Israel Epstein
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Israel Epstein (April 20, 1915 in Warsaw, Poland – May 26, 2005 in Beijing, China, Chinese name: 伊斯雷尔·爱泼斯坦, Pinyin: Yīsīléi'ěr Àipōsītǎn) was a naturalized Chinese journalist and author. He was one of the few foreign-born non-Chinese to become a member of the Communist Party of China.
Israel Epstein was born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, which was at the time under Russian control (currently part of Poland). His father had been imprisoned by the authorities of czarist Russia for leading a labor uprising and his mother had been exiled to Siberia. Epstein's father was sent by his company to Japan after the outbreak of the World War I; when the German Army approached Warsaw, his mother and Epstein fled and joined him in Asia. After having experienced anti-Jewish sentiment in several places, the family eventually moved to China in 1917 and settled in Tianjin (formerly Tiensin) in 1920.
Israel Epstein began to work in journalism at age 15, when he wrote for the Peking and Tientsin Times, an English-language newspaper based in Tianjin. He also covered the Japanese Invasion of China for the United Press and other Western news agencies. In the autumn of 1938, he joined the China Defense League, which had been established by Soong Ching-ling, Sun Yat-sen's widow, for the purpose of publicizing and enlisting international support for the Chinese cause. In 1941, he faked news about his own death as a decoy for the Japanese who were trying to arrest him. The misinformation even found its way into a short item printed in the New York Times.
After being assigned to review one of the books of Edgar Snow, Israel Epstein and Snow came to know each other personally and Snow showed him his classic work Red Star Over China before it was published.
In 1944, Israel Epstein first visited Britain and afterwards went to live in the United States with his first wife Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley for five years. During this time, he worked for Allied Labor News and published his book The Unfinished Revolution in China in 1949. Many years later, Ms. Cholmeley would become known to a generation of Chinese language students in China and around the world as a contributor to one of the most widely used Chinese-English dictionaries published in the PRC.
In 1951, Soong Ching-ling invited him to return to China to edit the magazine China Reconstructs, which was later renamed China Today. He remained editor-in-chief of China Today until his retirement at age 70, and then editor emeritus. During his tenure at China Today, he became a Chinese citizen in 1957 and a member of the Communist Party of China in 1964.
He was imprisoned on grounds of suspicion for 5 years during the Cultural Revolution, but remained loyal until his death to the ideals of Communism. Israel Epstein was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People 's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body, in 1983.
During his life, Israel Epstein was honored by Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and current Chinese President Hu Jintao. His funeral was held at the Babaoshan Cemetery for Revolutionaries, in Shijingshan District, Beijing on June 3, 2005. The ceremony was attended by many officials, among them President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, as well as Politburo Standing Committee members Jia Qinglin and Li Changchun. After the service, his body was cremated.
[edit] Published works
- The People's War, 1939
- A Memoir of More than 80 Years in China
- My China Eye: Memoirs of a Jew and a Journalist, Long River Press, 2005
[edit] First published in English
- The Unfinished Revolution in China, Little Brown and Company (1947), hardcover, 442 pp.
[edit] Published in Chinese, translated into English
- From Opium War to Liberation, New World Press (Beijing, 1956), hardcover, 146 pp.
- Tibet Transformed, New World Press (Beijing, 1983), trade paperback, 563 pp, ISBN 0-8351-1087-7
- Woman in World History: Soong Ching Ling" New World Press (Beijing, 1993), hardcover, ISBN 7-80005-161-7
[edit] Sources and external links
- New York Times Obituary by Douglas Martin
- Obituary People's Daily Online
- Retrospective, China Today
- Biography by China Tibet Information Center
- Xinhua Newsitem on funeral
- Views of a life in China, China.org.cn
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Adapted from the Wikinfo article "Israel Epstein" June 2, 2005
