanfeudal society.

Peasant Uprisings

In the south, Southern Song officials increasedextortion from the people in the name of fighting theinvaders. Even those who had no homes were forced

to pay a property tax, and those with no sons a headtax on them. Retreating imperial troops often looted,raped and committed all sorts of crimes against thepeople. This provided fertile ground for peasant rebellion. The largest uprising began in 1130 underZhong Xiang and Yang Yao.

Zhong Xiang had attempted to organize anuprising around Lake Dongting in today's Hunanprovince toward the end of the Northern Song period.Recalling slogans which Wang Xiaobo and Li Shunhad raised in nearby Sichuan at the end of the tenthcentury, Zhong Xiang said, "It is a vicious law thatdivides people into rich and poor, high and low. Iwould even them off if I had the power." This appealed to the peasants' desire for political and economic equality. Poor peasants from hundreds ofmiles around had rallied under his banner.

Sketches of details from Buddhist tales in Jin dynasty Yanshang monastery, Shanxi.

MARCH 1S80

Water-powered millstone in mural of contemporarylife in Yanshan^ monastery in FanzhI county, Shan-Ni province.

Deer design on jade-carv-ing pendant from tomb ofthe Jin period in Heilong-jiang province recalls Nu-zhens' bunting past.

Cai-vcd bricks Inform of latticed

doors found in aJin-period tombin Wuzbi county,Henan province.

Artist's re-creation ofship used by peasantrebels under Yang Yao.

In the spring of 1130 their uprising proclaimedthe state of Great Chu. Within a fortnight they hadcaptured 19 counties around Lake Dongting. A proclamation by the insurrectionary army declared thatall who had joined the uprising were freed from theburden of taxation and labor service and were no

longer bound by the laws of the Song government.They seized and divided up the estates of biglandlords and officials, many of whom fled in panic.

Zhong Xiang was captured in battle and killedand leadership of the army was taken'over by YangYao. In 1135 Yue Fei was sent by the Song government to suppress the rebels. Yang Yao was capturedand executed and the uprising petered out.

Southern Song Economy

The people's struggle to keep Jin from expandingfurther south gave the economy in the south a chanceto develop. It was also helped by the fact that manypeople from the north migrated south to escape thewar.

Both acreage of land under rice and per-area riceyields increased. Two crops a year were grown alongthe lower Changjiang River and Lake Taihu, withthose around Suzhou arid Huzhcu (now Wuxing) inthe lake area. constituting an important part of thecountry's production, There was a rhyme whichwent, "When Su-Hu's grain is^ripe/AU under Heavenis all right." Cotton planting had spread from Guangdong and Fujian along the coast to the ChangjiangRiver valley.

Handicraft industry also developed, particularlycotton textiles and shipbuilding. Textile manufacturewas carried on widely in the cotton-producing areas. •A well-preserved cotton blanket unearthed recentlyfrom a Southern Song tomb in Zhejiang province isthick, soft and closely-woven, an indication of thelevel of cotton weaving at that time. •

Along the coast and rivers ships of many types- were built, including seafaring vessels that could ac

commodate 200 to 600 people. Using the compass theycould continue to navigate even in fog. A sturdySouthern Song ocean cargo ship was excavated nearQuanzhou in Fujian province in 1973. Judging fromthe 24-meter-long remains of the hull, it must havebeen quite large and had a carrying capacity of over200 tons.

Despite disruption in the north, trade flourishedout of southern ports, chiefly Guangzhou (Canton),Ningbo and Quanzhou, which became one of theworld's biggest ports. At the latter remains of piersand docks of the time can still be seen today. Shipscarrying Chinese products sailed as far as Africa.Song porcelain and shards have been found in excavations in Japan, Malaya, Indonesia, Pakistan, SriLanka, west Asia and the east coast of Africa. Economic, cultural and friendly exchanges betweenChina and foreign countries increased. This is attested to by the many tombs of Ara.b merchants andruins of mosques built by them in Quanzhou andmany stone tablets found there with descriptions oftravels and trade relations. •

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

EJiii ;

;v;,

*! •L

;>• '' >\ M •-1

Yue fei (also spelled Yo Fei)(1103-1142), a famous Song

dynasty general became a patriotichero for driving back the troopsof the Jin Kingdom in the north,which had carried its invasion far

into the south. Almost immediate

ly afterward Qin Hui, the Southern.

Song Prime Minister who hadsecret dealings with the Jin rulers,had Yue Fei locked up on trumped-up charges and murdered in prisonat the age of 39. As a rallyingpoint for resistance to Jin, Yue Feihad been too dangerous to QinHui's cause.

MARCH 1960

Portrait of YuePel on a stone(ablet.

Yue Fei was not forgotten by the

people. Twenty years later, Southern Song Emperor Xiao Zong, tocurry favor with the people and

quiet popular indignation at theframe-up, exonerated Yue Fei and

tried to find out what had happen

ed to his body. It was found andgiven a proper burial in the South-em Song capital, today's Hang-

zhou in Zhejiang province. In 1221a temple was built there in honor

of Yue Fei. The tomb and templehave seen countless visitors

through 700 years. Last year after

Fei

CHANG SHAOWEN

repair and renovation it. wasreopened to the public.

The tale of how Yue Fei's body

was found is an interesting storyin itself. The prison warden Kui

Shun, out of respect for Yue Fei,

risked his life to remove the bodyand have it buried outside the city.

With it he placed a jade ring YueFei had worn, and a bucket con

taining Yue Fei's belongings, so

that the body could be identified

later. On the grave he planted two '

orange trees. The warden kept the

secret till on his death bed he told

his son, "One day when the wrongdone Yue Fei is righted, you must

report that you know where thebody can be found." When theEmperor called for information,

the warden's son spoke out, and thenext year the body was moved toits present site.

ON the front of the temple hangsa black tablet with gold

characters reading "Yue Wang(King) Temple." In the main hallhas been placed a new 4.3-meterstatue of Yue Fei in martial dress

and a general's helmet. .Legend has it that his father

gave him the name Fei (meaningto fly) because as he was beingborn a roc flew over the house. It

was probably with this legend inmind that an ancient artist dec

orated the ceiling of the main hallof the temple with 373 cranes in

different poses. The crane is a

symbol of steadfastness. A month

after he was born the Huanghe

(Yellow) River flooded and hismother, holding him, floated about

in a big pot until rescued.Yue Fei was credited with

enthusiasm for study as a child,with Master Sun's Art of Warwritten by the famous military

strategist Sun Wu in the Springand Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.)

as his favorite book. By the age of

19 he was reputed to be able to pulla bow requiring a force of 150

kOograms. When he joined the

army at the age of 20 his mother

had tattooed on his back four

Chinese characters jing zhong bao

guo, meaning "Dedicate oneself tothe service of one's country."

