1935-1936: Bank reserves

1935 - age 34 Part 3

In May, I went to Cangshu from Shanghai, passing by Suzhou and went to all these tourist spots. A branch manager came to pick me up. We rode in a boat through the water ways. We went to all the places I needed to survey. In the evening, they served a dinner with the famous dish Beggar's Chicken. The story goes that many years ago there was a beggar in Cangshu. One day, somehow he got a chicken but he had no way of cooking the chicken. So what he did was use a lot of mud and water to coat the chicken with the feathers on. He built a fire to cook it. After it was done, he peeled off the mud and the feathers came off with the mud so he could eat the meat and it was very delicious. After this incident was known, the restaurateurs copied this cooking method and called it beggar's chicken. This is the famous dish of this place, and I had the good chance to taste it. After several days of my survey, I wrote my report and gave it to the chairman of the board, Mr Fu. After a while, the branch manager came to the headquarters and proved the survey and my suggestions for improvement were accurate and feasible.

I was assigned to this currency improvement research committee to work and I also had a position in the Chinese Industry and Business Bank. So now I had two jobs. Also, every month, the Central Bank had an economic research publication. I was still in charge of reporting. When I was in college, my major was in currency and banking. At that time, there was a person Mr Ma. He was a very famous scholar in this area and he was once Beijing University's president. (Unfortunately, he changed allegiances to the Communist Party and was tortured to death by the Communist Party.) He wrote a lot of articles on the shortcomings of the Chinese financial systems and made proposals for improvement. He wrote a lot of theses. He usually said that Chinese commercial banks had too weak of funding. In the studying of the cash reserve ratios, he showed some are steady and others are imbalanced and predict bankrupcy. Mr Ma wrote a lot about and did a lot of research about this ratio. I was also involved in a lot of the research and wrote a lot about these studies. When I went to Taiwan, I brought all my writings from Shanghai. In 1980, I compiled all my writings into a book called Compilation of Articles about Currency and Banking. 


1936 - age 35

This year, Shudong turned two years old and Diqing became pregnant again. When she was six months pregnant, she ate water chestnuts. We found out later that pregnant women should not eat water chestnuts. But she had eaten them and had severe abdominal pain and could not move. She had to go to the hospital. We lived on the third floor. Usually, we just climbed up and down the stairs. But now, Diqing could not move, so I carried her downstairs. We went first to the famous Fuming Hospital and the head of the hospital was very nice and came to examine her himself and prescribed pain killer injections and said she should have surgery. But Diqing would not agree. They were at odds and couldn't compromise. After a long time, we went to a Chinese-medicine doctor Bao for help. Mr Bao is very good in his medical knowledge. After examining her, he said to take Chinese medicine and prescribed the medicine and we went to the pharmacy to get the medication and returned home. I carried her upstairs. Fortunately, after several days, just as Dr Bao predicted, she was fine. Since then, I don't negate the effectiveness of Chinese medicine. 

In the province of Zhejiang, there were some political changes. The central government appointed Mr Huang as governor of the province. He was from Guangxi and the military. He and Wu Tingyi were very good friends, as close as brothers. So, Mr Huang recommended Mr Wu as Secretary of Infrastructure. Mr Wu was in Liouzhou in charge of a project to test water usage and safety in agriculture. Three years earlier, he had invited me to work there and I didn't go, as previously stated. This time, Mr Wu came in person to Zhejiang and was determined to have a lot of projects in Zhejiang. He needed people to survey and plan. He originally knew I didn't go to Guangxi because I stayed at Shanghai Central Bank to work. And he was an old friend of Mr Fu, chairman of the board. So he asked Mr Fu to have part of my work be to help him in Hanzhou. Mr Fu, because I already had job in the China Business and Industry Bank, and didn't have a job at the Central Bank, approved Mr Hu's request. Because of this extra work, I needed to arrange my time. In order for my work and duties at home, I scheduled every Friday for going to Hangzhou, worked Saturday and Sunday in Zhejiang, and would come back to Shanghai on Monday. If there was a special request, I could stay there one more day and come back a day later. 

1935: No more poems

1935 - age 34 Part 2

With such condition of currency, establishing the industry and commerce of the country was impossible. So the government decided to overhaul. The first thing was to use the central bank and department of finance to establish an overhaul research committee on currency. Hired with top salaries was Mr Cen Jingtao as chairman. He was Cantonese and very famous and had a lot of accomplishments in this area. He has another name: Ren Sen. Everyone respectfully called him Ren Lao (elder Ren). This person was very thorough and had an accurate and broad view of the whole picture. His research work was also very accurate and to-the-point. They also invited advisers from the United State and United Kingdom. I was assigned to serve on this committee and benefited greatly from working there. Everything I learned at the commerce university in Japan was put to good use. My work earned approval and praise from Ren Lao and the foreign advisers. My actual work was to audit all the books and compile articles and documents. It was very hard work, but my program was put into actual practice; the government used what I proposed and it worked well and there was a good response from the field. Privately, I was delighted as a civilian to save the country in this way. 

