It is indeed a great honor for me to have this opportunity to speak to your Committee, but I am so nervous before such a distinguished gathering that I do not know just where to begin.
Perhaps it would be best to start by telling why I went to the United States.
The American Association of University Women is making a study of China. In 1966 the study topic was "The Chinese Revolution" and this year it is "Modern China". Several branches of the AAUW asked the Chinese News Service in New York to recommend some Chinese, preferably a woman, able to talk on the following subjects: "The Chinese Revolution", "Some Aspects of Chinese Culture", "Chinese Women Today", and "U.S.-Chinese Relations". The Chinese News Service relayed the AAUW's request to the concerned authorities here, and I was the one recommended.
I was very much surprised at my being chosen. At first I declined to take up such an important and arduous task for several reasons: I felt my talents inadequate, my age a great handicap, and my radio work hard to leave. However, after being assured that my radio lessons could be taped in the States and sent back in time for the broadcasts, I decided to accept the assignment. Besides, I reasoned with myself, if those who chose me had confidence in me, I should have confidence in myself.
Perhaps you may wonder why I, an old woman who cannot even speak our national language fluently, was chosen to go to the States to speak to American women on China and the Chinese Revolution. I think it had to do with my environment and background. I was born in the United States almost 70 years ago, and spent the first five years of my life there. My father, Chao S. Bok, an LL.D. of Columbia University, was a close friend of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the Father of our Republic. In the picture taken on the occasion when Dr. Sun was inaugurated the Provisional President of the Republic of China, my father, in his capacity of Chairman of the First Senate of the Republic of China, stood to the left of Dr. Sun.
Dr. Sun's Visits
In the early days, when Dr. Sun was traveling in foreign lands for the cause of the revolution, and visited New York, he would always come to our home. Often he would talk over his revolutionary plans with my parents and other interested persons, sometimes far into the night. He liked to hold me on his lap, and I took in every word he said although I did not understand what it was all about at the time. Later the significance of those meetings dawned on me.
My parents and I returned to China when I was five years old. It was during the late years of the Ching dynasty, and the Republic was yet to be born. I personally saw the luxurious, corrupt life of the Manchu royal court, and also personally experienced the shame and suffering of foreign oppression and discrimination. Young as I was, I felt the righteousness of Dr. Sun's revolutionary ideals and the greatness of his revolutionary movement. I had confidence that under his leadership the revolution would succeed. My personal experiences and my father's participation in the revolution enabled me to tell the American women about the revolution first hand as an eyewitness.
I gave 80-odd lectures to various AAUW branches and other organizations, covering 19 states, and I took part in discussions on China many times. What moved me deeply was that although diplomatic relations between China and the United States have been maintained for over a century, still the American people are quite ignorant of our country. What they daily learn and read about us comes mostly from books and publications written by so-called China hands, many of whom are Red China sympathizers. Unfounded pronouncements have been made in these publications that lead to numerous misunderstandings. Fallacies thus have been spreading in an ever-widening circle. Sensing that the materials and information they were getting other than those sent them by the Chinese News Service were biased, the AAUW proposed to invite a Chinese speaker with first-hand knowledge of what they wanted to know.
This is what I said to them:
"The topic you have chosen for your year's study is the Chinese Revolution From 1842 to 1911. You have read that part of Chinese history from works written by authors who are not Chinese, people who did not know, or who did not care to write about the cause and background of the Chinese revolution. I was born in the United States and spent the first five years of my childhood here, yet even as early as my third year I suffered the sorrows of discrimination. On my first day at kindergarten, some little tots, who must have been told by some adult that I was Chinese, pointed to me and sang out, ‘Ching, ching, Chinaman, Bow-wow-wow, Eats rats ...’ That hurt me so much that I ran away from the kindergarten crying bitterly. We lived a few doors from the kindergarten, and our next-door neighbor, a kindly old gentleman saw me. He asked me what the matter was. I told him. Then he patted me on the head and said, 'It is not what you are outside, but what you are inside that counts.' The old gentleman was Thomas Alva Edison.
