TESTING CLONE of Old China Hands Archives Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 2
Message from the Director
I sit down to write this brief letter at a moment in world history beset with tragedy. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to kill people around the world, even as the race to provide vaccinations against the disease continues. The United States has by now lost well over half a million people, leaving behind many more who mourn them. Refugees throng many parts of the world. The combat against encroachment on human rights and liberties and the dissemination of falsehoods, racist attitudes and conspiracy theories seems never-ending. China, the country of my birth, has made enormous strides in the nurturing of its population and is now an enormous economic powerhouse, but its technological advances are accompanied by restrictions on human rights, be it in Hong Kong, Sinkiang (Xinjiang), Tibet, or in the monitoring of individual behavior and dissemination of information.
The world which we Old China Hands inhabited now seems very long ago and very far away. It too was a harsh world. That was a China in the throes of colonialist encroachment and civil strife, as well as the cruel invasion by Japan. Old China Hands had to, somehow, survive in the midst of that turmoil, and the Archive serves to remind us of the conditions prevalent at the time. Through an accident of birth and longevity, I find myself one of the final cohort of those who have personal memories of those days.
So, perhaps it is appropriate that the articles in this issue are all related to people with whom I had a personal relationship, whether they be relatives or friends. I cherish their memory and sadly miss them all.
Robert Gohstand
March 23, 2021
Message from the Director
I sit down to write this brief letter at a moment in world history beset with tragedy. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to kill people around the world, even as the race to provide vaccinations against the disease continues. The United States has by now lost well over half a million people, leaving behind many more who mourn them. Refugees throng many parts of the world. The combat against encroachment on human rights and liberties and the dissemination of falsehoods, racist attitudes and conspiracy theories seems never-ending. China, the country of my birth, has made enormous strides in the nurturing of its population and is now an enormous economic powerhouse, but its technological advances are accompanied by restrictions on human rights, be it in Hong Kong, Sinkiang (Xinjiang), Tibet, or in the monitoring of individual behavior and dissemination of information.
The world which we Old China Hands inhabited now seems very long ago and very far away. It too was a harsh world. That was a China in the throes of colonialist encroachment and civil strife, as well as the cruel invasion by Japan. Old China Hands had to, somehow, survive in the midst of that turmoil, and the Archive serves to remind us of the conditions prevalent at the time. Through an accident of birth and longevity, I find myself one of the final cohort of those who have personal memories of those days.
So, perhaps it is appropriate that the articles in this issue are all related to people with whom I had a personal relationship, whether they be relatives or friends. I cherish their memory and sadly miss them all.
Robert Gohstand
March 23, 2021
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