The currency improvements mainly were collective preparation and uniform distribution. They set a date for the launch of the program so all the various little banks stopped printing their own currencies. They collected outstanding currency and only distributed central bank currency. In order to print money, there had to be some value backup stored. They put it all in the central bank. In this way, a lot of the little banks could not afford to print their own. Most of the little banks went bankrupt. Many of the people who worked in these soon-to-collapse banks left and went somewhere else to find new jobs. Even a very famous person of the big banks Mr. Liu, chairman of the board, had to quit and find a new job. 

The central bank, in order to seriously execute these currency improvements, specially hired Mr Fu. He was a director of the economic research institute and they wanted him to chair the new board of directors in the China Industry and Business Bank. Mr Zou was hired as Chief Executive. After Mr Fu went to serve as chairman of the board, they hired Mr Kong to be head of the research institute.

... [boring complicated banking stuff my mom skipped]

At this time, one of the heads recommended me for work at the China Industry and Business Bank. This bank had branches in Nanjing, Tianjing, Guangzhou, Hankou, Nancang, and Wuhu. Also, in a suburb of Shanghai, called Cangshu, was another branch and warehouses. Cangshu was supposed to be a fertile land with a lot of potential for development. Our chairman of the board valued Cangshu. He specially assigned me as envoy and I was glad to go because Cangshu has a lot of history. And on the mountain there are graves of the famous disciples of Confucius, Zilu and Yenyou. This is why it was a tourist attraction. More recently, there were legendary stories about Chen and Liou. There was a famous pagoda, Iron Harp and Bronze Sword. I could visit all these spots during my survey.

1935: Field workers

Hindered by Rain Song by Qing dynasty poet Kong Xianyi

No rain, pity the field workers,
With rain, fret about visitors;
Don't mind difficult travel,
For the farmer to be happy.


1935 - age 34 Part 1

This year, on February 24, Shudong turned one year old. According to a general custom called Zuazou, we did the following ritual. In this ritual, you set the baby on a flat surface. In front of him, and to his left, right, front, and back, you display articles: some are for literature, some for craft, antiques, and daily household objects. When you put the baby among these objects, you let the baby pick up whatever. Whatever he picks up, you figure out his interests and the potential of the baby. We were told it's kind of scientific. Shudong's temperament was active. He picked up something craft related, an instrument. This might explain why he later on went to Taiwan University and Minnesota University to study agricultural engineering and got a PhD in that field, as if it correctly correlated from when he turned one. In those days, there were very few toys for children's development. I had a little alarm clock made in Germany. I bought it in Tokyo and it was very sturdy and accurate. I had been using it for many years. This alarm clock was his toy. When he was a little older, he took apart this clock and examined all the pieces as if doing some kind of mechanical research.

At that time, there were many warlords occupying the whole country. Jiang Jieshi wanted to unite the country. The government of the republic was established and everybody wanted to improve the country in all areas. In the economy and commerce areas, the most crucial urgent problem was to establish currency because at that time our country had no currency system. The mint and bill press was a big power. Usually, this power fell to the warlords, whoever had the most power in an area, and there was no united system or standard. Every province had their own currency and bills. It was a big mess. There were lots of counterfeit and much confusion with multiple exchange rates. It needed a lot of improvement except for two banks, one called China Bank and the other Transportation-Communication Bank. Because they were established for a long time and large, most people trusted these two banks. Besides these, there was Four Banks and Zhejiang.

Women's work

Seedling Planting Maids by Ching dynasty poet Chen Wensu (1771-1843)

Morning, see the seedling planting maids,
Dusk, see the seedling planting maids.
Rain fall, don't think cold,
Sun strong, don't think hot.
Two legs like duck gull,
All day in the wet lands.
Seedlings from one acre wide,
Spaced into ten acres about.
Water low, worry seedling whither,
Water high, fear seedlings rot.
Highland already threshing wheat,
Lowland still growing millet.
April gives way to May,
More prayers for dragon rain.
Infant set on the roadside,
Have kid, no time to nurse.
Now believe, plate's food,
Grain by grain, hard work and suffering.

