Shen Chong case

The Shen Chong case (Chinese: 沈崇案), also referred to as the Peiping rape case, was a rape case in 1946 that triggered a nationwide anti-American movement in the Republic of China.

The case

On Christmas Eve, 1946, US Marine Corporal William Gaither Pierson and Private Warren T Pritchard stopped Shen Chong, a Peking University student, on her way home and forced her into the Peiping Polo Field. A mechanic from a nearby repair shop reported the crying girl being dragged into the field, first to his peers, then to the police. The mechanics were driven away by the soldiers when they tried to intervene, even with a policeman accompanying in the second attempt. By the time a high officer arrive the scene, Pritchard had already left.[1] Later Pierson was convicted by US Marine Court led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fitzgerald for raping, but the verdict was overturned by the US Department of Navy for insufficient evidence.[2]

Public Anger

Pierson and US consular official Myrl Myres claimed that Shen Chong was a prostitute. This claim contributed to the public anger. Shen Chong was reportedly from an elite family of Shen Baozhen and Lin Zexu, and studying in the most prestigious university of China, thus the prostitute claim was viewed as adding insult to injury. Selective reporting of US media and later acquittal of soldiers added more fuel to the public rage against American military presence in China .

In February 1947 alone, police arrested thousands of rape case protesters. The government of the Republic of China's action alienated students and intellectuals and pushed them closer to the communists, who played a leading role in the protests.[3]

Aftermath

William Gaither Pierson died in 2001 and is buried at Temple Sinai Cemetery in Sumter, South Carolina.[4] Shen Chong later changed her name to Shen Jun, and worked in Beijing-based Foreign Languages Press for decades. She was married to renowned Chinese cartoonist Ding Cong. She died of cancer aged 87 in Beijing on December 11,2014.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ America Perceived: The Making of Chinese Images of the United States, 1945-1953 By Hong Zhang, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, p78
  2. ↑ China's America: The Chinese View the United States, 1900-2000 By Jing Li, SUNY Press:2011 p 49
  3. ↑ A Rape in Beijing, December 1946: GIs, Nationalist Protests, and U.S. Foreign Policy by Robert Shaffer, The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Feb., 2000), pp. 31-64
  4. ↑ "List of interments". Sumter, SC Temple Sinai Cemetery. Retrieved 6 April 2014.

See also

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