These are the four characters

carved on the main hall of the

temple.

Hanging above the statue is

another set of four: huan wo he

shan, meaning "Recover our lost

territories" made after characters

in Yue Fei's own handwriting. And

The iron statues of Qin Hui and biswife, chief murderers of Yue Fei.

Wang Hungxitn

- '-if r'Z-TS:-

56

m H ^ M

j-

tU'..'# 4" ^

Yue Fei's poem, "Man JiangHung", in the handwriting ofWen Zhengming, a famousMing dynasty calligrapher.

this is the cause to which he

dedicated his life.

The tomb encircled by ancient

pines stands left of the temple.The walk to it is flanked by sixstone figures of p.eople and twoeach of tigers, sheep and horses.

Before the tomb itself are four

statues of iron. They are the PrimeMinister Qin Hui, his wife, and

two accomplices in the murder

cast so that they are foreverkneeling. A couplet behind them

reads: "Fortunate is the green hillthat harbors his loyal bones; Unfortunate the iron to be cast in the

figures of traitors." The stone be

fore the tomb reads "Tomb of SongYue King E" (a title given Yue Fei63 years after his death).

To the left is the tomb of Yue

Fei's adopted son Yue Yun (1120-1142), who fought with his father

and was later also imprisoned and

murdered. Last year it was re-

stored to its original form as firstbuilt in 1163, that is with bricksplaced directly on the ground andcovered with a mound of clay, andweeds growing on top as was thecustom then.

l^ORTH and south of thewalk to* the tomb are 125 stone tablets.

Some of them were made after his

own handwriting, and include hisown poems and articles he had

copied. He was a gifted poet andcalligrapher as well as a militaryman. His poem Man Jiang Hung, anoutstanding literary work full of

patriotism was carved in the hand

writing of Wen Zhengming, afamous Ming dynasty calligrapher.Thirty-seven of the tablets weremoved to the site last year from

the memorial hall in his native

town in Tangyin county, Henan

province. They bear copies of twoarticles by the famoi^ strategistZhuge Liang in the Three Kingdom Period chiselled in Yue Fei's

vigorous and forceful handwriting.

Thirteen tablets record the details

of the victories and his exploits inthe drive against the Jin invasion.

Others cite evidence of how Yue

Fei fought against Emperor Song

Gao Zong, Prime Minister Qin Huiand other capitulationists. Stillother tablets on the south bear

inscriptions by noted persons in

tribute to Yue Fei.

Near the entrance to the .tomb is

a pavilion containing severalsections of a fossilized tree trunk,

which originally stood near apavilion in the Southern Songdynasty prison. The legend grew,

up that it was a pine tree that hadwithered and died when Yue Fei

was killed beside it. In 1922 the

remaining sections were movedfor display near the tomb. Scientific analysis has found that it was

actually fossilized much earlier,about 120 million years ago, but

its legend remains as proof of thepeople's love and respect for theloyal Yue Fei. •

CHINA RECONSTBUCTS

.112

Memorial temple buUt for patriotic hero General Yue Feiwho fought the Jin invasion. HoHg Hoiigxwi

ewly-creatcd statue of Yue Fei in the heroic style. Photos by Zhang Kaqing

Tomb of Yue Fei in Hangzhou.

Mi

i

Tower in Riverside Park

commemorates victoryover the 1957 flood,

biggest in history.

Harbin

IVang //o/if?.\'wr

Turn-of-century 'gingerbread' -on waterside cafe

recalls oid Harbin.

IVclllg //oilg.MII)

The Chlldrcn^s Railroad. ll 'nui; nofi(2-^'"f

£rr^n:/ruan. a song and dance duet popular in the northeast. /iongxi/'i

Sm

Making the most of summer on the Songhua River• ^yafg

hmmmmMmmmm

ii.'-AteC

m

HARBIN

—Metropolis of the Far North

A fishing village only 80 yearsago, Harbin^on the bank of the

Songhua (Sungari) River hasgrown into an industrial centerwith 2.100,000 inhabitants. It is animportant land and water trans-

.port center as well as a scenic spotin China's northeast and capital ofHeilongjiang province.

Historical records show this areawas inhabited by the Nuzhens,ancestors of the Manchu nationali

ty in the 11th century. The nameHarbin was evolved from "Alejin,"the name of the fishing villagethen.

In 1896 Tsarist Russia made a

secret treaty with the Qing dynastygovernment to build the ChineseEastern Railway from Manzhouli(Manchouli) on the Chinese-Russian border through Harbinto the Russian city of Vladivostokon the coast. With the indemnityextorted from China and cheapChinese labor it built the railroadwith Harbin as the administrativecenter for the rail line. With navi

gation on the Songhua River andseveral other rail connections, thecity gradually developed into atransport hub.

With the railroad, Russianmerchants, adventurers and missionaries swarmed into the cityand set up' their stores, factoriesand churches. Today one can stillcount the cupolas and spires on topof thirty Eastern Orthodoxchurches.

Following the Tsarist aggressionmany other imperialists also cameto Harbin. Harbin became an international metropolis. Consulateswere established by 15 countries, including Japan, the UnitedStates, Britain, France, Germanyand Italy. Banks and businessfirms siphoned off the wealth ofthe Chinese people. There were

LI JIYANG la a staff reporter for theHarbla Dally.

MARCH 1980

LI JIYANG

plush hotels, dance halls, bars,gambling-dens and villas of theimperialists, and foreigners frommany parts of the world. At onetime there were 100,000 foreignresidents from 36 countries in thecity.

After the Japanese occupation ofnortheast China in 1931, Harbinbecame the invaders' base for further aggression and plunder of herrich resources. On the other hand,the city was also an important basefor the Chinese Communist Partyunderground which carried onarmed struggle against theJapanese. On April 28, 1946, Harbin returned to the people thanksto the Chinese People's LiberationArmy.

Home of Power Equipment

After liberation Harbin, from^acolonial and consumer city, developed into a new Industrial centerwith mainly power equipment andengineering enterprises.

