Professors David and Isabel Crook and Their Family

In 1948 David and Isabel Crook accepted invitation to teach at the Foreign Affairs School attached to the North China Military and Political University headed by Ye Jianying. During this period there were periodic air raids， during which the students and faculty would disperse into the hills. From left： Ye Jianying， Bill Hinton， David Crook， Isabel Crook.

Professors David and Isabel Crook and their family are loved by the Chinese people. Four generations of the family live and work in China and regard China as their homeland.

Born in Britain in 1910， David graduated from Columbia University in the United States. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1935. Being an anti-fascist internationalist fighter， he joined the International Brigades and plunged himself into the anti-fascist struggle in Spain. In 1938， he came to Shanghai and taught in Saint John’s University in Shanghai， and later taught at the University of Nanking in Chengdu. He went back to Britain in 1942 and joined the Royal Air Force， fighting against fascists with the Allied Forces in South Asian countries. After the war， he studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies of University of London.

David had read the book Red Star over China when he was in the International Brigades in Spain. In his article entitled “Red Star” Guides Me to China he wrote， “Snow’s report on the Soviet area in China touched me， and I was tempted. It seemed to me at the time that there was something in common between the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in China and the anti-fascist war in Spain. So， when the International Brigades withdrew from Spain， I wanted to go to Bao’an and join the revolutionary struggle there.” His dream of coming to China came true.

Isabel was born into a Canadian missionary family in 1915. Her maiden name was Isabel Brown. She received a master’s degree on child psychology at the University of Toronto in 1938. While there， she took anthropology as minor. Later that year she returned to Chengdu and conducted anthropological investigations and researches in the surrounding areas. It was here that she met David and they married in Britain in 1942. She also joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. She had worked in a munitions factory， and later joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.

Dispatched as international observers by the CPGB， David and his wife Isabel came to China in 1947 to observe and cover the whole process of Land Reform reexamination and Party Rectification movements led by the CPC. Having passed many places， they reached the newly liberated Shilidian （Ten Mile Inn） in the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Boarder Region. They had planned to work in China for one and a half years. After familiarizing themselves with the reality at the grassroots， their views on China changed， so did the rest of their lives.

The second year after their return to China， David and Isabel accepted an invitation from Comrade Wang Bingnan to teach in a foreign affairs school （now Beijing Foreign Studies University） run by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in a small village called Nanhaishan in Huolu County in the suburbs of Shijiazhuang， becoming pioneers of English teaching in New China. Because of this job， they settled down in China and forged inseparable bonds with the Chinese people including their students and villagers. They have trained generation after generation of foreign affairs workers and English translators and interpreters for new China. They have students all over the country as some of their students have become teachers themselves. What’s more valuable is that they have taught their children and grandchildren to serve the Chinese people as well.

They， sharing weal and woe with the Chinese people， have tied their fate closely with the destiny of the Chinese nation and formed inseparable ties with the revolutionary cause of the Chinese people. What should be mentioned specially is that at the height of the “cultural revolution” in October 1967， David was put in jail for over five years without formal charges while Isabel was also detained for three years “for investigation”. Their three teenaged children， unattended， were sent to work in a farm machinery repair factory in Haidian District. They all did well. They took care of themselves and learned fine qualities from Chinese workers. Not until 1973 when Premier Zhou Enlai took up the matter personally were their grievances redressed， but they never uttered a word of complaint and regret.

After rehabilitation， Isabel once again took up teaching while David joined the work of compiling a Chinese-English Dictionary， the first comprehensive Chinese-English dictionary since the founding of the People’s Republic. Soon after its publication， Professor Ying Manrong， Deputy Director of the Editorial Committee， gave me a copy， which I still use when doing translation.

