1937 Part 5; 1938 Part 1

 1937 - age 38 continued

On November 16, I received a note from China Industry Bank. The note requested I audit two loans both with property as collateral. One was in Huangmei (my hometown), the other was in Dean. So I went to the Huangmei property, it was only twenty miles from my hometown, so I went home first and then went to the audit location. Then I found out using the property was pretty old and dilapidated and didn't have much value. That audit was completed quickly. After three days, I took a boat and car to Jioujiang to go to the second property for the audit. I found out the second collateral property was run down as well. So I wrote a report telling the bank the truth. Most people were poor and facilities were run down. When I returned to Nanchang, the bank said they needed me to transport some important things from Nanchang to Hankou. For the rest of November, I attended to the material transport.

This year in January, I celebrated New Year in Shanghai and Lunar New Year in February. In March, I took a boat from Shanghai to Jioujiang to Hanko to Wuchang. I stayed there for forty days. In April, I traveled from Wuchang to Hankou and took a boat back to Nanjing and then after two days, I took a train to return to Shanghai. After a month, on the 19th of May, I took a bus to Changshu, and on the 22nd I went back to Shanghai. After a month, on July 7th, it was Wugou Chiao [the name of a bridge]--when Japan invaded China. On the 7th of August, I took a boat from Shanghai to Jioujiang and from Jioujiang to Nanchang to do something for the bank. On 10th of September from Nanchang, returned to Jioujiang and Huangmei. I stayed home for two weeks and on the 24th, I took a boat from Jioujiang to Nanchang. I was going to return to Shanghai, something happened and I didn't make it. On the 17th of November, I returned home again. On the 24th of November, I left my hometown and went back to Nanchang. The next day, I took a bus from Nanchang to Jioujiang, from Jioujiang, I took a boat to Hankou. From Hankou I returned to Nanchang. In December, I stayed in Nanchang until the New Year. This year, I traveled a lot and moved around a lot. It was also a turning point of our country.

1938 - age 37

It looks like I will celebrate New Year in Nanchang. Originally, I was going to go back home for New Year. From birth until age 22, every New Year I spent at home with my parents. In 1924, I went to Japan to study until now already has been fifteen years that I haven't spent New Years' at home. Because last year, in September and November, I already went home twice, so I wasn't homesick very much. At the end of the year, most of my relatives in my big family, many people were lacking money. If I went home, with all these people needing help, I cannot help everyone. So to avoid this embarrassing situation, I decided not to go home. Besides, at Nanchang, I have a lot of other things to take care of. Til next year, the Japanese invaded my hometown. During eight years of war, I didn't have a chance to go back home. After the war, I was sent to Taiwan immediately. After WWII, the Communists started the war and we lost mainland China. For thirty years, no one could go home. Until 1971, I already had 43 years I didn't go back home. I only hope that the Communist Regime will collapse so I can go home and spend my retirement years there. I want to bring my children and grandchildren to Huangmei to attend to my ancestors' graves. 

This year, even though I didn't go back to Huangmei to spend New Year, but the communication between Huangmei and Nanchang was good. The post was fast and often. On the 9th of January, my brother's wife gave birth to a boy, a blessing to our family because in my branch of the Qu Jia, there weren't many children; not many offspring, unlike other branches of the family that had many kids. Even though I already have two kids, but my children are in Shanghai. My brother had a girl and then had a boy. We were very happy. In February, my brother sent to Nanchang New Years' food: preserved meat, preserved fish, and new years' cake [sticky rice cake]. Even though I didn't go home, I tasted the food of my home. [My mom remembers starting in November beginning to prepare fish and meat for the New Year.] In March, my cousin Wenlong and my brother came to Nanchang so we had a party. My cousin Wenlong was very good to me. He even came to Shanghai to visit us. My wife, when he came to Shanghai, made some new clothes for him. This time, he came to Nanchang, even though I was very with my work, I still gave him the gold star treatment during this wartime: brothers and cousins getting together, is not that common or easy. 

Last year, a committee was formed to make adjustments and balance. In Jiangxi Province, there was a lot of production of rice, with surplus crop above the consumption by the farmers, they wanted to sell for income. Because of marketing, surplus, and profit issues the farmers and buyers need the bankers to the adjustment work. Especially during wartime, because they also have to deal with war. Also during war, soldiers needed food and rice. The bank formed the committee mainly to adjust with surplus and marketing. They wanted to reach the most profitable way, especially in wartime. They also need to supply a great amount of rice to the military. This involved the provincial and central governments. They also needed cooperation with a lot of the local governments too and local farmers. I'm one of the managers on this committee. Because of the job, the government gave lots of money to the bank for working on this.