1934: Poor boys' work

Beggar's Song by Ching dynasty poet Zhen Xie (1693-1765)

Old fisherman, one reel rod,
Leans on hillside, water bank bend.
Small boat comes and goes without cares.
Seagulls lightly dot the ripples from far off,
Reeds gently bend days grow cold.
High song one stanza starts at dusk,
In a blink, waves with golden shadows;
Lift the head, moon rise to mountain east.

1934 - age 33 continued

These were exported to Europe and America for ingredients and were a manufactured from raw agricultural product, so it was an important business. From the point of view of the investors, these businesses needed to have good management, they needed to have lots of regulation and good systems for quality control. In order for the businesses to expand, they had to set up the systems to include capitol and raw material supply chain and labor payment and all kinds of expenses. Some materials had to be imported, so in this way with the exchange rate of foreign currencies, the profit is related to these things as well as taxes and shipping. Many factors are out of the control of the company. If the structure isn't tight or the wrong manager is in place, then profit decreases. Even if there is profit, sometimes it wouldn't benefit the investor. 

Lihuan has been established for several years but hadn't made much profit. Mr Hu, the majority stockholder, assigned me to audit this company. On March 29, representing Mr Hu, I went from Shanghai to Nanjing. When I arrived at Nanjing, I went to a little hotel. In the morning, I went to their office on 14 Sanbu Street for a formal audit. At 11 AM, a staff member accompanied me to visit the factory. The factory building was quite modern and occupied a fairly large space. Inside the factory, there were many freezers. At that time, there were more than one hundred female workers, and many technical people working on the egg separation and freezing process. I checked their books, reports, and their receipts. Their accounting system was pretty bad, so I quickly found problem points. At noon time, I had lunch in the factory. In the afternoon, one of the workers went the hotel to fetch my luggage and moved me to their factory accommodations. From then on, I spent several days working on the audit. After several days of careful examination, I came to the same conclusion that I originally speculated that their pain points were all of weak accounting. So I returned to Mr Hu and suggested that he give up his stocks as I saw no future returns. Mr Hu sold his stock to someone else.

After the birth of Shudong, following the custom, we made a lot of red eggs and sent them to our friends and relatives.* We invited our relatives over for 1 month manyue dinner. We had lots of friends and relatives in Shanghai. Because of the number of people, we knew if we invited everyone to dinner, we couldn't afford it. Diqing and my income only covered our daily expenses and we had little left for savings. Since we got married in Nanjing, after we returned to Shanghai, we should have invited our friends and relatives in Shanghai for a reception. Because we could not afford it, we did not extend invitations. Diqing always felt regret about this. I always comforted her by saying, "If we do the right thing and are upright, our friends and relatives will understand. We don't need to an invitation to dinner to prove that." More than a year had passed since our wedding and people did understand. But, Shudong being our first born son, a lot of people sent gifts to celebrate. So if we still don't invite them it would be bad form. Just at the middle of our tricky dilemma and worries, all of a sudden, we got some money sent to us. The one who sent the money was a friend who lived in the same apartment as I did in Tokyo, a Hubei countryman, named Gao Wenyuen. Mr Gao had studied music in Japan and was pretty well established. After he came back to China, some people hired him and for several years he had some savings. When we were in Tokyo living together, I sometimes loaned my roommates money but didn't ask for repayment. After he returned to China, we hadn't had any contact. When he sent the money, he did not include a note saying why, I assume it was repayment. He didn't include his address so I couldn't write him to ask. So this is a loose end I have always pondered. Because of this money, we were able to invite friends and relatives over for manyue dinner at 8 Tier Bridge, the top floor of the YMCA restaurant. 

We the Qus, at the beginning of the Ming dynasty, in order to escape the rioting, moved from Anhui to Huangmei (Hubei). Over several hundred years, our main thing was working fields and studying. We passed this one from generation to generation. At the end of the Ming dynasty, there were four role models who arose in the family. Their names were Qu Cen, Qu Zhousi, Qu Jia, Qu Han. These are my distant ancestors. Qu Cen was called Huan. Qu Zhousi was called Zhenglu; Qu Jia had filial piety (xiaozi) and was called Zhenglu; Qu Han also had filial piety and was called Huan. For four generations, their good character was so evident it gave our family a sense of nobility. Not only did it bring some glory to the family, it brought a good name to the family. Recently, we had our townsmen from Huangmei, Mr Mei Dongzu, he's very good in Chinese literature. He wanted to compile a book called Famous Scholars of the Generations. I have another townsmen, Den Shuqing. He asked me to provide information and research material about these four role models. Because of Mr Mei and Mr Den, I feel I need to do some research and collect and compile some information about these four people as if this my calling and duty. So I asked my brother Ciling to go to the Huangmei archive and collect our Qu family tree for me to research and organize. I did that and I wrote an article titled "Research material about these four Qu ancestors." In 1980, I compiled a volume of my writings and the four ancestors was the first article in that book.