I have worked in the cultural counsellor’s office of the Chinese Embassy in some American and Oceanian countries， during which I got to know and had contacts with friendly personages there. People such as Edgar Snow， Rewi Alley， Ma Haide （George Hatem）， Israel Epstein， in particular， left deep impressions on me. When I retired， Comrade Gao Liang， Vice President of the China Society for People’s Friendship Studies （PFS）， invited me to work in the PFS. As PFS President Huang Hua had previously been my leader， I was more than happy to join them. Years of work in the PFS have enabled me to learn more about those international friends whom I respect all the more.

It was Comrade Gao Liang who introduced Mr. and Mrs. Crook to me. He told me that there was a living Bethune named David Crook and his wife Isabel， who were both professors of the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute. He had special ties with them. He said， in 1947， he worked as an interpreter of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in the liberated areas and lived in Cangxian County （now Cangzhou City） of Hebei Province. Cangxian was not peaceful， as it had just been liberated， and the People’s Liberation Army was still fighting the remnant forces of the Kuomintang. He got instructions to escort a young foreign couple who had come to China on an investigation tour to the temporary guest house of the Liberation Army in Cangxian. It was a difficult mission to ensure their safety under inconvenient transport and going through dangerous areas such as combat and guerrilla areas and no man’s land. He successfully completed the task. The couple later moved to Shilidian Village in Shexian County， the seat of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-He’nan border area government. This young couple was David and Isabel. They have become Gao Liang’s teachers and good friends ever since.

Under the direct leadership of PFS President Huang Hua and Vice President Gao Liang， I have learned quite a lot about international friends and made many new friends. Apart from doing research on the three American journalists Agnes Smedley， Anna Louise Strong and Edgar Snow in the office， we go to different parts of the country to visit those who have supported us in China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

There are many such international friends in Beijing. They come from different countries and have different beliefs， but they have one thing in common， that is， to seek truth， sympathize with and support the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people. Now the war is over and we live in a peaceful environment. They still render their assistance at different posts. They include Dr. and Mrs. Richard Frey， Dr. and Mrs. Hans Muller， David and Isabel Crook， Joan Hinton and Erwin Engst， Gladys Yang， Sidney Shapiro， Julian Schuman， Prof. Elizaveta Pavlovna Kishkina （wife of Li Lisan）， Eva Sandberg （wife of Xiao San）， Ruth Weiss， Tatsuko Yokokawa， Sol and Pat Adler， Betty Chandler， and Denise Ly-Lebreton. They all spent decades living in Beijing. They have taken the cause of Chinese revolution and construction as their own and dedicated their lives to it. I am very lucky to have been able to get to know them， learn from them and express my respect for them in my work.

And this is how I got to know Isabel. I went to visit her with Gao Liang and she often comes to our gatherings. Once， upon the invitation of the Western Returned Scholars Association， Chen Hui， Chen Xiuxia and I accompanied Isabel and Pat Adler on a trip to Jiaozuo， He’nan Province. A few days of traveling together made us more familiar with each other.

Carl is the eldest son of Isabel. I have been to his house for a function. In 1971， he met Marni Rosner， niece of William and Joan Hinton， and married her after he left China in 1973. In February 2012， Joseph Wampler， son of an American missionary who had worked in Shanxi， came to visit us at the PFS. He brought with him a diary with the titled Two Years in Guerrilla Relief written by Howard Sollenberger， a missionary with the Brethren in Shanxi during the same period as Joseph Wampler’s father. The Diary recorded how the mission cooperated with the guerrillas and the Eighth Route Army in distributing relief to the refugees in enemy occupied area in Shanxi between 1938 and 1940. The book contained some very valuable information. Carl and I， in company with Wang Jinbao， went on a trip to Shanxi to visit the places where Wampler’s parents and Howard had worked by following the entries in the Diary. Carl told us a lot about his family that we did not know， so we became very familiar with each other. Carl and Marni have three sons. The youngest， having graduated from the agricultural department of the University of McGill， came back to China to work at the International Potato Center under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Michael is the second son of Isabel. Like his parents， he is engaged in teaching and friendship work. He helped found an international school in Beijing and is concurrently chairman of the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. Taking advantage of his family background， he has contacted the descendants of friendship-with-China personages and formed a group called Wuhusihai （All Corners of the World）. This is of great help to the work of the PFS. Michael is an executive council member of the PFS. We in the society have close contact with him and often ask him to translate or polish articles of the PFS， so he is our English teacher. His elder daughter Lang Walsh has been teaching English in a kindergarten in Beijing for years. She gave birth to twin girls two years ago. Isabel is great grandma now， enjoying the life of a big family of four generations. Nicolas Crook， youngest son of Michael， graduated with a Master of Medicine degree from the Sichuan Medical College in Huaxiba where his grandparents had met. He has worked in the department of burns and plastic surgery for three years.