[Mom skipped the details that followed, stating, "It's just too much."]

Because it involves so many parties (military, banking, industry, loans, transportation, financing), I worked very hard and the government and bank appreciated my efforts. For the rice to supplied to the military, there were 540,000 packages; a tremendous amount.

This adjustment committee, besides adjusting the rice, there also was financing and loans, regular banking functions. Our main goal was to promote production, transportation, and also encourage merchants to save and make a profit so we have a better market and economy. There are lots of financing in the bank, originally we had a lot of members. Because of the war, many loans defaulted. Because of the Japanese invasion, people had to flee for safety. Many of the banks closed operations. Because we were in peacetime for so long, we didn't imagine wartime. Because of the war, much production was interrupted and plans were stalled. Like some railroads were closed, for example. So farming and transportation were all influenced by the war. He mentions twenty industries that were all affected by the war and outlined the losses. Just devastating. The adjustment committee closed in 1940, my friend, Mr. Yang Zuoyen, wrote a huge report on this committee--if anyone is interested you can read it.  

Like telephone, electricity, fertilizer, radio, gasoline, newspaper, cars, diesel, cotton, sugar, medicine, everything is involved. When you need a good economy, it's for the people, their daily lives to supply their needs. When you have war, it's just horrible.

1937 Part 4

 1937 - age 38 continued

The next morning the bank served us breakfast and we took the rail to Nanchang. On the 12th of August, we safely transported important things to Nanchang. 

When we arrived in Nanchang, we had several duties. The first is to transport these valuables from Shanghai. The second is to receive the house given to the bank in Nanchang. That house has gone through the hands of many people, all of my old colleagues, so the transfer procedure went through smoothly. This house has three apartments with all furnishings. Several of the staff and I cleaned it up and it's renewed and suitable for people to stay. If the war forces the headquarters to shift to Nanchang, it also could be used as an office. I moved into this house and I cleaned up the kitchen and cooked for myself. Nanchang is removed from the line of war. There were plenty of supplies and the cost of living was low. If there was no Japanese attack, it's a good place for us to do business. The important things kept in Nanchang Bank safe is close to where I lived in this house. I only need to walk over to see everything is kept safe. 

On August 13, the Japanese attacked Shanghai (Ba Yi San 8.13). For safety planning, we reported to headquarters and if necessary, they would transfer to the Nanchang suburbs. Headquarters approved and before any moves, I returned to Huangmei to visit my parents. 

On September 10, I started from Nanchang and took the railroad to Jioujiang and from Jioujiang back to my hometown to visit my parents and all my relatives came to visit me. From September 11, I paid back their visits, everybody. Because I had lots of distant and close relatives, there's the Zhang family, Guo, Yu, Wu, Mao, Dai, Hu, San, Duan, Wang, almost ten families. And we also had Cai, Dong, Luo, Wang, Mei, Li, Yu, Nie, Tu, Jiang; twenty or so families altogether. Some of them entertained me with dinner, some with tea, some just chat, and some asked me for my opinion on disputes. On the whole, in the village of my birthplace, people were living peaceful and happy lives. Because they are remote and didn't receive much communication, many did not know Japan was at war with China. I was home during some great attacks and I stayed home for two weeks. This is the longest I stayed in my hometown since I left for Japan to study. When I left, it was 1914. On September 24, I left home to return to Jioujiang to take the rail back to Nanchang. 

From Huangmei to Nanchang, I started public service. I met Mr. Yang. He worked for Hubei provincial government. In many of the government construction industry, there was a lot of provincial government and the bank. And because I was very upright in these dealings, Mr. Yang was very grateful to me. We had never met before in person and now we were working together. We planned many improvements. Mr. Yang was not only a very good worker, but he is also a good chef and loves to cook. And all the cooks underneath him, after he made some suggestions, every dish is delicious and low in cost and highly nutritious. Since I stayed at the bank house, I had people cook for me but they are not as Mr. Yang's. Every time he made a good dish, he would share some with me. He invited me to dinner often and we became very good friends. 

The war battles were getting really bad and the Japanese had already closed all our ports. So all the inland to coast transportation was closed. For example, transporting the excess rice from Jiangxi to the coast for export, and also we imported oil inland now all stopped. Everywhere has shortages because there's no supply. One day, after I enjoyed dinner at Mr. Yang's, we started talking about these shortages and we wanted to make some plans to relieve the trouble. So we planned to propose to the government to establish a temporary office and get a loan from the bank to buy these excess products and try to transport to Hongkong because Hongkong was still not closed by Japan yet. If our plan was successful, when we sell the product, the profit would be used to pay back the loan from the bank. In this way, the inland would receive necessary supplies. At that time, the central bank notified all the provincial departments telling them about the plan. I'm the one who drafted this proposal and bill and took it to ask Mr. Yang to present it to the government. This plan received unanimous approval and implementation began. This temporary department was called the Jiangxi province agriculture mining industry commerce committee. This plan involved many banks and many provincial departments, including almost all the facilities of the government and we had a very successful outcome. 