*My mom commented that if it's a boy there are more eggs and if it's a girl, there are fewer. "But that's ok, it's only eggs." 

Rain after a drought

April First Happy Rain by Yuan dynasty poet Zhang Yanghao (1269-1329)

Ten-thousand things nearly burned and withered,
Rain comes to dampen and soak.
Heaven and earth returns to life and growth,
Wind and clouds make great plans.
Field workers,
Dancing rend their green straw clothing,
And me,
Joyful without adequate expression.

He was a good governor who loved the people. There is a famous poem about de yi, everything going their way, that he details the first kind. He took on another name Xi Mong, wishing he was Mongzi.

Four kinds of happy people:
Those suffering drought who finally get rain,
Sojourners in a far away place who meet old friends,
The night of your marriage, light the candle of the honeymoon suite,
Exam results show your name having passed.

1934: Farming families, revisited

Farming Family by Song dynasty poet Fan Cenda (1126-1193)

Daytime till fields, evening comb flax,
Village community sons daughters, each responsible for the household.
Little children don't know how to sow or weave,
Yet by the mulberries, learn to plant melons.

1934 - age 33

Last year, on April 30, Diqing and I got married. February of this year marked a total of ten months, just the period for a fetus to mature. On 24 February, our first child was born. We thanked the Lord for his grace that mother and child both were well. This was our family's new generation. I named him Shudong. His family tree name is Zhangpei. Since ancient times, there have been cultural norms about the development of the baby that an expecting mother was to follow, things to avoid. Last fall, a world-famous circus (Ringling Brothers) came to perform in Shanghai. Many of my cousins from Huangmei came to see it. Every time they came, I would go with them. But Diqing thought it would be a bad for the baby, so she never went. There were lots of prenatal checkups and she took it all seriously. We found a western hospital, Bethel, in the Eight Fairy Bridge neighborhood. This hospital was founded by two sisters from Huangmei, a obgyn named Si Meiyu, who was quite well known. During the last year of the Qing dynasty, our country, for the first time, sent three women students abroad to study, and Si Meiyu was one of them. Huangmei was actually quite a rural area, how came there to be female students studying abroad? Because of the church. At that time, Methodists had planted several church in Jioujiang. They built schools and Si Meiyu went to school from Huangmei to Jioujiang. After studying abroad, she founded Bethel hospital in Shanghai. They made great effort to save people's lives and that's how they earned their reputation. Si Meiyu's younger sister also studied medicine and worked at Bethel. They called Si Meiyu "First Doctor" and her sister "Second Doctor." We had Second Doctor as our obgyn. Because I didn't have any experience with babies, I called her from the precinct phone when Diqing began having pains. But because for a first baby labor takes a while to begin, Second Doctor waited some time before coming. There was not much progress until the following morning at the fifth hour, our baby boy was born. Second Doctor was very experienced and she did everything quickly and expertly to check up on mother and swaddle the baby. In those days, grandmothers (in this case, my mom) would travel to the mothers' bedside for labor. She was waiting there the whole time and after Second Doctor wrapped up the baby she gave him to my mother to hold. For many years, my mother had lived a rural life and our family wasn't well to do. She did most the housework herself by hand. She was not a person of many words and did not easily show her emotions. When Second Doctor gave her the baby, this was the first time I ever saw her smile heartily, as if compensation for all her hard work she was the first to hold her grandson.

The first thing to do was to find him a suitable wet nurse. At this time, Shudong's aunt, I called her Third Sister-in-law (Sansao), was in Yangzhou where there were more wet nurse candidates. We asked her to find one for us, we hoped she would not be too old, and clean. Because my company had some business, I stayed in Nanjing. I wrote Sansao, "If you find a suitable wet nurse, you only need to accompany her from Yanzhou to Zhenjiang (a town close to Nanjing) and I'll meet her there and bring her to Shanghai." On the 31st of March, Sansao found a wet nurse and asked somebody to send her directly to Shanghai. But we found out that she did have enough milk and would not be suitable. So, I came to Shanghai from Nanjing to go to a women's employment agency. After a lot of coming and going, we were fortunate to find a nice woman from the country. She had abundant milk to feed Shudong.*