The southwestern suburbs of the

old city, formerly overgrown withbrambles, used to be a race coursefor the imperialists, officials andthe rich. Today many big factoriesline along a 4.5-kilonieter asphaltroad. Among them are China'sthree big power equipment enterprises, the Harbin Electrical Machinery Plant, the Harbin BoilerFactory and the Harbin SteamTurbine Plant. They producedChina's first big water turbogenerator, first high-pressureboiler for a power plant and firstbig steam turbogenerator. Thecity has thus earned the name"home of power equipment."

The three big plants, togetherwith other factories makingelectric meters, insulating materials, and electric wires and furnaces form Heilongjiang's powerequipment manufacturing industry. Over the past 20 odd years ithas provided complete sets ofequipment for more than 120 big

Rotor for a 200,000 kw. water turbogenerator made by tbe Harbin Steam TurbinePlant. Wang Hongxtin

i

and medium-sized power stations,including the ones at Liujiaxia inGansu province, Xinanjiang inZhejiang province, Shizitan in Sichuan province, Foziling in Anhuiprovince, Guanting in Hebei province and Xiaofengman' in Jilinprovince.

Before liberation Harbin couldnot produce a single machine toolor even a cutter. Now it has more

than 3,000 factories, manufacturing over 1,000 types of products,among which are heavy miningand metallurgical equipment, giantpower-plant boilers, as well assmall bits, electric wire, rollerbearings, high-precision measuringtools and electric meters.

The city's light industry has alsodeveloped, producing chemicalsfor daily use, glassware, plastics.

Former slums being: turned into newresidential areas. Wang Hongrnn

"ipi'wi

Veteran workers resting at a workers'sanatorium on Talyangdao,

VVfl'tg Hinfj.iun

62

rubber and leather goods, textiles,sugar and pharmaceuticals, Harbin's total annual industrial outputvalue now is 36 times that before

liberation.

City of Parks

Harbin is noted for its properdistribution of factories and large-scale tree-planting. The city nowhas 13 parks, 154 flower nurseriesand afforested areas with a total of

3,000,000 trees. Beautifully-prunedelms, poplars and pines along thestreets have become one of the

city's characteristics.The names of some of the streets,

parks and sites in Harbin are thoseof heroes including Yang Jingyu,Zhao Shangzhi, Zhao Yiman andLi Zhaolin who gave their lives inthe war against Japanese aggressors. Where once stood the policeheadquarters of the Japanesepuppet Manchukuo regime onwhat is now Zhao Yiman Street,is a memorial hail to those killed

fighting against the Japanese invaders in the Northeast. It serves

to educate the people in therevolutionary tradition of thosedays.

The beautiful Songhua Riverruns from west to east through thecity. Riverside Park, 10 hectares insize along the southern bank, is afavorite place for the people tospend their days off. In it are ayouth palace, a riverside restaurant, a clubhouse and a sports station. A large bridge can be seenspanning the river from north tosouth. In the center of the parkstands the tower in memory of thegreat victory over the biggest floodin history in the summer of 1957.That year the river rose to 46.5meters, three meters above thecity's streets. The people workednight and day to build a dyke 50kilometers long, thus protecting thecity from the turbulent waves.

The 1,300-hectare Taiyangdao(Sunny Island) in the river is afamous summer resort. It has 14

sanatoriums and rest homes built

by factories, colleges and universities. In summer people bringtheir families here for picnics,boating and swimming. At peaktimes several hundred thousand

people visit it in a day.

The city's Children's Park hasChina's one and only Children'sRaDroad. Built in 1956, it is twokilometers long with "BeijingStation" at one end and "Harbin

Station" at the other. The small

train, drawn by a diesel locomotive, has seven gaily-coloredcoaches which can carry 200 passengers. The railroad staff,including the station masters, conductors, train guards, locomotivedrivers, ticket sellers and collectorsand head of the train crew are allschool children under 13, who workin turn. Over the past 24 yearsthe railroad has carried 3,400,000"passengers." -

City of Ice

During Harbin's six-monthwinter the temperature is usuallySO'C. below zero, and there areheavy snowfalls. The people havefound many ways to adapt to cold.Milk is sold in frozen bricks. As

it is difficult to store and transportfresh pears, they are sold on themarket frozen. Harbin frozen

pears, after being thawed in coldwater, have their own specialflavor and are a popular delicacy atthe Spring Festival.

Another Harbin custom is to

make a lot of jiaozi of dough-wrapped meat, fast-freeze them inthe open air and preserve them inbags till they are eaten.

Winter is Harbin's golden seasonfor ice sports. As early as November, many offices, factories andschools make their own rinks byflooding a piece of low land. Thecity's Red Star Skating Rink isthe ice-skaters' favorite. In the

streets or lanes children playmerrily on skates made bythemselves.

Another winter attraction inHarbin is the annual ice-lantern

exhibition*. The crystal-clear lanterns in various shapes — flowers,animals, pogodas and pavilions,draw many visitors in spite of thebitter cold. When they are.illuminated inside, they create an enchanting atmosphere as beautifulas a fairyland. They are the jointwork of gardeners and artists. •

• CR carried a story about the icelanterns in Jan. issue, 1680.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

ENHUA

The old fisherman held out hiscupped hands to show several

lively young prawns. "Look!" heexclaimed, "I found these in aninlet by the shore. If they cangrow there, they ought to grow in

, salt-water ponds too."This took place 20 years ago in

the office of an agriculturalproducers' co-op near today'sXiaoguan commune in Wendengcounty, Shandong province.Today, the commune with itseight seaside ponds containing,millions of prawns is an up-and-coming prawn raising ground, oneof the many in China.

It was not an easy job to getprawns to resettle in ponds; infact it took all of 20 years of experimentation. The delicious Chi

nese prawn, an important food ofthe Chinese people and a majorexport product, has its naturalhabitat in the Huanghai and Bohaiseas along the northern andeastern -coast of China. Afterspending the winter in the Huanghai Sea, in March they swim inshoals up to the Bohai Seahundreds of miles away, wherethey spawn, hatch and grow. Not

LU ZHENHUA Is a staff reporter forChina Reconstrucis.

MARCH 1980

many of the young, however, survive the buffeting of the elementsand the depredations of large fish.Those that do, grow to the size oftheir parents and mate in September, by which time the temperature of the Bohai Sea begins todrop and the prawns start out onthe long swim back to theHuanghai.