The duty of transporting important things from the bank was done. And most of the business was on the right track. So I have no reason to stay in Nanchang. The Japanese invasion was already expanded inland. Shanghai because of the foreign territories, it's a little corner that's safe. And my family is living in Shanghai. I asked the Central Bank to approve my return to Shanghai. There's already an approval letter, I was going to travel back to Shanghai but the new managers assigned by the China Four Industry Bank, two of the new managers (Mr. Zhen and Mr. Ying*) had already arrived in Nanchang. Because everything is new to them, they request I stay longer to help them transition. So I delayed my return to Shanghai. Mr. Zhen and Mr. Ying both worked in Shanghai commerce for a long time. They are used to Shanghai way of business dealings, inviting to dinners, and the like. But in Nanchang, they are not used to it but they like being invited. They were also planning to transport the excess product. They initiated by the bank to buy the excess product. So most of the Nanchang people welcomed them heartily. But, since the war is getting so bad, the business has been severely affected. So there are a lot of excess products that the bank bought but cannot sell. These two managers do not want to take care of this difficult situation and returned to Shanghai and wanted me to stay and deal with it. So I cannot return to Shanghai for a while because they want me to take care of the matter. 

*Mr. Ying stayed in our home for a long time.

 

1937 Part 3

1937 - age 38 continued

I was on a boat called Longxing from April 14 starting at Hankou and arriving in Nanjing on the 16th.  Wu Tingzhang (my boss) and I stayed at the Nanjing Hotel. All my packages from Longxing I asked the service people on the boat to take my luggage from Nanjing and mail it to Shanghai all the way to Gubuo Gongyi. In those days, society was harmonious and my luggage was transported all the way without me, all through service people transferred. In Nanjing, my boss Wu Tingzhang and I spend two days visiting all the branches of our work. After two days, our job was done so I said goodbye to him. On April 18, I took the train to safely arrive in Gubuo Gongyi on the 19th. On the 19th, I went to the Central Bank to start working and for the Business Bank. Because in the Central Bank I did not have specific work only working research for financing and currency so I didn't have much to do. So the China Business Bank, their chairman of the board, an ambitious person, he viewed that in Cangshu thought there was a lot of development. So he sent me there to take a look and also he assigned in Cangshu a little town Jingfong he wanted to have our office there. So on May 19th, I took a bus to Cangshu. I stayed in a hotel called Yushan and I contacted the manager of China Business Bank, we'll go together the next day to survey.

This city Cangshu is located between the two counties of Jiangbei and Jiangyin. It was formed by deposits in the Changjiang, the further island was several thousand acres growing asparagus. On the island is a famous family called Yang Jinglong, they were very wealthy and generous and usually used their money to build lots of dykes and levees so it would not be flooded. So they made many fertile farmland. Also they bought a big land and built their own mansion. Their mansion had a river around it as protection. Also there's a bridge on the river. Inside their property they had buildings with hundreds of rooms. They usually host many people to eat and stay for free. Sometimes they even finance these people to travel. This whole property is divided into more than one hundred small farms. Every farm, sometimes ten or twenty acres. And every farm had houses for people to live and they had lots of farmers with families and they rented the field to till. Sometimes their crops were abundant and they will pay a percentage of the crops to the landlord. And sometimes there was not a very good harvest and the landlord lend money to the farmers. In this huge Yang mansion, there is a big field. In the middle of the field there's a flag pole, where he suspended a big clock. Sometimes, there was an important event and they would use the clock as a signal. So all the farmers would gather together in this big field and report what's what. After they got information, they would return to their own field. About a half mile away from Mr. Yang's mansion, there is the town of Jingfong. Jingfong's streets were built very wide and even. Both sides had lots of houses, mostly owned by Yang Jinglong. The landlord would let all these merchants rent to sell farming tools and groceries. This island is already a very well developed place. They had schools and factories and hospitals. And since then China Business Bank wanted to set a branch there. The bank built lots of warehouses and shopping malls and Mr. Yang made it more development so he welcomed all these buildings. That night, they invited us to stay in their mansion and everything like the bedding and rooms were very clean and nice. And they also invited us to banquet dinner. All the fisherman, if they had lots of good fish, they would take their best catch to give to Mr. Yang's house. Also the Yangs would pay a real good price for the catch. That night, for dinner, we tasted the most delicious fish from the river. And while we had dinner, everybody talked about Mr. Yang's business: shipping in Shanghai. Every year it had lots of profit. From all these points, Mr. Yang is the best client of the bank. Also Jingfong city is a very prominent in the development. So China Business Bank had a tremendous outlook. I did a lot of research in this place and I wrote a lot of the reports to the bank and everybody was very encouraged. The only sad thing is in the other half of the year, Japanese started to invade: Shanghai, Nanjing, all were occupied by Japan. All our development plants were cut off and we had no chance to see them through.