"I have repeated his words many times, especially when I am asked, 'Why are the Chinese people so cruel and filled with hatred of foreigners? On TV we have seen even children demonstrating and calling out, 'Down with the United States!' "
I explained, "The Chinese people, no matter where they are, are good people, not cruel and filled with hatred. What you saw on TV were people oppressed by the Communists. They have no freedom and act under compulsion. 'It is not what they are outside, but what they are inside that counts.' Speaking of hatred, I should like you to put yourselves in our shoes. Here is something else that happened to me. A short time after we had landed in Shanghai from the United States, my father took me to a gate of a park under construction in the British Concession. He pointed to a wooden sign on one of the gate posts and gave me my first lesson in reading English. I knew the alphabet. This was what he spelled out and read to me several times, 'No dogs and no Chinese allowed.' Those words, after all these years, are deep scars on my heart that even time cannot eradicate. No dogs and no Chinese allowed on the sacred territory of our own country! How would you feel if some foreigner wrote on one of your park gates, 'No dogs and no Americans allowed'? Now I'm sure you understand me.
"The injustice and oppression wrought upon China and the Chinese people by so-called civilized foreign countries bred the hatred which you have inherited, although you are innocent of the crime they committed long ago. We, the Chinese people, know this, otherwise how could the century-old friendship between our countries still exist?
"Our Republic is only 55 years old. During these years our country has been under constant stress and strain, torn by internal strife and outside aggression, each and every intrigue and bloody incident having a background of foreign conspiracy. Foreigners robbed the Chinese people on Chinese soil and insulted the Chinese people on Chinese territory. How can such inhuman and humiliating facts be forgotten? You are all studying the history of China, the history written by foreigners, not Chinese. Their history books do not tell you the facts that I am telling you and which I have experienced.
The Scars Remain
"Here is still another incident. My parents were Methodists and I was brought up in that faith. I was sent to an English-speaking Sunday School when we first arrived in China. It was because I did not know any Chinese. At the door of the Sunday School stood a fat lady to welcome the children. She looked at me and said, 'This Sunday School is not for Chinese children.' It was a terrible shock to me because I was half Chinese. I felt that there was no place for me, either on this earth or in heaven or hell.
"My mother was the daughter of the German ambassador to Turkey. She received her M.D. degree from Cornell University in the United States. There was discrimination against her, too, because she had married a Chinese. I am telling you these things not because they happened to me and my family alone, but to all the Chinese people in our own country. It is not easy to forget such suffering all at once. Although the situation has changed, still the scars remain.
"Before I visited the States this time, I received a letter from a Negress whom I had met in Taiwan and whom I had visited twice on my previous trips to the United States. She told me to be sure to look her up when I was in the States this time. My itinerary did not take me to her town, but I made a special point of going to see her. When I got to her home, she had a guest, a light-colored Negress. This woman looked at me and asked, 'Is that woman a Chinese?' 'Yes, of course,' my friend answered. The woman got up and said angrily, 'Then, I can't stay under the same roof with her!' Seeing the situation, I took my leave immediately.
"This incident and others that Chinese students in the States have told me about occur frequently and are usually perpetrated by either of two types of people, those with an inferiority complex, such as the light-colored Negress, or those with a bloated superiority complex who think they know all about China after a few days' visit.
Sources of Distortion
"While in the States this time, I came upon a book entitled 'I Saw Red China' written by an Australian woman married to an American. She had been able to get into Red China with her Australian passport and stayed there for a few weeks. This was the first time she had been to China and Peiping, yet she said that after the Communists came, one could no longer see bodies lying in the streets. I wonder where she got the information that bodies could be seen lying on the streets of Peiping before the Communists usurped that place. My old home was Peiping, and I lived there over 35 years, yet never once during all that time did I see even one dead body lying on a street. Pearl Buek wrote the preface for that book. It was filled with glowing enthusiasm for the vividness and authenticity of the Australian lady's portrayal of China under the Communists. I knew Pearl Buck personally when I was young, and I know that she never lived in Peiping for any great length of time. But even so, how could she have overlooked the many glaring fallacies in the book? Pearl Buck is thought by foreigners to be an authority on China and the Chinese people, so her every word about us and our country is considered to be gospel truth. However, we Chinese know that all she knows about us is centered on the small area she lived in years ago.