Prawn fishing takes' place inspring and autumn, but catcheswere always limited. Prawnfishermen faced the same problemas the fishing industry in general:the world's fishing fleets keepgrowing in tonnage but with littleincrease in the size of their

catches. This has forced more andmore seaboard countries to turn

to artificial breeding and raisingto supplement their sources ofseafood.

China had long been famous forpond-breeding of fish. Could thesame be done with prawns? Experiments were being made, inJapan for instance, but at thattime none had been successful in

China. What the old fisherman

had found seemed to indicate that

prawn-raising was possible, andso the agricultural cooperativedecided to try.

First Try

Their first pond was constructednorthwest of the village by putting up a dam across an inlet of

the sea. The first year the prawnfry were eaten by fish. The second year the grown prawns frozeto death due to delay in bringingthem in. In 1958 the villagersfinally succeeded in producingseveral dozen kilograms.

Large-scale prawn-raising at theXiaoguan commune began in thewinter of 1974, when members ofthe commune built a seven-

kilometer-long dam across the seato form eight ponds with a totalsurface of 160 hectares. Advicewas sought from teachers at amarine products school and fromexperienced prawnmen roundabout. Commune members worked

hard to keep the ponds clean,weed out fish enemies and find•sources of prawn food, such assmall oysters and clams.

In 1975 they managed to raiseonly 4,000 kilograms. But by 1978the figure was 38,000, and in1979 it reached a record 55,000kilograms.

On a sunny morning early lastautumn I was taken by boat tosee the biggest of the commune'sponds, rectagular in shape andcovering 130 hectares. As ourboat advanced, shoals of startledprawns sprang out of the water.About ten centimeters long, theywould grow another four or fivecentimeters to optimum lengthbeing collected 50 days later.

The water in the pond is renewed with a fresh flow from theocean every day by lifting a

Feeding prawns at Xiaogruan commune in Shandong province.

I

Mfebate

How Should China's Economy Be Managed?TJOW is China to improve her

economic management? Whatkind of economic management

should she follow? These are

questions people in economicand academic circles are asking.Many people today believethat the expansion of the country'sproductive forces and her modernization hinge on finding

the correct answers to these

questions. There have been widespread discussions and newspapersand journals have been publishingthe various views expressed.

The present system of economicmanagement is based on ownershipby the entire people, in the formof state ownership, and was introduced from the Soviet Union in

the early 1950s. The chief characteristic of this system is its use ofa highly centralized administrativeapparatus to direct economic activities and run enterprises. Inthis, the state organizes and directseconomic activities through thecentral departments imposingrigid norms and regulations onregions and individual enterprises,

water gate. A fine-meshed nylonnet guards the gateway to stopenemy fish from entering. Feedfor the prawns is spread from

old-fashioned wooden boats andnot from motorized boats which

would pollute the water. Experienced breeders keep tabs onwater salinity and amount of feedconsumed.

This last is one way of keepinginformed of the condition of the

prawns.. One year, for instance,the growers put 700,000 prawn fryin one of the ponds, but whengiving them the appropriateamount of food were puzzled tofind that something was alwaysleft over. Several days of observa

for outputs, funds, machinery andequipment, marketing, salaries and

so on. Many in China today feelthat this system in use over thepast 30 years does not fit thepresent situation, when thecountry is moving forward toachieving socialist modernization.They frankly point out that themain defect in this system is an

over-concentration of power resulting in "undue emphasis on administrative means. This method

sometimes ignores economic lawsand has now become an obstacle

to expanding the productive forcesand attaining modernization."There must be changes made,"

they conclude. Such changes,wrote Commentator in the in

fluential People's Daily, "willbring about a radical change inour economic life."

What are the defects of the

present system of management?

Fang Weizhong, a vice-director ofthe State Planning Commission,

answered this in an article,"Thoughts About Reforms in Economic Management," published in

tion led to the discovery that theprawns were diminishing, a typeof croaker fish which had gotteninto the pond was eating them.Since then special care has beentaken to keep out harmful fish.

Higher Yields

After lunch I went to see other

•ponds in the commune and met•Jin Wencan, a technician from theHuanghai Aquatic Products Research Institute. He has engagedin marine breeding ever since hegraduated from Shandong University in 1954. He has been workingin the commune since 1977 experimenting on increasing prawn production. The next year, working

the People's Daily of September21, 1979. According to Fang, thereare three defects. One, the man

datory plans from the top mummify extremely complicated economic activities; two, management

of economic affairs through anadministrative system and by

administrative fiat severs intrinsic

economic links and excludes the

use of appropriate economicmeans, sometimes creating problems and wasting time andmaterials; three, without power tomake decisions for themselves, so

that everything has to be decidedfrom above, enterprises are boundhand and foot and employee initia

tive and enthusiasm are stifled.

Dong Fureng, a vice-director ofthe Institute of Economics of the

Academy of Social Sciences, listedfour weaknesses in the present

system of economic management.First, it does not allow economic

rewards the role of stimulating

economic development; second, itdoes not allow each enterprise tofunction as an independent ac

counting unit; third, it does not

with four test ponds each two mu(roughly 1/7 hectare) in size, intwo of them he achieved prawnyields of over 1,000 kilograms, afigure then unrivaled in Chinaand among the best in the world.The other ponds also producedmore than 400 kilograms each.

He and his fellow workers have

written several articles, two ofwhich, "Prawn Breeding" and"How to Get High Production byRaising the Survival Rate," havebeen nationally recommended asreference material. They supply

. valuable data on rational densityof prawn population, feeding andpond management and methods ofdestroying fish predators.

CHINA KECONSTBUCTS

allow for the positive role of thevarious economic levers, such asvalue, price, currency, market, rateof interest, tax and profit; andfourth, it destroys the intrinsic

links within the economic organization. Reforms must start with

allowing the law of value fullplay, namely, applying economiclevers to regulate the nationaleconomy, he argued.

This being the case, what typeof economic management system

should be adopted?A number of proposals were

advanced and animatedly argued.Essentially, there were threepoints of view. One view heldthat the "classic type of centralized planned economy" practisedduring China's First Five-"yearPlan (1953-57) should be restored,because relatively rapid economicprogress was made during thatperiod, Moreover, as China's levelof productivity is still very lowand the cultural, scientific andmanagerial level of cadres ingeneral are low, a decentralizedsystem would be inappropriate.

Another view favored a decen

tralized type, "regional plannedeconomy" as against "centralizedplanned economy", in whichthe provinces, municipalities and

Speaking of high prawn yieldshe said, "One ton per pond showsus what the prospects are forpond-breeding. This type ofbreeding has developed rapidly inChina during the 70s and consistent high yields have beengained in small-sized ponds.