This is a turning point of China. Since two years ago we started a change of currency. The military, political, economics, social, every aspect had a great big developments quickly. Almost comparative to all the foreign countries. Just as strong as the foreign countries. So at that time the Japanese warlords wanted to stop our development. So they invaded us before China developed more. Just like a little bird who hasn't enough feathers yet. On July 7, on Wuge Bridge, we entered into war. Since this Wuge Bridge incident, they thought Shanghai and Nanjing all these economic leaders Shanghai is too close to the frontline. Since Shanghai is so close to the ocean, it's hard to defend. So all the economic facilities all wanted for safety, went inland. The Central Bank decided to move to Nanchang. Chinese Business Bank wanted to print new currency. So before you print currency, you've got to have gold standard in your bank. According to the price of market, the backup certificate showing what currency is in circulation. At that time China Business Bank had a lot of gold standard in the billions. in that time, gold was stored in the vault. Because they wanted to move everything inland, it's a big safety point to move these gold. According to the board of directors decision, they wanted to move the gold to Nanchang first. The board member Mr. Fu thought these places were my hometown area. Also I had experience traveling between Wucang and Nanjing so he assigned me to ship these gold to a safe place. This was a big assignment. And originally I took this job without hesitation because the Japanese were coming and we had to move fast. But on August 7, I traveled from Gubuo Gongyi to the Business Bank to start shipping the gold. So my home, all the jobs and taking care of Shu-dong and Shu-shi all these responsibilities fell to Diqing. Everything she took over so I didn't have to worry about homefront when working. These gold from our bank we shipped to a boat Dehe. Everybody's ticket and all the passengers' procedure was done by the Business Bank. At that time, Dehe was harbored in Pudong to depart after 8 o'clock. So I had two hours free. I took advantage of these two hours to go to China cultural society. Since everyone had to move inland, we had to have lots of meetings to make sure how everyone is going to move. Since I returned from Wuchang, I had lots of colleagues in the cultural society who studied in Japan with me. So they were good friends and several wanted me to be the secretary of the society. Since this was a job of service, I had to accept. We waited until 8 o'clock, our bank assigned a lot people to wait at the pier to await the shipment of the gold. from 8 to 12, the ship didn't come. We waited until 2am. Unfortunately, when the gold arrived the port was filled with many people poor people running from Japan, lots of women and kids. It was a very chaotic situation. When Japan started to invade China, many of the east coast factories had already stopped working. All the workers and their families wanted them to move inland. So the ports of filled with all these people. So if we want to move the gold, we don't have a way to ship. At that time, some of the staff bank, used silver dollars to hire ten workers to clear the way. By the time everyone was hipped in the boat, it was already 4am. I forgot to eat supper, so until 4am, I'm really hungry. The ship still hadn't moved. but the gold needed someone to guard so I cannot leave. So Dehe would leave on the 7th, but because of two much cargo was delayed until the 8 July in the morning. They delayed again so the safety of the gold, we wasted a whole day waiting for the board. The air is not clean and hot, it's very bad situation. Because of this boat is pretty old and the machines were old, and it was overloaded, ti's very slow. This big boat had to tug another boat and had to travel against the current. So it was even slower. It arrived in Jioujiang on July 11th. Then Jioujiang Bank had lots of people to take the gold cargo and put it in their safe. I safely accomplished the mission so praise the Lord. 

Duanwu de Mayo #5

Cold good by Irene

Better warm: zongzi, beaches, love

Better cold: margaritas, rivers, doubts

Though we wish control of the weather

All we manipulate are chopsticks, glasses, and words

The Lost Season by Doug

Shoeless Joe looks at sly third base coach

Yogi laments another owner in the box

The pitch ignites the first steal of spring

Yogi awakens a remark that resembles itself

Duanwu de Mayo 2020 by Annalise

Celebrating the 5th of May by mixing my first margarita

Commemorating Duanwujie with Irene's first solo-made jong-dz

With a pixely zoom view of three friends

I drink my VERY strong margarita with no ice

Essential Employee: Unpaid by Megan

Teacher, housekeeper, gardener, IT, chef, and parent.