Paul， Isabel’s youngest son， is in Britain. I don’t remember if I have met him.

Isabel is not only a teacher， but a scholar who has studied anthropology in the University of Toronto. She pays special attention to changes in people’s life and shows preference to conducting social investigations. After she arrived in Hebei Province in 1947 to study agrarian revolution， she collaborated with David Crook to write Ten Mile Inn： Mass Movement in a Chinese Village and Ten Mile Inn： Revolution in a Chinese Village （Chinese translation has been published by the Shanghai People’s Publishing House） and First Years of Yangyi Commune after careful observation. The books provide detailed， rich historical information and serve as good textbooks for Chinese and foreigners to learn about the land movement in China. In 1941 when she was in Sichuan， she conducted a door-to-door survey in a place named Xinglongchang， a township in present day Bishan County， 35 km to the west of Chongqing， and co-authored a book with the title Property’s Predicament， with Prof. Christina Gilmartin， published in the U.S. in 2013， and also a Chinese book titled Xinglong Chang — Field Notes of a Village Called Prosperity 1940-1942 with Yu Xiji， which was published by Zhonghua Book Company， also in 2013. Like Ten Mile Inn， the book is also a rare historical document on Chinese society， for very few people in China have written such survey reports. This has reminded me of Prof. Fei Xiaotong， who had carried out on-the-spot investigations on China’s countryside and written the well-known book Economy of Jiangcun Village， contributing to the study of anthropology. He received the Thomas Henry Huxley Award. Now very few people do what Isabel has done. It is indeed rare.

On Nov. 9， 2014， the Beijing Foreign Studies University （BFSU） hosted a big party in celebration of the 100th birthday of Isabel. Those invited were senior alumni. Mao Guohua， a senior alumnus， presided over the party. Peng Long， President of the University， was among the 103 attendees. The hale and hearty Isabel accepted bouquets of flowers， calligraphic works and paintings， and other gifts presented to her. In her speech at the party， He Liliang， widow of Huang Hua， said， 73 years ago， that is in 1941， she had studied at the Foreign Affairs School in Yan’an， the predecessor of BFSU， and therefore， she could be considered an old alumna. She regarded Isabel as her teacher and specially created a bright-color painting Wintersweet as her birthday present.

Professor Chen Lin said： “We love you， Isabel， because you are an internationalist fighter. We love you because you are our teacher. We love you because you have made contributions to our country. We love you because all your life you live amongst us.” The speech was short， but moving. As the celebration drew to a close， all present sang in unison the song Unity Is Strength.

When the party was over， a small-scale ceremony was held in a peaceful and secluded place on campus， where the bust of David Crook， donated by alumni of the year of 1949 on the occasion of his 100th birth anniversary， stood. Now， two benches were added， one on each side of the bust. They were unveiled by Isabel， He Liliang， BFSU President Peng Long and Prof. Chen Lin with the families of Carl Crook and Michael Crook in attendance.

Being advisor to the PFS， Isabel cares very much about its work. Recently she put forward valuable suggestions. She hoped that we would get in touch with those old friends whom we had lost contact with and provided us with their contact information. She wrote a couplet for the PFS： “Cherish old friends from period of liberation and socialist construction， let their descendants continue the friendship； Make new friends from the period of reform and opening to help build peace and harmony.” The volunteers of the PFS are proud to have such a warm-hearted senior among them.

Written on November 18， 2014