Previously, I mentioned Lihuan was my company. It was founded by investments from Hu Zhunyu (Si yifu's older brother). The money he had was from being discharged from the military, government pension. Beside Lihuan Company, he also bought a mansion in Shanghai on Yuyuan Lu. The rest of the money he invested in business. There was a countryman named Yang Kuansan. He was very experienced in commerce and was a purchasing officer at one of the export-import companies; experienced and talented. He was the one who came up with the idea to found Lihuan and asked Mr Hu to join. Lihuan built a flash freezing facility to preserve produce in Nanjing. Because it was close to the railroad from Nanjing to Shanghai, we could collect lots of agricultural products like chickens, crops, feed and transport them easily. Without freezing, the products would have to be sold at a low price without profit to the growers. Lihuan Company, because we had these processing factories, hired many workers, especially women, to beat eggs, separate yolk from white, and use chemical formulas to preserve products for export.

*My mom remembers growing up not realizing there was any sad aspect about having a wet nurse. And she remembers her mother and aunties talking about abortion without stigma or shame. When she came to America, she was surprised anyone was upset about abortion.

Duanwu de Mayo #4

4-Minute Poem by Dana Jill

Margaritas and guac set the scene
Rice in banana leaves set the plate
Sitting by Lake Washington
Does cultural divide dissipate?


Duanwu de Mayo #4 by Irene

Five women circle for eating
Four zongzi wait for unraveling
The spring breeze blows the cloth
Heedless of manners, hunger, or writing


Spring Sounds by Irene

Chirp tweet larks and robins
Squeak bump chairs and table
If sailboats sang songs or danced
Would they keep time to my heartbeat?


Now by Megan

Four years ago I passed this way assigning words for questions I always knew I had.
Mountains and valleys, liturgy and doubt.
It is night.
But now the night is more familiar.


Poem 2 (T Ball) by Megan

Crack of the bat, leather gloves, dusty bases.
Misses, misses, and misses again.
Didn't we start with nine players?
Who won?


Breeze by Patti

The evening's breeze is smooth as silk
Night is sure to follow its order
This is nature's innate obedience
Must I question my continuation


Redwing House by Patti

Crimson leaf against the chocolate wall
Yet the breeze disturbs its place
Nature's rules are on the throne
Sacredness is in the moment


Premeditated by Annalise

Out of breath
Out of time
Life is springing from my womb
Will I ever be ready?


Bind by Annalise

String binds zongzi
Relationship binds family
Nature seems to have order
Why do the ties that bind still unravel?

1933: Work

Late Spring Spontaneity by Song dynasty poet Lu You (1125-1210)

Dragon bone pump* noise waters flow sop
With rain still can hope for abundant crop
Old farmers love calf walk mud slow
Young maids fret moths** pick leaves nonstop

*nickname for Zhejiang foot pump vehicle
**silkworm


1933 - age 32 continued

I was working at Lixin and very happily employed there. Mr Pan and several colleagues--two Mr Gu, Mr Chan, Mr Wong--we all got along well. We worked together to improve our accounting systems and build our commerce and business. In November, one day, Mr Pan called me to have a talk. He talked about my working here and everyone getting along very happily. "But now I have a more important job for you to do. I already recommended you for this new job. You will go to the Central Bank, to a newly established economic research division. Please go there and ask for Mr Lee Dang." So I went to see him the next day, he immediately accepted my appointment to see him and said this research center needed someone who knows Japanese to do the research work. "If you would like to apply, please send me your transcript from the business university." This Mr Lee was from Hunan and studied in Germany. Before he went to Germany, he had studied at Waseda University in Tokyo and so he knew the Japanese education and was familiar with all my classes. So I sent him my transcript and upon review, he assigned me to a research post at this center. The research center director was Mr Kong. Another position was held by Lee Dang. There were several other research personnel specialist co-editors, a lot of famous people: Mr Liu, Mr Jing, Mr Cao, the specialists. The co-editors were all chosen from recent graduates of overseas universities: from England Mr Cue, Mr Diao; from America Mr Gao, Mr Qiao; from Germany Mr Wu, Mr Gu; from France Mr Cen, Mr Pan; from Japan me and later on they also invited Mr Jiang. The main duty of our work was to publish a weekly finance report and the Central Bank's monthly report. Mostly, we worked on currency, financing, and all the co-editors, we worked together, researched together, discussed together, and wrote our articles and everyone worked really well together. As for myself, I collected Japanese material from the Meiji Restoration, post-Russian-Japanese war and later on the Japanese-China war/WWII. There was a lot of historical research. I compiled a book called Currency of Japan. My articles amounted to 200,000 words and I have kept it until now. Every time I take it out and review it, I always think there are many errors to be corrected. I procrastinated publishing them all these years. This is one of my failures in my work. All of our co-editors, besides working together, always took lunch together in the cafes nearby. So in addition to our working relationship, we also built friendships. In 1937, when Mr Fu became our director, he was also on the board of directors of the China Industry Bank, he assigned me to the China Industrial Bank to work and I left the research center. But my position was still kept as co-editor and I also received a salary from them. Starting from the research center, I worked for this bank for six years.  