Instruct, feed, tidy, feed, troubleshoot, feed. Fuck.

Irene said booze is important. So.

This fifth of the fifth is drinking and feeding nobody. 

1937 Part 2

1937 - age 36 continued

I'm staying at Mr. Li's rented house. But there's no one taking care of cooking and cleaning so it wasn't very convenient. At that time Lingqing and her husband lived in Jiwujianxiang No. 65 Lane. They had a spare room where I could stay, so I moved into the Hu household on March 14. There Sixth Sister [puopuo's older sister: in the nuclear family they were Er, San (my grandma), Si, Wu who were in their generation Liu, Ba, Jiu, Shi respectively] lived with them also and she took care of cooking and cleaning; even so, I felt uncomfortable because there were so many people living there. I went back to inquire about any vacancy at the YMCA and the director gave me preference because I had served at the other YMCA. So I moved in on March 29 and there's a dining hall so it was much more convenient. One afternoon, my boss, Mr. Wu needed to visit the former Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Li. Mr. Li came from Hubei and was a scholar, very humble and sincere. He related a lot of experiences of working in the Department. He came to bring me with him to Mr. Li's home; a very Western home with a beautiful yard, by the lake. 

I worked in Wuchang. Aside from having lunch with my colleagues, I usually do not participate in private dinner parties. So usually I can eliminate changes for people to try to bribe me. Then one day I received an invitation from my old friend's father Xu Zhendong. Mr. Xu's father, when I went to Japan, came to pick me up. So I remember him real well. And also he gave me some clothes to wear when I was so poor as a student. I received an invitation to a private party at their house. Because of our old friendship, I did not decline. The party was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. When I arrived, there were several guests already there. These guests were playing majiang in one of the side rooms. I usually do not play majiang so I was waiting in this large sitting room and the servants served many snacks and drinks. Mr. Xu hadn't gotten off work yet so I was waiting for him. The party was already going until past 6 o'clock and they finished eight rounds of majiang. Mr. Xu arrived and so we started dinner. Because this kind of party is the old way of living wasting precious money and time. I wrote a letter to Diqing, at first when I arrived at the Department of Interior to work and improve the farmers' standard of living, a hundred-year endeavor. I viewed the environment around them and doubted whether we would succeed or not. I didn't like this way of working and sometimes thought I would rather go back to Shanghai to work in the bank and do some research on the economy. At this time, I waited for an opportunity to do that. 

There was an iron mine in Hubei. And people said there was a lot of iron in this mine. Because the mine was concentrated at 60% and it wasn't very deep and close to the surface. So when you mined, you don't have to do a lot of work. It was cheaper to mine. The factory in charge of mining wasn't very big. The majority of the mine was sold to Japan. The Japanese company, years ago in the beginning when Japan was working on this mine, usually they got the iron cheaply. In this case, this mine isn't the property of a person, but government property. But in the history of mining, people took it as their own property; if they want to sell cheap they'll sell cheap. There's no regulation. So they sold cheaply to Japan. Because Japan enjoyed this cheap mine, they gave kickbacks to these individuals. By the time I started working there, this Japanese company had already developed to a large operation; a major company in Japan because with iron, they made steel. This Japan Steel Company, I interacted with representatives because they knew I knew Japanese. I started negotiating with them. I wanted to get rid of the kickbacks. So my boss wanted me to do this and I told him I didn't want to continue negotiating because I didn't want to be involved with kickbacks. I wanted to resign and my boss spoke to the Governor, Mr. Huang. The Governer and my boss told me we needed to report to this to Nanjing Central Government. So I need to go with them and take an express ship from Wuchang to Nanjing because of the urgency I didn't have time to pack. So I asked the director of the YMCA to do it for me. Because of this situation, this is the conclusion of my service in Wuchang. 

