{"id":13136,"date":"2023-10-25T06:30:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T06:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=13136"},"modified":"2023-10-31T13:40:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T13:40:29","slug":"the-british-man-who-helped-the-communists-fight-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/the-british-man-who-helped-the-communists-fight-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"The British man who helped the Communists fight Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Law<\/strong>, Academic Director of Global Partnerships at Keele University<\/strong>, shares a touching story of commitment, courage and cross-cultural romance during the Second Sino-Japanese War<\/h2>\n

In recent years, I have discovered a story that I should have known long ago. I am now aiming to tell it whenever I have the chance. Recently, when in China, I gave two lectures to university audiences about Michael Lindsay. Under his Chinese name, Lin Maike, he is known as someone who made a major contribution to the war of resistance against the Japanese occupation.<\/p>\n

\"Launchpad<\/a><\/p>\n

Lindsay went to China to work at Yenching University, a missionary university in Beijing. But it was not the importation of tutorial teaching, Oxford style, that ensured his legacy. During 1938, it was possible, quite easily, to make contact with the forces fighting the Japanese occupation in Hebei Province. Aiming to investigate for himself, Michael took his bicycle by train from Beijing to Baoding. Then, with two companions, he rode into the countryside for a couple of miles and crossed the Japanese frontline with little difficulty. A mile later, he encountered Chinese sentries and was welcomed. He then worked with the Chinese Communist army for seven years.<\/p>\n

The sub-title of my lecture was \u201ca story of commitment and courage\u201d, and there was certainly plenty of both in play.\u00a0It took courage for Michael to face the danger of working in occupied Beijing when he could easily have left China after a couple of years.\u00a0This courage was matched by commitment, both to the anti-fascist struggle and also on a deeply personal level: Michael married a Chinese woman named Li Xiaoli (Hsiao Li) in 1941.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Michael’s study in a wing of the President’s house at Yenching University.<\/p><\/div>\n

At Shanxi University in Taiyuan, I spoke to a group organised by the team responsible for international cooperation and exchange: around 30 young Chinese who were determined to improve their linguistic skills and regularly attend lectures in English. Taiyuan was a good place to deliver this lecture. Hsiao Li was from Shanxi Province and had attended high school in Taiyuan. She had involved herself in student protest, which led to her flight from the Shanxi capital.<\/p>\n

In Shanghai, I presented to a very different group.\u00a0At the National Accounting Institute, there was an audience of about 40 professionals, almost all from African countries and seconded from civil service posts.\u00a0They were particularly attracted to the subject by the cross-cultural dimension.<\/p>\n