1933: Going home

Village Evening by Song dynasty poet Lei Zen

Pond full of grass, water full to the edge,
Mountain eats the setting sun, shining on the cold waves;
Herdsman returns home, across oxen's back,
Short flute, without melody, carelessly blows!

Editor's note: we know the herdsman is relaxed because there is plenty grass and plenty of water.


1933 - age 32 continued

The first important thing is that I went to a place called Sang Luo He. There was a Christian church there where I attended bible study. (In 1970, I worked for the Chinese embassy in Japan. On a holiday, I visited and most the adjacent streets and buildings were all rebuilt. I couldn't recognize the original street and only this church building was still there.) The leader of this bible study was an old American lady, she used English to tell her story. When she was a young girl, her mother died and she was grieved, nearly losing her mind. Later on, she was reborn and knew she would see her mother in heaven one of these days, so she was greatly comforted and she lives in the grace of Jesus Christ.

I went to the Tokyo city government in charge of the international expo for Women and Children. There was a circus from Germany with wild, fierce animals like lions, tiger, bear, and elephant, and lots of sea creatures and birds. Even though I had seen these animals in the zoo, the circus tamed these animals to perform. From these animals, you realize the wisdom of creation. God made these animals so intelligent with training you can reach them. 

Two of my hometown friends invited me to Tokyo to see a new style opera, Revue, a musical. It had very pretty costumes and sets. The performance was luxurious and entertaining. From this, you could see that the Japanese were going to live a more luxurious life. We watched the musical until midnight. After WWII, the United States occupied Japan and supported its development of industry and commerce so Japan became a major economic country, just like most societies, going through corruption and moral decline. 

Several of the YMCA staff and members got together to tour a hot spot. We stayed at a huge hotel that had many man-made beaches, swimming pools, and grand buildings, utilizing the mountains and natural beaches. The natural scenery included many ancient war memorials. Many writers had made novels about these historical narratives. People nowadays can enjoy these stories.

There were a lot more things I don't have time to write in detail. 

By April 5, most the things to be done had been accomplished. Now all that remained was to purchase my boat ticket. Because I had a lot of luggage, it wasn't convenient to take the train and I wanted to find a ship directly from Huengbing to Shanghai. I wanted to bring all my luggage to the ship instead of taking the train. This time, there was a Canadian Pacific ship, The Empress of Japan, run by a British company. This Empress of Japan would start running on April 7 and eleven days later arrive in Shanghai. So I took this ship and arrived in Shanghai safely. I stayed at the China Institute and discussed with Diqing about getting married and getting a job. 

As for this job in Liouzhou, Diqing was very courageous and said, "Most people there are poorer. As long as we can do something to improve their lives, even if our own lives are simpler and harder, it's worth it." I respected her because she was like my own mother, coming to the Qu family's grass-house life. Yet, I wanted to put the Liouzhou job aside temporarily and visit Mr Pan first. Mr Pan interviewed me at the accounting office at Lixin. We had a very pleasant visit. I was very frank with him. After we had a nice talk, he decided to assign me to work in the Lixin accounting office. Besides being an accountant, also he wanted me to teach at the tutoring school and edit an magazine on accounting. So he assigned me a desk across from a very famous accountant named Wang Danru. Mr Pan introduced me to Mr Wang and asked me to learn from him. Mr Wang was a scholar of both Chinese and western knowledge. He was very handsome and had a nice personality. It didn't take long for us to become good friends and I learned a lot from him. At lunch time, the company had its own kitchen and dining room. Most the staff had their lunch there. Mr Pan also invited me to join their lunch group. After lunch, everybody had a little rest time and then continued their work in the afternoon. Because this was my first day, I got off work early and decided to formally start work the next morning. 

There was a letter I sent to Mr Pan that said I only needed to find a commercial internship opportunity. I still had some government money and some savings. During this intern period, I didn't need to have a salary. Mr Pan said everything is expensive in Shanghai, you need money all the time. You cannot live without income. The monthly salary he offered me was much better than most the post graduates. So I decided to work at Lixin. I wrote a letter to Mr Wu and returned the money he had sent for my traveling expense through Xinhua Bank.