1937 Part 1

1937 age 36

This year was a big turning point for China. The first thing is about the Hubei governor, originally a person named Yang Yongtai from Guangdong. He was a very ambitious and capable person, trusted by the Hubei people. Even though he was governor of the one province, the neighboring Jiangxi, Henan, Sichuan governors came to consult with him. Mr. Yang was proud to be their head. His policies were very strict; once he used a ruler to mark a red cross on a map of Wuchang City. He sent this map to his department of buildings. Wherever the red cross marked, they were to take down all the houses to make the streets wider. According to his description, it was very dictatorial. There were many examples like this. So he had a lot of enemies. The year before, he was riding on his private boat from Hankou to Wuchang. He was assassinated at the port. After this incident, there were big changes politically. The central government assigned the governer of Zhejian, Huang Saoxiong, to become the governor of Hubei. They asked Zhejiang Secretary of Interior Wu to be the Secretary of Hubei. When Secretary Wu was traveling to Hubei to his new post, passing by Shanghai, he stopped by especially at the Central Bank's Committee of Special Research. He especially thanked my boss for assigning me to help the work in Zhejiang for the past year. Mr. Wu said my help was a great accomplishment. Now that he was going to Hubei, he wanted me to have a leave of absence from the Central Bank and go to Hubei to work for him at the secretariat. He knew my studies in Japan had been sponsored by Hubei's government and said, "Now is the time for you to pay them back." So the Central Bank approved the procedures for me to return to Hubei to work. 

When Diqing and I got married, we settled down in Gubuo Gongyu in Shanghai and we have two babies, Shu-Dong and Shu-Shi. Our lives were pretty smooth: good job, good living. Yet, at this time, we had a new trend: that is our relatives from Huangmei, either close relatives or from the same tribe, they would come to visit us in Shanghai. I was working and going to school for many years outside of my birthplace. I usually didn't have close contact with my kinfolk and missed them a lot. Now, when they came to visit, I really enjoyed them. Most of my tribesmen lived in Huangmei for generations, working in the fields and growing crops. They seldom traveled outside the village. Now they said: wow, Shanghai is the most modern city and business port. Now that they have somebody settled in Shanghai, they can have a place to stop and visit. Also, we'd guide them around to see places. It's a good chance for them to see the city. Besides, Diqing had a good reputation for hospitality and being nice to the tribe's people. Usually, she paid for their traveling and bought them shoes and gave them presents. Making everybody very happy. My late mother came to Shanghai to help out when Diqing gave birth to Shu-Dong and Shu-Shi. Because my late mother was the one who took care of the household in Huangmei, after the baby and new mom settled down, she cannot stay too long in Shanghai and must return to take care of the household in Huangmei. My late father had more leisure time so if he came to Shanghai, he could stay longer. When my late dad came to Shanghai, he loved his grandson Shu-dong best. Just like I love Huangen (my oldest grandson), now I understand why he loves Shu-dong the best. My late dad stayed in Shanghai for a while and then got homesick. At that time, I had already asked the Central Bank to give me vacation time to go to Wuchang, so I could accompany my late father to board the Jiangan Lun, this boat was newly built and the cabins were clean and my late father and I had two beds in one cabin. Even though we stayed in one room, it was pretty nice; I can read and write and it was very convenient. This boat is not only for passengers but also for cargo. So it takes a whole day for the cargo to load. Also, it stopped at every port from Shanghai to Wuchang. Because of the many stops and fog on the river, it traveled very slowly. It took three days to arrive in Nanjing and another day from Nanjing to Wuhu. On the fourth day in the evening, we arrived in Jioujiang. I took my late father to my cousin Yang Chenyi's so he could rest. Also my brother Siling was in Jioujiang, afterward, he would accompany my dad back to Huangmei. I continued on the Jiangan Lun and, on the evening on the fifth day, arrived in Hangkou and then crossed the river to Wuchang. I was going to stay at the YMCA but it was full. So I and another colleague Li Jingxi, who had already rented a big house, lived together. On the sixth day, I went to work to see Secretary Wu. We talked for two hours and in the afternoon I returned to the house Mr. Li rented. I spent two whole days writing down the plan of our work. Later on, most of my assignments would proceed from this plan. 

In the province of Hubei, because of the change in governer, all the department heads followed suit. When Mr. Yang was governor, he added a new department of Land Management. The department head was Mr. Yang. He was mysterious and famous, from Fuzhou, Fujian. He came from a poor family and been through lots of lowly difficult jobs. But later on, he was outstanding in his studies and he became a very innovative ambitious enterprising person. He was sent to travel abroad. He was very good at management, whether big or small. All his plans and policies were very effective and efficient. So he was appreciated by most of his colleagues. When Mr. Yang handed off his job to the new group, they found some billing and receipts that could not be reconciled. So a lot of people thought this was a good time to expose him: 'da luo shui go' (hit a drowning dog with rocks). But Secretary Wu was an upright and kind person. He was quiet for a while among the others badmouthing Mr. Yang. Secretary Wu thought for a while and then came to me to ask me for my opinion. I usually would keep quiet because this thing doesn't have anything to do with me. But since Secretary Wu asked my opinion, I gave it to him. I said when the Land Management department was newly formed, Mr. Yang came from outside, he didn't work that long and now had to change jobs. Probably because of the short period of time and many changes, he neglected some small details. My opinion is that he didn't deliberately embezzle or mismanage funds; and for these small unreconciled points, just let it go. Also, we are all colleagues, sometime later, we might need to give the job to somebody else. My opinion was: do not severely punish Mr. Yang. So Secretary Wu let him go and didn't investigate. Someone probably heard about our exchange so one of Mr. Yang's friends came to thank me because I never met Mr. Yang. It wasn't favoritism, I merely gave my fair and impartial judgment. 