"We want to find ways to produce still more prawns for theconsumers. One way is by carefulselection and breeding. The otheris by setting up centers to breedlarge quantities of prawn frywhich will be put back into the

sea and allowed to grow naturally.These methods should prove effective if kept up year aftervcar" n

MARCH 19B0

autonomous regions draw up andare responsible for their own economic plans. Each regional authority would then be free to as greatan extent as possible to maximize

utilization of their region's resources and manage their ownfinancial affairs.

A third view advocated separating state administrative bodies

from economic bodies, a decentralized form, in which each enterprise functions as an independentaccounting unit, having muchgreater powers of decision, andorganizing economic activities ac

cording to economic laws. Someexperts proposed setting up specialcompanies which would not beconfined to departments or withinadministrative boundaries, butwould organize production according to the demands of large-scale

socialized production. The statewould be responsible for givingeach enterprise the general orientation and laying down broadguidelines to ensure sound development of .the whole national econ

omy in a planned way. Mandatory plans, however, should bekept to a minimum. Instead,economic means should be employed more and more to manageeconomic affairs and to bring

Good prawn barvesf.

about coordinated adjustments toplans and the market.

Holders of the third view

claimed that a centralized type ofmanagement engenders complex

contradictions between the central

authorities, the regions, and the

enterprises, and upsets harmony

in production. A decentralized

type would only transfer theseproblems down to the provinces,

municipalities and autonomoias regions. But a decentralized system

with individual enterprises as the

center, would not have the salient

defects of the other two, whileallowing enterprises and theiremployees far more initiative andthus enliven the whole national

economy.

So far, the prevalent view isthat China's economic management

system should be reformed alongthe lines of the third type. But to

find the most suitable and most

beneficial system of economicmanagement for China, the econo

mists point out, reform would have

to be done under the guidance ofMarxist economic theory and on

the. basis of summing up China'sexperience and learning the bestin economic management fromother countries. •

P/iofos by Lu YlnydeTtQ

A

fj • rU ? V mt •nil

j:>wf k"'

Village street. b;/ Luo Xiii0(/uan

Sketching and Splashingwith the Dais

WANG SHUHUA

The art students in front of the big waterfall on the Nania River.

The water-splash festival inApril is the big traditional

holiday of China's Dai nationality.Last year 20 first-year studentsand teachers from the fine arts

class of the Simao SecondaryTeachers' Training School inYunnan province had the opportunity to spend it with the Daipeople of Menglian county, whichborders Burma on the west,sketching and getting to know thepeople.

The full name of the place is theMenglian Dai, Va and LahuAutonomous County. These nationalities as well as people of theHani minority are concentrated inthe area.

We were charmed by both thescenery and the customs of thedifferent nationalities. The countytown is situated beside the NanlaRiver. Both modern buildings andtraditional Dai bamboo huts stand

among bamboo groves along itsbanks. All around are thick

subtropical forests. . Tucked awayamong giant banyan trees aresome ancient temples. The layersof unusual-shaped mountain peaksare multiplied by their reflectionsin the blue water of the river.

Overhead water fowl wheeled and

soared. It is an ideal place for thelandscape painter.

WE lived in the homes of theDai commune members. Be

fore the festival in the morningswe went to the fiefds to sketchthem as they transplanted riceshoots, plowed or leveled thefields. The Dai girls in theirbright dresses were like flowersdotting the green fields. Theywere always laughing and chattering.

The graceful lines of the girls'colorful clothes and their light,rhythmic movements were a fineinspiration for artistic creationand moved each student to try hisor her best. In the daytime wesketched in the fields and the vil

lage, and in the evenings in thebamboo huts. Everything aboutthe place seemed to us to have anaura of romance, people, scenery,

WANG SHUHUA is a teacher at the

SImso Secondary Teachers' TrainingSchool.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

the vegetation, houses and eveneveryday household equipment.

We made a toolshed beside the

threshing ground into our "studio"and asked some of the people topose for us. We drew quite acrowd of onlookers so that soonour studio became like the villagerecreation center. The peoplewould tell us where to find the

most scenic spots — a mountainslope with beautiful big trees, thehot springs, the high waterfallnear the hydropower station —and we made day-long excursionsto these places.

Soon nearly every home in thevillage was hung with our sketches— by the end of our stay everystudent had made two or threehundred. The village became onebig exhibition with the communemembers going from house tohouse laughing and passing judgement on the entries.

AS the water-splash festival approached the villagers became

extremely busy: the men butchering hogs and sheep for feasts,setting up frameworks fromwhich fireworks would be shot offand making <-he vari-coloredmasks used in the traditionaldances, the women buying cottonprints and making them intogarments, and purchasing newbrightly-colored parasols, foralready then the sun is hot atmidday, the children poundingjoyfully on the gongs and

Dancer with elephant-foot drum.

by Wang Shuhtta

IPelephant-fool drums (so called fortheir shape) in the« temples.

Finally the three-day holidayarrived. In Dai custom, sprinklingwater at each other is like the

exchange of wishes for good luckand happiness. The proper way isto use an olive branch, dip it in asilver bowl and gently flick off afew drops. But now the occasionhas become one mainly for funand the young people simply sloshbasins of water at each other.

We became the target of their"attacks," and we ourselves counterattacked with basins and

bucketfuls. The air rang withlaughter, and water flew in everydirection. All of us were soaked

from head to foot.

This activity presented anotheropportunity for art — many new

postures, and the beauty of thehuman figure revealed by theclinging wet clothing. Some ofthe students tried to take shelter

behind the trees to do somesketching, but soon they were discovered and splashed by thelaughing girls, so finally allsketching of the event had to bedone from memory.

In the evening there were fireworks, and the young peopleformed a circle to dance to thebeat of gongs and elephant-footdrums. They did the traditionalDai dances — the red deer dance,peacock dance, mask dance, sworddance, monkey dance, shadowbox-ing dance and others all throughthe night. •

Sketch of a Daiwoman.

by Wei Qicong

fK' 'JV>

Festival scene beneath the banyan tree: dancers, parasols andvendors. I"!/ Wang Shuhua View of Menglian. by He K»n

MARCH 1980

CAI BIAN

WHAT is 48,241 multiplied by35,482?"