I got my job in Lixin, now I needed to arrange my wedding ceremony. We picked the date of April 30. The place we chose was in Nanjing because Diqing's sister and husband could take care of things in Nanjing. The most important thing was that my father and Diqing's uncle jointly print the invitation saying, "My eldest son, Jingzhou, my niece, Diqing. Country year 22 (1933) Nanjing Taiping Street St. Paul Church, Episcopalian District of Jiangsu Director Guo Suqin." The ceremony was according to the Episcopalian standard. The wedding banquet was at the Anle Hotel. All our friends and family came to Nanjing, there were a lot of people. We praised God and celebrated.

After the wedding, we had some vacation days that we used to tour Nanjing's famous sites: Wuzhou Park, Min Dynasty Tombs, Sen Zhong San's Memorial (Sen Yat Shen), Jade Flower Pagoda, Lake Muocou, Swallow Cliffs. On our way back to Shanghai, we went to Mei Garden in Wuxi and Suzhou's Tianping Mountain, Mudu, Huchou, Liou Garden, Sizi Forest. We saw saw all these famous, beautiful heritage sites of our country.

When we returned to Shanghai, we temporarily lived in the Tutorial Institute. Then we moved into the French Concession on Guba Road, Gubou (Old Pin) Apartment Complex, Lane 197, Number 49. This apartment complex was built to house the staff of the Four Banks Association. Diqing applied there because she was an employee. This was a three story house, bathroom, kitchen, and side room. There was a little garden outside the front door. And the second and third floors had porches. On the east side, there were windows and doors; ivy climbed the wall. From 1933, this house was our home in Shanghai--our three children were all born there--until 1949, when the mainland fell. Officially, this building is still under our name, we never went through the process of moving out. So officially, we are still the tenants of this house. 

When I came back to Shanghai, I became a formal accountant of Lixin. The main business of Lixin was to audit the books of other businesses. Our boss, Mr Pan, was very upright and hard working. According to a company's size, he assigned the number of accountants. He needed to go through every company's profits, debts, inventory, bookkeeping, and daily transactions. He made surprise samples to make sure everything was true and made reports on the accuracy of their real dealings. As an accountant, I learned all these business realities. I really liked this work because it matched my expectations of being an accountant. The reality of the job matched what I had in mind. As an accountant, the main skill besides the basic of accounting, is to work an abacus. In my teens, I was very good at abacus. I was taught by my father and uncles. One of my uncles was so famous using abacus, he could calculate square roots. He used to be my teacher, not only to know how to do it but also practicing so you're fast. Even though I had these good teachers and passed all kinds of tests, because I didn't have time to practice, I was still not as good as a lot of the accountants in my company. After several months of practice, I could be a legitimate accountant. 

One incident worth noting is I was sent to a factory of telephone and telegram equipment under the department of transportation. They sent me there to audit their books. I needed to take a ferry from Waitan to their factory. Even though the factory building was old, everything was well organized. For example, for screws, even though there was one item, there were several kinds. Each kind was displayed. My boss asked me to examine by sampling and reviewing their books. Every item followed regulations. So this company, even though the facility was old, had very modern management. The head of the factory, Mr Yu, was a young man, not even forty, and he was assigned to lead. He was outstanding and capable. They treated us auditors very courteously, giving us watermelon. Everyone was pleasant and had good impressions of each other. After the Japanese war, I went to Taiwan ahead of most people. In 1949, we lost the mainland and Mr Yu came to Taiwan with the government. At that time, a Mr Yin, the head of the export import committee, invited Mr Yu to serve as his assistant. I was a committee member. When I met Mr Yu in Taiwan, we talked about the old days of when I was his company's auditor. After Mr Yin died, Mr Yu also retired. There was a famous physician, Dr Dingnong, Mr Yu's son-in-law, who took care of Mr Yu. He died at the age of 80 in 1980. 

Recalling

Something like a Dream (Wine Mood) by Li Qinzhao

By stream pagoda at sunset often mull,
Forgot the way home drunk full.
Excitement gone, late return boat,
Mistake into lotus flower knoll.
Quickly pull, quickly pull,
Startling a bank of cranes and gulls.

1933: Changes

Something Like a Dream (Spring Dawn) by Song dynasty poet Li Qinzhao 1081-1145

Last night rains slight winds blow,
Deep sleep not gone wine's show.
Try asking the one who draws the shade,
Her reply the begonias remain in row.
Do you know? Do you know?
The red shall wither, the green shall grow.

