The dead sea | century life Yan Youyun socialite

It is reported that in May 25th, the famous diplomat Gu Weijun Youyun Ms. Yan widow died in New York home, at the age of 112.

The rich lady of old Shanghai, the wife of the wartime diplomat, the first person in the Republic of China, Gu Weijun's late companion, the life of the centenarians, witnessed the ups and downs and vicissitudes of the century.

This article is published in "Sanlian Life Weekly", the forty-sixth issue of 2006.

Yan's daughter Yang Xuelan served as vice president of the General Motors Corporation, general investment in the production of Buick in Shanghai, that is, she contributed. Yang Xuelan inherited not only the appearance of his mother, but also a self-confidence, strong and optimistic.

Reporter Yang Xuelan Li Jing \ \ \ \ oral

"Miss 84" in Shanghai

Many years later, I realized what a famous mother she was in Shanghai. Around 1980, when I returned to Shanghai from the United States, my uncle took me to see a friend. The old man lived in the alley, the broken third floor, and the lights were dim. It was so hot that he wore a vest and shorts and tried desperately to fan it. My uncle said: "this is Yang Xuelan, the daughter of Youyun yan. The old man's face lit up and said, "Oh, you're the daughter of '84'?"! At that time, but we every day to stand at the University of Shanghai gate, just to see a "84"! "

Mother's family background should begin with her grandfather, Yan Xinhou. Yan Xinhou is modern famous industrialist, he served as the book source in Hangzhou Hu Xueyan shops opened, Hu Xueyan was recommended to Li Hongzhang Hu appreciated. He accumulated a large amount of salt business, property, in painting, calligraphy was accomplished by painting, Lu Yan famous, now his paintings also devoted to the study of Ningbo.

Yanyouyun

Yan Xinhou is committed to the national industry and Commerce and finance, in 1887, he invested 5 taels of gold and silver Chinese founded first machine ginning factory in the Gulf of Ningbo, after the investment in Shanghai flour mills, plant oil and many other industries. In 1902, he also served as the first Shanghai business groups: Shanghai business conference hall of the first prime minister. Yan family is a big family, another famous Yan family, is called by Zhang Boling "Nankai" father of Yan Xiu, he funded the young Zhou Enlai in Europe, is a famous educator.

Yan Xinhou had two daughters and a son, the son of Yan Zijun is my grandfather. Yan was an enlightened businessman who expanded his industry and his mother lived in such a rich and relaxed family. She and her two sisters, Yan Caiyun and Yan Lianyun, became the first Chinese women to receive higher education.

In 1925 the mother admitted to the University of Shanghai, it is one of the earliest Chinese coeducational church school students must live on campus, a lot of the sacred rules of the religious order, can only go home once a month. Mother refused to be bound, and in 1927 she switched to business at Fudan University and became the first female student to enter the school. Last year was the centennial celebration of Fudan University, the school specially selected a few centenarians graduated from Fudan University, a book, one of them is the mother, the mother of the year when the school sent us photos as a souvenir, the mother received very happy.

In 1932, Yan Youyun's agreeable manners

Then can enter a higher school girls and was rich and very rare, trendy mother became the focus of attention. Because home in Shanghai Nanjing open road "nine chapter Choubu Zhuang, Choubu Zhuang all kinds of cloth with her pick, there are several tailor, mother almost every day for a new dress the most fashionable, when I was a child of mother those brightly coloured clothes very deep impression, also envy. Mother's habit of dressing has kept her life, and even though she is 101 this year, she often asks me to help her with her clothes. Some of the clothes she can't wear are left to me. They are all very good. My friends say they can be used as antiques.

Mother lived in Jingan Temple, far from Fudan. At that time, she went to school in her own car. The family gave her a driver, she could drive, often the driver sitting next to her, driving, many boys standing at the school gate every day, waiting for her car passing by. Because the license plate number is "84", some boys will read English Eighty Four into "love flowers" in Shanghai dialect". Many of her classmates at Fudan recalled that they felt flattered when their mother started borrowing notes or homework from which boy". The nickname "love flower" was not only on Fudan campus, but also in newspapers and magazines in Shanghai, and mother became the representative of the most fashionable people at that time.

Yan Youyun drives No. 84 to Fudan University

Parents are also related to "84". The first time she met her mother, she was driving the "flower of love" car. He was curious and followed. Coincidentally, the two of them joined the same Party. Father immediately asked friends to introduce him, began to send flowers to his mother, date, and finally in the "fierce competition", won the mother's heart.

My father died for the country.

In September 1929, the father and mother in Shanghai Dahua hotel wedding, here is also 9 months ago Jiang Jieshi and Song Meiling wedding place. The wedding was presided over by foreign minister Wang Zhengting, attended by nearly 1000 people.

My father, Yang Guang, was born in 1900 and was admitted to the higher school of Qinghua University at the age of 16. He left the United States after graduating from the University of 20 and received a doctorate in Philosophy in international public law. He returned to Qinghua in 1927 as a professor of political science and international law and soon entered the diplomatic field. He became Consul General of China in London and Commissioner in Europe in 1930. After the outbreak of the war of resistance, his father was sent to Philippines to serve as Consul General of the Chinese Consulate General in Manila, and our family followed his father to Manila.