"1,711,687,162." A young man onthe platform of a closely-packedclassroom gave the answer beforea woman with a calculator at the

other end could even finishpushing the keys. When the womanannounced the answer, the sameas that of the young man, the audience burst into enthusiasticapplause.

"What is 569,733 divided by832?"

"684.77524 and with a remainderof 0.00032." The young man heldhis lead and was again confirmedby the calculator.

This was a competition betweena calculator and mental arithmeticheld in the Chinese University ofScience and Technology in May1978. On question after questionput by the audience, in every casethe man won.

He was 24-year-old Shi Fengshou who became a student at theuniversity in 1978. Using a methodinvented himself, he can add, subtract, multiply and divide figureswith any number of digits andcompute fractions, powers, roots,logarithms and trigonometric functions with only the help of hisfingers. His method may provehelpful to accountants and otherswho have to do a lot of rapid calculation without the aid of a calculator. It will be a long timebefore there will be calculator forwidespread use in China.

Shi Fengshou ifirjand

His Calculating Method K I

Shi Fengshou.

Shi Fengshou was born in apeasant family in Liangyi commune in Shaanxi province'sDali county. His father is a doctorin a commune hospital and hismother works in the commune. InSeptember 1966 at the age of tenShi entered the village primaryschool. A thoughtful boy ShiFengshou liked to ask all sorts ofquestions. He was especially interested in arithmetic and. hismarks were always outstanding.By second grade he was doing multiplication and division as well asthe usual addition and subtraction.

WHILE doing his homework hewould gaze -at his exercise

book and ponder: people alwaysread, write and hear large numbersbeginning from the high orderdigit, that is from the figureon the left, to the low orderdigit, that is the figure onthe right. But when calculating they do it the other wayround. Couldn't new methods beinvented combining the two? ShiFengshou told his idea to his.teacher who said, "These methodshave been used for thousands ofyears. The new methods yoii talkabout you will have to inventyourself." After that Shi Fengshou was always thinking of howto invent new methods.

The next year Shi Fengshounoted that in daily life when,adding small sums of money in

4,

Yang Wumin

their heads people began from thehigh order digit, or left, unlike aswas taught in his texts. This inspired him to try to multiply mul-tidigit numbers by a single digitnumber in' this way, He found itsimple and easy mental arithmetic.But he also ran into a problem —carrying. For example, 36 multiplied by 3 is 108. When calculatingfrom the left, to the 9 (product of3x3) had to be added the 1 fromthe 18 (product of 3 X 6). Thisshowed to him that the key to thismethod lay in the carrying,

To make a breakthrough on thisproblem, he tried arranging numbers in all kinds of ways. For amonth he went to the village storeafter school to watch the assistants

use their abacuses. The way theymultiplied 5 by 2 gave him an idea. ,He concluded that when the multiplier is 2, if the end digit of thenumber multiplied is 5 or greaterthere will be a number from the'right-hand product which must beadded to the left-hand product.

He kept searching for the rulesfor multiplying by 3 through 9.Whenever he had time he wouldpractice his method. Sometimes heused up two or three notebooks aday. He found notebooks too expensive and began to use wastepaper, wrote on his hand or

scratched on the ground with astick. Once he even used chalk onthe walls of his home. "That boymust be possessed!" the villagersexclaimed.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

I V • «i «<1 ' « I*

Cover of Shi's book 'Quick Calculation.'

After two years of hard workShi Fengshou finally codified

the rules for mentally multiplyingby 2 through 9. He compiled theminto 29 pithy phrases similar torules that children learn in school

for flipping their abacus beads.Once when his production team

was distributing sweet potatoes inthe fields, Shi Fengshou happened to be standing beside the teamaccountant.

"How many in your family?" theaccountant asked one of the com

mune members.

"Seven."

While the accountant was stillfiguring on his abacus, Shi Fengshou announced the amount the

peasant should get. When the ac- •countant finished his calculation hewas surprised to find that Shi wasright. He thought the boy was justlucky, but Shi gave the amountscorrectly for the next two familiesas well. The accountant was as

tounded. Soon Shi was known far

and wide for his ability to calculatequickly, People began calling hima "child prodigy,"

Accountants often asked him tohelp them with their books. Shifound that many problems had amultiplier of more than a singledigit. He decided to work out amethod for multiplying multidlgitnumbers;.

Endless days of trial and errorfollowed. By the time he graduated from primary school Shi Fengshou had found methods for mental addition, subtraction, multipli

MARCH 1980

cation and division of multidigltnumbers. One day seVeral teachersfrom Northwestern Industrial University came to his village withtheir electronic calculators to compete with him. Ten multiplicationproblems involving 10 pairs of six-digit numbers took 8 minutes withthe calculator at the rate theoperator worked, but Shi Fengshou finished in 4 minutes, including the time for recording theanswers.

Still Shi thought that'he was notproficient enough. He used everyopportunity to practice. Chineselicense plates have seven-digitnumbers, he practiced squaringthem. At first vehicles would havetraveled several dozen meters before he had the answer. But by1972 he could announce the answeras soon as the vehicle had passed.

The British mathematician Dr.B. V. Bowben wrote that thefamous Dutch lightning calculatorWilliam Klein was quicker than adesk calculator at multiplying twonumbers of up to six digits. Twoten-digit numbers took him 64 seconds, but Shi Fengshou only took8-9 (not including writing theanswer).

IN his middle school days ShiFengshou developed methods

for calculating powers and roots.His work soon attracted attentionin scientific circles. When Shi

Fengshou canle to Beijing in 1972he was warmly greeted and encouraged by Zhou Peiyuan, WuYouxun, Hua Luogeng and othernoted scientists.

In-January 1978 the Institutes ofMathematics, Computing Technology and Applied Mathematicsunder the Chinese Academy ofSciences confirmed that Shi's

method was ingenious, fast and accurate, a rarity in any country. In1978 the Chinese University ofScience and Technology waived theexamination requirement to enrollShi Fengshou in its mathematicsdepartment. Shi has studied highermathematics there, and appliedhis methods to Maclaurin series forcalculating trigonometric functionsand logarithms. He has now written a book Quick Calculation whichhas been well received throughoutChina. •

Potala Palace(Continued from p. 50)

Mandates and seals preserved inthe Potala provide further proofthat Tibet has long been part ofChina. The official seal presentedto Songtsan Garabo by Tang dynasty Emperor Gao Zong hasdisappeared, but there are manyseals and mandates from Yuan,Ming and Qing dynasty emperors.One of the most valuable is a jadeseal conferred to Sajia aristocratsby the Yuan court. There are alsopetitions from Tibetan chiefs requesting mandates. The title DalaiLama* was formally recognized bythe central authorities in 1652

when the Fifth Dalai paid a visitto Emperor Shun Zhi in Beijing.Since then every choice of a newDalai had to be ratified by thecentral government which couldalso remove his title if he went

against its will. The title of the13th Dalai was taken away twice,in 1904 and 1910, for going abroadwithout permission from theemperor.