China's most famous female poet. She had a pamphlet of all her poetry, most of which are very famous. There is a story that she and her husband were both literature lovers but most people valued her as more talented than her husband. Once they both wrote a poem and gave them to someone else to exam, and the ones her chose were predominantly written by her. At the time, her poems were more famous than her husband's. Sometimes, he worked really hard to make several poems and asked one of his friends to evaluate. Unfortunately, this friend said these three sentences are the best--they were quoted from his wife. From that time on, he admitted she was much better.

For the first part of her life, they had a good marriage and life was nice even though they weren't rich. After her husband died, her life became sad and sorrowful and her poems reflect that.


1933 - age 32

Ever since I got the government grant for my studies, I saved as much as I could. Every month, there was some leftover and when it reached a certain amount, I mailed it back home to Huangmei for my family to pay back my debts and for their household expenses. So the financial situation of my home improved a little. The past August, when I went home, it was already pretty good. My mother ran the household well and there wasn't much lacking. My father had a little enjoyment: he took a little wine with each evening meal.* My younger brother Siling was already grown and he helped with the farming at home. The previous year, in October, when I had returned to Tokyo and I still had thirty Chinese dollars in my account. In January, because of the lunar new year, I sent $20 home. Even though $20 wasn't a lot, because our hometown living standards were low, it was a big help.

When the new year started, the most important thing I needed to do was prepare for my graduation exam. According to the business university regulations, if I took all the required classes and passed the examination, I would have a bachelor's degree. This year, March 15, I finished all my exams and on the 28th, we had our graduation ceremony. I received my diploma of a bachelor's degree. This diploma and my 1929 diploma from prep school I sent to the Chinese Bureau of certifying students studying in Japan. After they examined both documents, they sent me another certificate which was dated China Year 22, which was 1933. On the certificate there was my name and birthplace and the date of my graduation and from which department. I was done with my higher education.

After graduating from university, there were two major things I need to do: 1) find a job; 2) get married. In view of my present situation, I needed to find a job first, then talk about marriage. I left the doors of the university with just me and myself. In those days, everything was getting more expensive. If I got married, our lives would depend on my paycheck. In those days, most of my fellow classmates had strong family networks and didn't have to worry about finding a job. Some people participated in political parties and had lots of connections. As for me, I didn't have either. Ever since I went to business university, I only wanted to do real work to serve the society. I didn't aim at either fame or wealth. But at this time, I received a letter from Guangxi from Mr Wu. He sent me a letter asking me to take a job in Guangxi because he had founded a hydraulic farming company and he wanted me to be their accountant and designer. He also sent me 200 dollars for traveling. The way he sincerely wanted to hire me was very touching. However, I had some considerations at this time: 1) even though I had the highest education in business university, it was only book knowledge and I didn't have any real business experience. I needed to have an internship, even if for a short time, it would still be very beneficial for me; 2) according to the transportation facilities at the time, Shanghai and Nanjing were centers and Guangxi was remote. For a young person who had just come out of school, if I went to such a remote place, what would happen if I found out the job wasn't suitable? I wouldn't have much chance of change. Also, I was already engaged to Diqing and we wanted to get married soon. So wherever I went, I needed to discuss it with her. So at this point, I returned the money and told Mr Wu, whether I come to Guangxi or not, I need to decide after I get back to Shanghai.

In this bureau was a man named Ye Caojun from Jiangsu. He and Pan Xulen were relatives. I told Mr Ye about my intention to get an internship in business. Mr Ye suggested I tell Mr Pan directly. Mr Pan was a leader in business in China at that time. When the country started (1911), he came from a poor family, but studied really hard. Both his Chinese and English were highly valued. After the revolution, there was an overseas company that wanted to expand their business in China. They hired Mr Pan and sent him to the US to have advanced studies. After he finished studies and came back, he established several companies including a legal and accounting firm in China to regulate and audit systems. Besides that, he also opened some tutoring places to train people. He made many contributions to China at that time. So I followed Mr Ye's suggestion and wrote a letter to Mr Pan stating I had just graduated and would like to know if he could give me an internship opportunity. Pretty soon, I got his reply saying, "When you get back to China, you can come to my accounting company to work." He also asked me buy several books from Japan. There was another Mr Cen from Guangxi Liouzhou. He asked me to buy a lot of hydro facility books.

As for my job search, this first step was settled. As for the eight years studying in Japan, I needed to conclude my sojourn and the life of being a student. Besides all these people asking me to buy books and packing, a lot of my acquaintances and friends knew I was returning to China. So everyone came to say farewell, there were lots of farewell parties and dinners and suddenly I was very busy and full of things to do. In the following, I'm going to record a few of the most important things.

*My mom adds her grandpa kept that up when he lived with them in Taiwan, drinking Gaoliang which is sorghum liquor.