I worked for the Department of Infrastructure. Because I was valued by Secretary Wu, any time there was something important, he usually came to me to discuss. The other colleagues, despite rank, also got along very well with me so I worked very happily there. At that time, China had just started to get into a normal situation. There were lots of people looking for jobs. Sometimes even with low paying jobs, many people fought for them. A lot of the time, people took backways and bribes to get jobs; disreputable things were going on. My department, for the sake of convenience, gave me a secretary job title. Every month, my salary was $300; this was next only to the department head. The department was involved in lots of important issues: agriculture, forestry, engineering, mining, transportation on land and water, and also most of the building and planning all involved my department. So there were many many people coming to apply for the various jobs in this department. My head secretary Mr. Wu did not like to talk to people, so he asked me to do the interviewing. I am a scholar, not a diplomat. Rather than complicate things, I am a 1+1=2 guy. If the person is qualified, I hire them. If not, I tell them they probably can't get the job. I tell them so they don't waste their time. I simplify and make things efficient. So various people appreciated me for making things clear. 

1936: The final paragraphs of an eventful year

1936 - age 35 continued

The main reason Secretary Wu invited me to Hanzhou was that in 1932 I had suggested a plan to improve the livelihood of the farmers. He thought it was a plan that was feasible. This idea came from my Business College professor who had a theory about co-op farming and I did research on British plans of co-ops. I also made a lot of references from Japanese agricultural improvements. This time when I came to Zhejiang province, my main focus was building warehouses to store agricultural product. What was involved in this plan was to choose a town or village where there are more farmers and a bigger area for growing crops. We would invite the leaders of these towns and villages, the ruling class knowledgeable, to a conference to explain what the government plan was for improving their livelihood. Also, after we conferenced with these leaders, we would choose a piece of land as a pilot. We chose a place that was not susceptible to flooding and had access by road for means of transportation. We asked the provincial government to collect money from the villages and towns and the provincial government would supplement any needed amounts of money. On our pilot property, we would build a big warehouse to store the agricultural products. There were a lot of architectural requirements for the warehouse: safe, secure from rain and flooding. This warehouse would be a showpiece to demonstrate to the farmers that their product would be stored safely. They would become members to use the warehouse and they would pay a membership fee. At peak production, the price would drop. With the warehouse, they wouldn't have to sell at harvest. They can control the price much better. And if some members had a special need, they could take a loan from the co-op. With this provincial government plan, the livelihood of the farmers could be improved and they wouldn't have to be poor year-round. For the management of the system, there were committees but the management would be chosen by the farmers. We launched this plan in Hanzhou and gradually spread to the rest of the province. Because it needed to be proved successful first before the rest of the province wanted to adopt it. The rest of the province had a lot of positive response. So much that the neighboring provides of Jiangxi wanted to do similar things. 

This year was very busy with Shu-dong's illness and the birth of Shu-Shih and also traveling back and forth between Hanzhou and Shanghai. Even though I was very busy, I still did a lot of research on my college major: currency and financing. My old friend, Mr. Lei, he's a very patriotic person. He established a new research group called Building New China and also a monthly magazine telling about what the group was doing. In this group and magazine, they published a lot of people's articles and plans. Mr. Liu, Mr. Ma, Mr. Xu, Mr. Lo, and also they asked me to be involved. Most of the articles I wrote were about currency and financing. Mr. Lei himself published a lot of books he compiled or edited. Inside one of his publications said that during the twenty-five years of China's recent history, since the Opium War, China is experiencing one difficulty after another. And Dongbei (east-north, Manchuria) was occupied by Japan. All the northern provinces were at war because the  Japanese were fighting to occupy the country. China had to experience all the turmoil of war, there was no time to do any building up or strengthen the country. In his publications, he always called the people to be zealous for patriotism, we can't let this beat us, we need to unite and fight. The traditional Chinese philosophy says that every single person is responsible for the life of the country. Every little person has some responsibility. Not just a small group. He wrote a lot of these kinds of articles, calling people to wake up and do their part. I wrote about financing during this unusual time of chaos and wart. I wrote a book mainly about inflation, currency, credit, and management. This little book I brought to Taiwan and I treasure it. 