"When I visited the United States six years ago, I was invited to hear a talk by a young man, an American student who had been to a youth rally in Moscow, and then was allowed to visit Peiping and other places in China. He stayed there two weeks. During his talk he showed slides that were given him by the Communists. The first one was of an old man sitting on a bench smoking a long pipe. The young man said the smoker was enjoying a pipe of opium in Formosa. Another slide showed an old lady with bound feet. The practice of foot-binding is still prevalent in Formosa among the higher classes, said the young man. The third slide showed a coolie carrying bricks at the site of the Great Wall in Nankou. He said Mao Tse-tung was having the wall repaired because it was one of the wonders of the world and had been built during the Ming dynasty to keep the Manchus from invading China. It was quite apparent that the young man had been deceived by the Communists and in turn was deceiving large audiences in the United States. He had made several appearances in the States before I heard him. His next slide was of a clinic in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Along line of people, mostly children, were waiting to be vaccinated. He said the hospital had been built by Mao, who had also ordered nationwide smallpox vaccinations. He emphasized that before the Communists, there had been no smallpox vaccinations.
Answers to Questions
"I could not stand such lies any longer. So throwing precautions to the wind, I rushed to the platform and said, 'Young man, what you have been telling the audience is absolute nonsense. The PUMC was not built by the Communists but by the Rockefeller Foundation. My first child, who is over 40 now, was born there, and all my children were vaccinated long before you were born.' Then I turned to the audience and said, 'Look at my feet, are they bound? I have just come from Taiwan - we don't call it Formosa, that's a Portuguese name - and I come from the so-called higher class. Do my feet look bound? Foot-binding passed away long ago! From then on I took over the talk and the young man disappeared. The audience gave me a standing ovation when I had finished.
Some of the questions asked me during my recent tour of the States and my answers are as follows:
"Are human heads still used for sacrifice on Taiwan?"
"That practice was done away with long ago. Formerly the aborigines did head-hunt, and the heads were used for sacrifice, but that is a thing of the past, just like your American Indian scalp collecting. I have visited many aborigine tribes, their homes, and their schools. They are no different from ours."
"Do you have sufficient necessities of life?"
"Yes, of course. Have you seen the March issue of the Reader's Digest? It tells you that the Republic of China is self-sufficient and no longer depends upon U.S. aid."
"Where did you get your beautiful clothes?"
"Everything that I wear is made in Taiwan: brocade jackets and gowns, embroidered silk and satin gowns, shoes, and so on - all are made in Taiwan. Many people think they came from Hongkong, but they did not. They are better and cheaper than clothes made in Hongkong. "
Status of Women
"Do Chinese women have true freedom?"
"With the founding of the Republic, inequality between the sexes was wiped out. Women of free China enjoy complete freedom and protection. Many hold high positions in the government. There are women legislators, women members of the Control Yuan, department heads in various ministries, judges, school principals, publishers, newspaper editors, and so on. Women in free China have the right to choose their own life companions. Although my parents did not give me that right, still I was quite satisfied with their choice. In fact, I think it is much better to have the parents choose one's life partner. I am not a die-hard conservative, but there are many merits in many of our Chinese traditional practices, and they do not lose their value because of scientific progress."
"Is it true that all the rice produced in Taiwan is exported in order to get foreign exchange, and the people have to eat sweet potatoes?"
"That is really a joke. Even our little children will laugh at that. The wealth of our agricultural products cannot be equaled in many countries of the world. Our cooking is famous all over the world, even the cooking of very simple vegetable dishes."
"Is your government democratic?"
"Of course it is. All citizens enjoy full freedom and the protection of the government. Every citizen is entitled to vote."
"How is it that President Chiang Kai-shek can be elected for a fourth term of office?"
"It is for the same reason that you elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for a fourth term of office. We love, respect, and honor President Chiang Kai-shek. He has led us triumphantly through many vicissitudes, and is still devoting himself entirely to the welfare of the Chinese people. I am a teacher by profession. Before the success of President Chiang's Northern Expedition, we teachers never received regular monthly pay. Then the country was united under President Chiang's leadership and we teachers received a regular salary that enabled us to devote ourselves entirely to our work."
