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Bold Plum: With the Guerillas in China's War Against Japan
Bold Plum With the Guerillas in China's War Against Japan Author:Hsiao Li Lindsay I was born (1916) into a rich landlord family in northern China. In 1912, my father walked away from the family estate and joined the army of a regional warlord. My father did well, but later resigned. His anti-war attitude was almost incomprehensible at that time. — My father insisted on education for all his children, which was also unconventio... more »nal. I was sent to the best school in the provincial capital, but had to flee to Beijing to escape arrest after my anti Japanese activities at school branded me as a troublemaker.
At Yenching University in Beijing, Michael Lindsay, the future Lord Lindsay of Birker, was one of my teachers. Michael was secretly obtaining medical and radio supplies for the Communist army. He considered the Communists to be the only effective fighting force against the Japanese.
We fell in love and were married in June 1941. Upon hearing about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we fled the university campus. We escaped ten minutes before the Japanese secret police came to arrest us.
Michael and I spent over two years constantly on the move in rural northern China with the Chinese Communist guerrilla army. Because Michael was tall and obviously not Chinese, local people had to take extra precautions to hide us from the Japanese. On several occasions, we narrowly avoided capture. In hospital, expecting my first child a Japanese offensive forced all at the hospital to flee. I delivered baby Erica in a remote hut high in the mountains.
After two years in the guerrilla region, we made a hazardous 500 mile journey on foot to the Communist headquarters at Yenan. This journey involved crossing Japanese blockades and would not have been possible without the courage of the local peasants. They risked torture or death from the Japanese if they were caught helping us.
In Yenan, I taught English to members of the U.S. Army Observers Section and Michael worked in the Radio Department and later in the New China News Agency. Our work brought us into daily contact with many of the most senior leadership of the Chinese Communist party. Mao Zedong and other Communist leaders told us that they wanted better relations with the Americans, but the Americans never responded to these overtures. Mao Zedong and his wife gave us a private farewell dinner upon our departure from Yenan at the end of 1945.« less