[During Gonggong's time, most Chinese went through unsettling: fleeing from the enemy or no peace. Like my dad, they kept on moving from place to place. Hard for families to do research and things like that.]

This year, I traveled between Shanghai and Hanzhou many many times. Besides the room and board, and transportation in Zhejiang province was paid by the government, the rest of my traveling expenses were paid by myself. Because when I was sent to Hanzhou, it was a temporary basis, so I wasn't paid by the bank. For my work in Zhejiang, I wasn't paid. Until December of this year, Mr. Wu, my boss, asked the government payroll to give me some compensation for my expenses. The one who brought the money to me was Mr. Li. He said, "Mr. Qu, I saw you were a very disciplined, upright person. You would rather be mistreated for a year than to complain. But now Mr. Wu has done the right thing and not taken advantage of his employees. Now, you have the money to have a nice new year. 

This year, in December, there was a big event: Jian Jiesi was captured in Xi'an. [My dad was born during this time. This Xi'an Incident changed the whole military situation of China.] If you want to research this incident, there is a lot of writing on this so I won't go into detail. One thing we were very grateful for was that Jian Jiesi was in danger for quite a while. Every morning, he very calmly read his bible and prayed. On Christmas Day, Madame Jiang flew to Xi'an and brought him back to Nanjing safely. That morning, he was reading the bible Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man.” I believe Acts 27:25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. The whole nation celebrated his return, this was a big turning point in our nation and a big turning point in my biography. 

[The communist version of Xi'an Incident is much different, obviously; history is written by winners.]

1936 - age 35 cont: My mother is born

1936 - age 35 continued

The first time I planned to go to Hanzhou, the departure and arrival times were set. But just before I needed to leave, Shudong started to have a fever. I thought he was catching a cold. I asked Diqing to cover him with more blankets to help him sweat it out. I thought after he sweated he would be fine, and I deaprted. We didn't know that if a child already has a fever and you make him warmer it gives them seizures. Diqing asked for help from Bao Cenliang, a famous physician. Also, she asked me to return to Shanghai immediately. I had just arrived in Hanzhou, "and you want me to return." Fortunately, I didn't need to because Dr Bao gave him some medicine which helped Shudong come out of danger.

The second time I went to Hanzhou, I stayed in a club belonging to the Infrastructure Department. It was by Xihu (West Lake), located in a nice place. Because the secretary gave special orders, all the people gave me excellent service, they did everything to please me. On Saturday, because of the weekend, many people came to Xihu to enjoy the scenery. There were so many people, only late at night did people return home. During the day, I was busy working for the department and I didn't have time to look around. After I went to bed, I woke up in the middle of the night and looked out the window. There was a very nice reflection off the lake. A thin fog hovered over the lake. With the moonlight and everything it was so nice and quiet. The beauty of the lake was even better than it was during the day. Spontaneously, I got up and asked the manager to hire someone to row a boat for me. There was a boat that belonged to the department so I didn't need to rent a boat but I did need someone to row it. He took me around the lake in the middle of the night. We passed by the bridges and mountains that were famous at Xihu. We went through all the tourist spots including the Qing dynasty governor's temple. This temple was usually inaccessible by people during the day. But I took special notice because this governor was from Huangmei. Once every three years, the government holds a national exam. This Governor Xuai got the highest marks in the preliminary exam and third in finals. There was a prime minister at the end of the Qing dynasty Zhen Guofan. He called them the Honorable Foursome, along with Xuai the other three were all very famous. Governer Xuai did a lot of good for Zhejiang, so the people set up a temple for him. When I was a child, when we started learning at home, I already knew Xuai Tanhua's (3rd place) name. Now at night, I was seeing his temple, I felt some connection with him. In the past, there was a poet who wrote: Some famous people, when you read their writing you feel close because you came from the same place. I took Governor Xuai as my close relative. For this trip, I wrote a set of four poems called Xihu Yan Fan.

Diqing was pregnant again but during the pregnancy she became ill and depended on Dr Bao several times for medicine. So she was fine until June 14 at 7:15 AM when our second child was born. With her first child, labor was so long and we had called the doctor early. So this time, we thought we should not call the doctor too early. We didn't realize this baby girl would be born so fast. Before the doctor came, she had already come out and cried so loud. None of us knew what to do. I took a blanket and covered the baby so she wouldn't catch a cold. After delivery, we called the doctor. We were so nervous. Fortunately, the doctor came very fast and she took care of the baby and the mother. Both were fine and we thanked God for his mercy. This is our first daughter and we named her Shushi and her personality is quiet and nice, just like my mom. Chinese people say you inherit traits from one generation above.