Now all these imperial seals andmandates have been put on displayin Norbu Lingka Park in Lhasaunder auspices of the Tibet Committee for Management of Ciil-tural Relics. Among the exhibitsis a gold vase presented by thecentral authorities and used in the

ceremony of selecting a Dalai Lama, which was presided over byministers of the central government in Tibet. Into it were placedthe names of infants born at theexact time the late Dalai had died,and one name was drawn to represent his reincarnation and be hissuccessor.

The Potala Palace also houses alarge number of early copies of theBuddhist sutras in Sanskrit, whichboth the climate and the socialconditions in Tibet made it possible to preserve. They are ofgreat value in studying the politics,economy, religion and culture ofancient times. •

•Originally a religious title conferredin 1578 on a noted Tibetan Buddhist bythe Mongolian Chieftain Altan Khan.Dalai is Mongolian for "ocean" andLama, Tibetan for "man of profoundwisdom," hence. Ocean of Wisdom.

LANGUAGE CORNER ZHONG WENIUE KE

Lesson 15

Shanghai Children's Palace

(Jianii^ fing Hi]& Iuy6atii&n biifen(Canada visit China tourist group (a) portion

A9*rtSMmlsI:

Smith:

itM.Zhil!Here

tydu

have

duoshao

how manyjiioshi? Yin

teachers?- Have

chtogyu&n jlngguft yf pl^ mSili demembers pass a piece (of) beautiful

aaiminle xianhui

planted full (with) fresh flowers

ciopfng, sizhoulawn, all around

shumh, ^ l&idaotrees, come to

" " -Tx:/yj n-t oyf zud Idufdngqi&n.)a building front.)

Zfaurin:

Director:

Biling:Brown:

2iurin:

Director:

70

)

:fp.hi

and

a AZhi shi Sh&onidngong de zhiildu.This is (the) Children's Palace main building.

#i4 it * #41#,P&ngbian hdl ydu kejlldu.Beside also have science and technology building,

tiSnxi&ngtlng hi jiich&ng.astronomy hall and' theater.

A ^ -f-Shinghii Shiioniingong shl n& niinShanghai Children's Palace is which year

chingll de?set up?

YljifiwssSn niin, yiu S6ng Qinglfng(In) 1953 year, by Soong Ching Ling

« * S i.# t ®fd wd^rndnzhdng zhuchl de ZhonggiioVice- Chairman directed • China

o MFtillhiil chudtigbkn de. Ddo jinniftn Wdng:Welfare Institute established. Till this year Wang:

e.& —+ T.yijing irshl ql niin le.already 27 years.

^ -y ^duoshao xuesheng lii canjiahow many students come (and) take part in

huid&ng?activities?

itX ^ t —-fZhfirin: Zhili g5ng ydu irshfDirector: Here altogether have 20

Pduo

more

huiddngge

activity

xliozu. Zhuanzhf jidoshi ydu wushf dudgroups. Full-time teachers have 50 more

Z, i£ * —S PZM.fi-mfng, hdi ydu yibdi dud mfng cdng wdlnames, also have 100 more names from outside

*danwdi Id! de ydytr fdddoyudn. Ldiunits come sparetime counselors. Come

-ZM t icanjia dingql hudddng de ydutake part in regular time activities have

—-fylqian sinbdi ge shdonidndrtdng,a thousand three hundred children,

^ ^ M. A P Tohit dlngql Idi de jib gdng dud le.not r^larly come (are) even more.

( At A^ J.#.)(Ddjia zdujln zhuldu)

(Everybody walk into main building)

it A X# 'hM,Nimen kdn, zhd shl wdnxud xidozd.You look, this is literature group,

mm y^s., 5it®diiosd xidozd, dulmidn dil tiyd xidozd.sculpture group, opposite is athletics group.

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

Sblmisi: Ldi zhili canjia hudddng, -xGyloSmith: Coming here take part in activities, need

shinme tidojidn ma?what conditions?

i-Hr. -& A ## ft e. #Zhurin: Ylban' shl hdizlmen genjd djl deDirector: Usually is children acccording to own

jt», il *•dihdo, ydu xdexido tuljidn Id! de.interest, by school recommend come.

P-'^\ it P ^I^isl: Tbg! 2aii yuiqii dudme ydumil!Sachst Listen! This melody how beautiful!

i'ftsZhdrin:

Director:

MdU:

Marie:

Zhdrdn:

Director:

it A ^Zhi shl mfnyuidu) z&lThis is folk orchestra

ISmen l&iddo mfhyuishl)(They come to folk music room)

Hdizimen ydnzdu de biicud. KdnshdngquChildren play not bad. (It) looks (like)

timen

their

de nidnlfngages (are)

duu

all

ydnzdu.playing.

hd dd.

not great.

(^jiS Shdonidngdng hudddngTaking part in Children's Palace -activities

^ A -t ^ i'l -tA ffi^ttTi ddu shl ddn shl lid sni

children all are

ddu shl ql su) . ddo shf lid sui7 year old to 16 year old

de

# t, '!• ade' zhdng, xido xudsheng. Zhd'

middle (and) primary (school) students. This

ji :)®4f A -A ti Awdi zhlhul sU dishl nidn qidn zdiperson conductor is 20 years ago at

zhdli xudgud drhu de xudsheng, xldnzdlhere learned erAu student, ndw

A jLf$r -^Jfk ^shl Shdnghdi YInyud Xudyudn de jidoshl.is Shanghai Music Conservatory teacher.

ja nr6iHe every

y-^'^Id! Sbdonidiigdiig

week come (to) Children's Palace

MARCH 1980

-a, #4- «f-4n -^*0yf d, fdddo hdizimoi ydnzdu.once, guide children (at) performance.

CAt #4t#)(Dajia Idid&o - kejildu)

(Everybody come to sdenceand technology building)

it AZhuidn: Zhd shl wuxidndldn xidozd.

Director: This is radio group.

