Israel Epstein

Israel Epstein (April 20, 1915 in Warsaw, Poland – May 26, 2005 in Beijing, China, Chinese name: _zh. 伊斯雷尔·爱泼斯坦, Pinyin: "Yīsīléi'ěr Àipōsītǎn") was a Chinese journalist and author. He was one of the few foreign-born non-Chinese to become a member of the Communist Party of China.

Early life and education

Israel Epstein was born to a Jewish family in April 20, 1915 in Warsaw, which was at the time under Imperial 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, in 1917, Epstein came to China with his parents at the age of two and they settled in Tianjin (formerly "Tiensin") in 1920.

Journalism

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 1934, Epstein married Edith Bihovsky Epstein, later Ballin, from whom he was divorced in the early 1940's. In 1944, Epstein first visited Britain and afterwards went to live in the United States with his second 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.

'China Today' magazine

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. In 1955, 1965 and 1976 visited Tibet, and based on these 3 visits, he published in 1983 the book "Tibet Transformed". [ [http://www.rfa.org/tibetan/chediklaytsen/ukaylatsen/bodnaykheswang/2005/06/10/life-and-death-of-israel-epstein/ Israel Epstein, a famous apologist for the Chinese Communist regime] ]

Imprisonment

During the Cultural Revolution, he was locked up in qin cheng prison, north of Beijing, for 5 years on grounds of suspicion, but remained loyal to the ideals of Communism until his death. 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.

Honours

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 at 9:30 A.M. 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.

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

First published in English

* "The Unfinished Revolution in China", Little Brown and Company (1947), hardcover, 442 pp.

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

ources and external links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/international/asia/02epstein.html New York Times Obituary by Douglas Martin]
* [http://english.people.com.cn/200505/31/eng20050531_187778.html Obituary People's Daily Online]
* [http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e2005/e200504/p30.htm Retrospective, "China Today"]
* [http://info.tibet.cn/en/news/tin/t20050421_25098.htm Biography by "China Tibet Information Center"]
* [http://english.sina.com/china/1/2005/0603/33460.html Xinhua Newsitem on funeral]
* [http://www.china.org.cn/english/2005/Etsteri/126123.htm Views of a life in China, "China.org.cn"]

ee also

*Rewi Alley
*Sidney Rittenberg
*Sidney Shapiro
*Jews in China
*Round Eyes in the Middle Kingdom --a documentary about Israel Epstein

References

* Adapted from the Wikinfo article [http://wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Israel_Epstein "Israel Epstein"] June 2, 2005