Julian Schuman
| Julian Schuman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Boston, MA |
| Died | 1995-05-10[1] Beijing |
| Occupation | journalist |
| Known for | one of the few non-Chinese journalists living in China during the Cultural Revolution |
Julian Schuman is an American, who lived in China for a long time, including during the Cultural Revolution.[2][3]
Schuman was first taught the Chinese language while in the US military, during World War 2.[1] He continued studying Chinese, under the GI Bill, after the war, and traveled to China in 1947. He returned to the USA in 1953, after having lived under both the Kuo Min Tang and Chinese Communist Party administrations. His book, Assignment China, later republished under the title China: An Uncensored Look, described his first six years in China.
A review by Thurston Griggs in the Journal of Asian Studies said Assignment China "shows a naive and politically parochial outlook" and that certain chapters "might as well have been written in Moscow."[4]
Schuman returned to China, in the 1950s, and worked for a number of Chinese publications, living there for the rest of his life. He was one of the original journalists when China Daily commenced publication, in 1981.[3]
In 1956, Schuman, and two American colleagues of his, at the China Monthly Review, an English language publication, based in Shanghai, were indicted for sedition.[5][6] His colleague John W. Powell had written an article that repeated allegations from the Chinese government that, during the Korean War, American forces had used biological weapons - germ warfare. Powell faced thirteen charges of sedition. Schuman, and Powell's wife Sylvia, who were his editors, faced one charge each. After six years, when Robert Kennedy was the US Attorney General, the charges against all three Americans were dropped.
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Jan Wong, who had known Schuman when she was one of the first two foreign students allowed to study in China, during the Cultural Revolution, described working with Schuman's new wife Yan Yan, when she returned to China as a foreign correspondent, twenty years later.[2] Yan Yan had been "a PLA soldier, a factory worker, and a party member, but, by 1993, she had embraced aspects of Western culture, including multiple ear-piercings, psychedelic hair colourings, mid-riff baring tops, high-heels. Wong described how, when she and Yan Yan arrived to interview other Chinese they routinely jumped to the conclusion that Yan Yan was the foreign correspondent, while the more modestly dressed Wong was her Chinese assistant. Schuman met Yan Yan when she took a job as a typist at China Daily. Their mutual superior warned Schuman not to marry Yan Yan, characterizing her as a "gold-digger". When they married anyway Yan Yan was fired.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Julian Schuman, San Francisco Chronicle, 1995-05-10. Retrieved on 2023-10-12. “Mr. Schuman was born in Boston and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. He studied the Chinese language at Harvard as a GI during World War II, and later, on the GI Bill, at Yale. He sailed to China in 1947 and worked for a Chinese daily newspaper, doing radio broadcasts as well for ABC out of Shanghai.”
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jan Wong (1997). Red China Blues: My Long March from Mao to Now. Doubleday Publishing. OCLC https://www.worldcat.org/title/869812383.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chen Weihua. Discovering China in Washington's used bookstores, China Daily USA, 2017-05-05. Retrieved on 2023-10-12. “Much later Schuman joined China Daily and was on the founding team of the newspaper before it was officially launched on June 1, 1981. As a young reporter working briefly at China Daily's Beijing headquarters in the late 1980s, I never got a chance to talk to Schuman, but saw him working, should I say diligently, on the sports desk.”
- ↑ Thurston Griggs. Assignment China, Red Dragon over China, Journal of Asian Studies, 1957-11-01. Retrieved on 2023-10-12. “This book shows a naive and politically parochial outlook, and illustrates how that can serve the interests of world communism today.”
- ↑ John W. Powell dies at 89; journalist was tried on sedition charges in 1950s, Los Angeles Times, 2008-12-23. Retrieved on 2023-10-12. “Two other editors at the China Monthly Review -- Powell’s wife, Sylvia, and colleague Julian Schuman -- were indicted on one count each.”
- ↑ U. Alexis Johnson. Telegram From Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson to the Department of State, Geneva, December 12, 1957, US State Department, 1957-12-12. Retrieved on 2023-10-12. “If Chinese Communists choose withhold cooperation with defense counsel in collection evidence for defense Powell-Schuman, this their own responsibility. US Government has no responsibility this regard.”
- ↑ United States v. Powell. Department of Justice (1957-11-01). Retrieved on 2023-10-12.