) 4fe4n A ft 4+4:?Shunlsl:' (Dui xuesheng) Nimen zdi zud shdnme? <Smith: (To students) You make what?

XOesheng: Cdshl wdmen ziji zdzhuang de didnshiji.Students: Testing we ourselves assembled TV-set

m'i-. A- A, a-J-in ft #Mdll: Kudi qd ndblan kfui, hdizimen zud deMarie: Quick go there (and) look, children made

y y 4^-^ 0st}i^7!xido feiji, xido jidnchudn hdowdru-jfle!small airplanes, small ships

iS*! AAt hiShimisl: . Shdonidngong deSmith: CThildien's Palace's

fascinating!

hudddng hdn fengfd.activities very rich.

Bdldng: Hdizimen ^en xingfd. Jbtian de cdnguSnBrown: Children really fortunate. Today's visit

A ^ Ain Totdi shi wdmen gaoxing le.very made us happy.

Translation

(Some members of the Canadian China tour group passby a beautiful lawn which is surrounded by flowers and trees andcome to the front of a building.)Director: This is the main building of the Children's Palace.

Over there are the science and technology building,astronomy hall and theater.

Brown: What year was the Shanghai Children's Palace setup?

Director: It was established in 1953 by the China WelfareInstitute under the direc^on of Vice-ChairmanSoong ChingLing. It hasbeeninexistence 27years.

Smith: How many teachers are there? How many childrwicome to take part^ in the activities?

Director: There are altogether more than 20 activity groups,over 50 full-time teachers and over 100 spar&^timecounselors from other units. One thousand threebundled children are members of regular activitygroups and even more come occasionally.(They walk into the main building)

Wang: Look, this is the literaturegroup. This is thesculpture group, across the way is the athletics group.

71

Smith: Are there any requirements for children who takepart in the activities?

Director: Usually the children have some special interest andare recommended by their schools.

Sachs: Listen! What a beautiful melody!

Director: This is the folk instrument orchestra playing.(They arrive at the folk music room)

Marie: The children play quite well. They seem quiteyoung.

Director: Primary and middle school children between theages of 7 to 16 come to the Children's Palace. Theorchestra conductor learned to play erhu hero 20years ago. Now he is a teacher at the ShanghaiMusic Conservatory. He comes here once a week

to coach the children.

(They arrive at the science and technology building)

Director: This is the radio group.

Smith: (To students) What are you making?Students: We're testing the television set we made.

Marie: Look over there at the little planes and ships made bythe children. How cute!

Smith: The Children's Palace has a very rich program.Brown: The children are really lucky. We are so happy

to be able to visit here today.

Notes

1. Sh&onidn-^rt6ng In general 4rtdng ;l^ meanspre-school and primary school children, andshioniAn those a few years older, as in junior middle school.

2. Saying how somebody does a thing. Ta ch&ngde hen hlo (She sings very well) tellshow she sings. In Chinese a de # must followthe verb when using this form. Other examples:H^izimen yanz6u de bucub (Thechildren play quite well); Ta pio de bSn ku&i

(He runs very quickly).

When the sentence has an object it must besaid in this way: Ta ch^ng ge ch&ng de binhao (She sings, songs very well— literally: When she sings songs, she sings verywell). The verb appears twice.

The negative form is Ta ch^ng ge chling debu hao (She does not singsongs well). •

......

STAMPS OFNEW CHINA

'VfVfVtfTVVVVVV

Taiwan Landscapes

CIX special stamps showing the

beautiful scenery of China's Taiwan

province were issued by the Chinese

Ministry of Post and Telecommunica

tions last October 20.

Stamp 1, 8 fen. Yu Shan (Jade

Mountain).

Stamp 2, 8 fen. Riyue (Sun andMoon) Pool.

Stamp 3, 8 fen. Chikan Halls.

Stamp 4, 8 fen. Su'ao-Hualianhighway along the coast.

Stamp 5, 55 fen. Tianxiang Waterfail.Stamp 6, 60 fen. Full Moon over

Banping (Half-Screen) Mountain.All six stamps measure 40 X 30 mm.

Per/. 11. Color photogravured. Serialnumbers T. 42 (6-1) to (6-6).

Writers and Artists' Congress

TO celebrate the opening of the

Fourth National Congress of Writ

ers and Artists, the Chinese Ministry

72

of Post and Telecommunications Issued

on October 30, 1979 a set of two com

memorative stamps.

Stamp 1, 4 fen. A design combiningmotifs of a palette, lyre, boolc and a

dancer to show the blossoming of art,

music, literature and dance in China.

Stamp 2, 8 fen. A design symbolizing literature and art In the service of

workers, peasants, soldiers and the four

modernizations. On either side are the

impressions of two seals. Characters

in them read: "Let a hundred flowers

blossom" and "Let a hundred schools

of thought contend."

Both stamps measure 40 X 30 mm.

Perf. 11. Color photogravured. Serialnumbers J. 39 (2-1) to (2-2).

Railway Construction

A SET of three special stamps depicting railway construction was

Issued on October 30, 1979.Stamp 1, a passenger train passing

through a tunnel drawn by Shaoshan-type electric locomotive.

Stamp 2, a new railway throughmountains and valleys.

Stamp 3, oil tank cars passing over

a railway bridge.

All stamps measure 40 X 30 mm. and

are of 8 fen denomination. Perf. 11.

Etched and photogravured. Serial

numbers T. 36 (3-1) to (3-3).

Norman Bethune

commemorate the 40th anniver

sary of the death of Norman Be

thune on November 12, 1979 the Chinese

Ministry of Post and Telecommunica

tions issued a set of two stamps. The

first shows the statue of Norman

Bethune at his grave in the cemeteryof the fallen heroes in Shijiazhuang,Hebei province.

The second shows Dr. Bethune operating on casualties from the EighthRoute Army on the battlefield.

Measuring 30 X 40 mm. the two

stamps have a face value of 70 fen andeight fen. Perf. 11. Photogravured.Serial numbers: J. 50 (2-1).

China's Thriving Agriculture^ set of five stamps issued last August

10, illustrates the good situation inthe country's farm areas. Stamp 1, 4 fen,mechanized harvesting. Stamp 2, 8 fen,planting trees, Stamp 3. 8 fen, raisingducks. Stamp 4, 8 fen, basket weaving.Stamp 5, 10 fen, fishing. Measurement62 X 26 mm. Per/. 1T.5, serial numbers:T. 39 (5-1) to (5-5). •

CHINA RECONSTRUCTS

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