Presidential Succession
"President Chiang is getting older and older each year. Should the inevitable happen, who will take his place?"
"It is true that President Chiang is getting older and older but he is still robust and has the vitality of a much younger man. China is a democracy, and in the event of the inevitable, the Vice President will naturally take the President's place, just as in your country."
"What is the Chinese opinion in regard to the attitude the United States should take toward the Vietnam war?"
"First, you Americans should recognize who is your enemy. By the lessons we have learned through several decades of experience in fighting against the Chinese Communists, compromise with them is self-recognition of failure. Yielding to them in any way is to seek self-destruction. You know quite well that in Vietnam you are fighting against the Chinese Communists. Many of your young soldiers are fighting them; but you still have not learned the lesson taught through the loss of your own blood and the labor of your own sweat. You allow Communist sympathizers to preach appeasement to your people. Since you are at war in Vietnam, you should 'fight for victory' as General MacArthur advised, and nothing less than that."
"Do you think Communist China should be admitted to the United Nations?"
In answer to this question, I asked, "What do you think? Should the Chinese Communists be admitted to the United Nations or not?"
A Negro lady answered, "I think they should be admitted. If we admit them it will show that we are not bad; we should treat them as well as we can."
"Do you think they will appreciate such a gesture?" I asked. "Perhaps such an attitude might appeal to others, but not to the Chinese Communists. They won't be satisfied, after slapping your left cheek, just to slap your right cheek and be done with it. They even want your dead body after having taken your life. Treating them well will only be an insult to yourselves. To compromise with them will only be your own enslavement. It is like begging a tiger for his skin. Unless you give him a death-blow, you will be devoured by him."
Taiwan's Progress
"We have heard a great deal about progress in Communist China. What has the Republic of China been doing?"
"Progress can be seen only by comparing the past with the present. Many persons have visited Taiwan for a few days and think they are qualified as experts. They know nothing of our hopes, our fears, our history, culture or civilization. Yet they criticize us, basing their conclusions on prejudice and guesswork. If you really want to know more about our progress, it will be well to get the official publications about Taiwan from the United Nations. These will give you accurate information about our culture, education, public health, economy, and so on. In free China, the rate of school attendance is over 90 per cent, and the number of institutions of higher learning is higher than in any Southeast Asian country. In regard to public health, Taiwan is one of the few areas of East Asia in which malaria, smallpox, and similar diseases have been eradicated. As for agriculture, Taiwan not only has attained self-sufficiency but gives aid to other countries. Medical personnel and demonstration farm teams have been sent to both Asian and African countries to help improve their hygienic environment and increase their production. These facts and results have been neglected in the United States, a nation proud of its free and far-reaching press.
"We Chinese are not lazy people who prefer case to work, nor are we ungrateful, shameless, and without backbone. Just as you Americans, we are eager for peace, believe in the truth, and seek progress. The aim of our revolution, led by the Father of our Republic, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, is to realize these objectives: a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people built on liberty, equality, and fraternity. These aims cannot be realized on the Chinese mainland today, because our national revolution has not been completed. In his will, the Father of our Republic exhorted us to continue the struggle to complete the revolution. Under the leadership of President Chiang Kai-shek, we are doing our utmost to uphold truth, maintain peace, and work for the welfare of all mankind."
In conclusion, we Chinese know what is right, and stand up for righteousness. But we are too reticent. We do not tell of our glorious history, our culture, our civilization, and our progress, but allow opportunists and so-called China-specialists to mislead and poison the minds of our American friends. We should build up closer people-to-people relationships which will be of benefit to our friends as well as to us.
The American people are frank, friendly, and enthusiastic. They believe in the truth and are willing to fight for it, but they are naive and easily deceived and the prey of unscrupulous politicians. I believe it is not too late to attain the wholehearted support of the American people through a carefully planned people-to-people campaign.
Editor's Note: This is a translation of Prof. Lilian Chao's recent address to the Women's Committee of the Sino-American Cultural and Economic Association in Taipei. Professor Chao is from Kwangtung and has taught English for some 40 years at universities on the Chinese mainland and in Taiwan.