“ｃｈｉｎａ ｉｓ ｍｙ ｈｏｍｅ”

A Memoir of More Than 80 Years in China by Israel Epstein was translated into Chinese and published by the New World Press in April this year to celebrate the author’s 89th birthday. The 415-page book tells about his love for China， his profound friendly sentiments towards the Chinese people， his great expectation for the construction of new China and his confidence in the bright prospects for its future.

Like Anna Louise Strong， Agnes Smedley， Edgar Snow， Norman Bethune， Rewi Alley and George Hatem (Dr. Ma Haide)， Epstein is a foreign friend of the Chinese people. Born in Warsaw， Poland， he came to live in Tianjin with his parents when he was 3 years old and started his journalist career by working for the Beijing and Tienjin Times at the age of 15. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression， he interviewed officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army and guerrillas， witnessed the atrocious acts of burning， killing and looting committed by the Japanese aggressors and wrote a large amount of reports about what he had heard and seen. In 1939 he published a book The People’s War in Britain and in 1944 he joined the journalists’ delegation to visit Yanan as a reporter from the United Press International (UPI) of the United States and wrote the book Unfinished Revolution and a series of reports including Breakthrough to Blockaded Yanan. As Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow， these books and articles played a great role in publicizing the Chinese Revolutionary War and the birth of New China to the West.

On September 18， 1938， the day of national humiliation， the people of Guangzhou held a demonstration. Marching calmly in the front of the parade was Soong Ching Ling， whom Epstein saw for the first time. Her action commanded his great respect. When the demonstration ended， Soong Ching Ling called together the Chinese and foreign personages. She denounced Japan’s barbaric bombardment and exposed its imperialist aggressive acts to them. Epstein was there. He interviewed her on the spot and was invited to join the China Defense League she had organized. From then on， Epstein took charge of editing the League’s publication—News Letter. In 1941 he was captured by the Japanese and put into a concentration camp in Hong Kong， where he met Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley， a young lady from Britain. She was arrested for sympathizing with and supporting the Chinese Revolution. They later escaped from the concentration camp together and became husband and wife. We may say that it is the Chinese Revolution that brought about this international marriage. The Epsteins came to Beijing from the United States to take part in the preparations for the publication of the English edition of China Reconstructs in 1951 at the invitation of Soong Ching Ling. Over the past several decades， he has forged an indissoluble bond with China Reconstructs (renamed China Today in 1990). He is still the senior leader， expert， adviser， editor and writer of the magazine. Soong Ching Ling declined proposals from many people to write biography for her. She was convinced that only Epstein could faithfully write about her life. It took Epstein 10 years to collect materials， confirm historical data and interview personages concerned， and finally in 1992 the 500，000-word biography Woman in World History—Soong Ching Ling (Mme. Sun Yatsen) was published.

Epstein became a Chinese national in 1957. He said with deep feelings: “I love China， Chinese people， China is my home. It is this love that combines my work and China’s destiny.”

This old man who enjoys high prestige is respected by the Chinese leaders as well as ordinary people. On April 20， 1985， a grand meeting was held in the Great Hall of the People to celebrate his 70th birthday and 50 years working in China. Comrade Deng Xiaoping attended the meeting to express his congratulations. At his 80th birthday in 1995， Chinese leaders Jiang Zemin and Li Ruihuan also came to give their congratulations.

The Yunnan Society for People’s Friendship Studies was set up in March 1993， for which Epstein went to Kunming to give congratulations. We accompanied him to climb to the Dragon Gate of Western Hill in Kunming. As we were looking down at the rippling Dianchi Lake in the distance， he told us a past story humorously. He said， on the eve of liberation of the whole of China， Chiang Kai-shek still dreamed of maintaining the area under Kuomintang rule during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and came to Yunnan to make military deployment. But he was afraid that Long Yun and Lu Han would detain him and another “Xi’an Incident” would appear. After he returned to Chongqing， he hastily fled to Taiwan， and never returned. Epstein is a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He also holds the posts of vice chairman of the China Welfare Institute and Soong Ching Ling Foundation， and honorary chairman of the China Society for People’s Friendship Studies (CSPFS). I work at the CSPFS and have frequent contact with him. Whenever we hold commemorative activities for China’s foreign friends， we will invite Epstein to attend and give a speech. Epstein works with a computer and all his speeches are neatly printed. Even thus， he always makes revisions time and again till he is satisfied with the speeches. I always receive patient guidance when I go to consult him at his home. Last year， he wrote an article for Huang Hua， A Pictorial Album. I translated it into Chinese and took it back to him for reading and correcting proofs. He read the proofs three times and made revisions on his English version with trembling hand. He transcribed the parts revised again and again for fear that I could not read. He even helped me polish my Chinese translation， for which I was very moved.

Epstein is very kind to everyone. Before the arrival of every New Year， he almost always sends out greeting cards to us first. He is concerned about many things. I remember him making loud appeals to the society to eliminate the wrongly translated English signboards and advertisements in the streets and public places. In our eyes he is not only well-versed in English， but is also an encyclopedia. Whatever questions we come across， we will go to ask him. He encourages us， especially those engaged in people’s friendship， to carry out earnest studies on those foreign friends who have worked hard to promote people-to-people friendship. He said: “People’s friendship has a reality—real person， real acts. The reason we study foreign friends of the Chinese people is not only that we do not want them to be forgotten. It is also to learn about the deep causes that produced them， in the history of China， in the history of their own countries， in the reasons that the best traditions of both came together to produce people’s friendship. People’s friendship has a present. Contacts between the peoples are increasing. Knowing the history and roots of people’s friendship will help the building of people’s friendship today—such knowledge is necessary both for the general public and in particular to those doing friendship work. People’s friendship has a future—to be carried forward by new generation in China and abroad. To understand and hear the voices of friends of the past is to add strength and life to mutual understanding and friendship in both present and future. ”

Epstein also encourages us to study those Chinese who have made contributions to the revolutionary cause of other countries. He pointed out， there were Chinese who fought for the liberation of Cuba from the Spanish rule， Chinese who contributed to the independence of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian Countries， Chinese who joined the Spanish war against Fascists in the 1930s and sacrificed their lives， and Chinese who took part in the October Revolution of the Soviet Union. In terms of economic construction， the Chinese have made countless contributions to the progress and development of various countries in the world over the past hundreds of years.

Sick in bed， Epstein still concerns about the world situation and the development of China. When the comrades of the China Foreign Languages Publishing and Distribution Administration came to see him at the hospital and presented him the newly published A Memoir of More Than 80 Years in China， he said: “In the past， there was much talk about how the advancing world changed China. Now we are in the period when the role of China in the world is more and more changing the world situation and attracting more and more notice all over the globe. This is a very great change.”

Epstein said， life is short and he would continue to work hard. If he is given 10 more years to live， he will write a sequel of A Memoir of More Than 80 Years in China. We believe that he will live a healthy and long life and that we will read the sequel.

Epstein has another wish that an exhibition hall for foreign friends will be built in Beijing so as to facilitate the education of patriotism and internationalism to the young people in China and let foreign visitors know roots of people’s friendship between their respective countries and China.

This is also our cherished desire. May this exhibition hall for foreign friends， a rescue project in all aspects， be built at an earlier date!

April 2004