In 1929, Yan Youyun and Yang Guangsheng's wedding in Shanghai Dahua Hotel

After the "Pearl Harbor" incident in December 1941, the Japanese began bombing Philippines. My parents took us 3 sisters, originally lived in Manila to a good house, at the beginning of the war, diplomatic personnel in Philippines are all concentrated in the Manila Hotel, our three sisters and parents in a crowded room, my mother and I slept in the bed, Dad brought her sister and sister slept in on the floor, when my sister was born shortly before the parents pull a drawer, put a small pillow to her bed. I was only 6 years old that year, and I remember looking out of the window, and the whole sea seemed to be a sea of fire.

In January 2, 1942, Manila fell. On January 4th, I remember that morning, the whole family was having breakfast. When I came in, 3 Japanese gendarmerie, I was still young, looked at the Japanese and found it strange because their feet were all wrapped up. On the goose step, they said to their father, "you are under arrest.". "Father seems to have prepared, he calmly returned to the room, took the already packed boxes and followed them.

In January 1942, before the Japanese occupation, Manila

At the beginning of the war, general Mike Arthur invited his father and my family to take refuge in Australia, but the father said, "I can't leave. The overseas Chinese need me.". As the father of the consul general, armed with embassy staff, anti Japanese propaganda was carried out among the overseas Chinese and donations were made for the Chinese Anti Japanese war. In addition, there was a group in the United States published a large number of legal tender, in the back home a layover at the consulate general, father worried that they are Japanese occupation, and ordered burned, these may have angered Japanese. They arrested both the father and the embassy staff in disregard of international law.

Father, who was originally locked up at the University of Philippines, Academy of Fine Arts, where no facilities were available, I remember once when my mother took us to our sick father and filled the bottle with brandy. Before long, father, they were thrown into the Santiago Fort dungeon. The Spanish built prison in the river, the river every day will rise up to the prison is a prison.

For a long time, the mother did not know whether his father was dead or alive. The Japanese had sent a parcel to the mother, with her father's glasses, watches and a cut of locks, and her mother wept when she received them. But some people say that the Japanese will not really kill their father, because he is a diplomat after all, so we live in half hope. Not until the end of the war did we know that his father had been killed in April 1942. According to a number of subsequent investigations, the local farmer who witnessed the incident said seven people were taken to the fields and asked them to dig their own pit and dig it in and then stand inside. The Japanese blindfolded them, and my father refused to keep eyes open on the japanese. After the gun father was not dead, he also pointed to his heart to Japanese again..

Along with his father, there were several other staff members of the embassy, the youngest of whom was only 23 years old and was soon sent out. After the end of the war of resistance against Japan, in July 7, 1947, the Nationalist government sent a special plane to Philippines to send the remains of 8 diplomats, such as his father, to Nanjing. On the anniversary of the victory of the Anti Japanese war in September 3rd, they were buried in Nanjing together with the father and the chrysanthemum chrysanthemum Taiwan, Taiwan was renamed "Martyrs Park"; and in Manila, there is the construction of the overseas fund-raising consul general Yang Guang and his librarian monument".

The hard times in Manila

Shortly after his father was arrested, his mother took us from the Manila Hotel back to the old house. The building was originally only our family, and now it has become the residence of all diplomatic personnel; our sisters, 3, each had a single bedroom, and now every room is full of families. When the mother of a friend from Shanghai to the United States for her husband, the mother of Philippines, is to catch up with the outbreak of the war, had to stay in Manila, she was the mother of 2 people and we had 4 to a room, this is a live 4 years.

Mother is very great, although she was rich lady and pampered, but lost the support of his father, she did not break down. She felt a responsibility to take care of the other 7 diplomats and embassy families when there are more than 40 people living together, the equivalent of a large family, there will be all kinds of contradictions, what you stole my oil, I took you what things like. The mother became the family Butler, and later with so many people moving several times, looking for a house, are the mother of her. Mother had not had any experience in this field before, but she quickly adjusted to life and never complained.

We lived in a house with a garden, garden into the war came, my mother took us vegetable, vegetables, chicken, duck, also learn to own soy sauce, soap. She has no income, and depends on the things sent by the local overseas Chinese to make a living. She has to keep selling things herself to keep our bread and butter. But mother never gives us the mood, and always maintains an optimistic attitude. When she is free, she often sits in front of the piano and plays a tune. Before the war, we had a housekeeper who was very strict with our daily life and diet. After the war, mother took over, and we felt completely free. So even though it was a time of war, I don't seem to feel the bitterness of life.

Yan Youyun's daughter Yang Xuelan

Mother has a word: Prepare, for, the, worst, hope, for, the, best. (prepare for the worst, do the best hope) We are 3 sisters each have own cloth bags, filled with biscuits, water and some clothes, in order to take flight. In the years of turmoil, women are particularly vulnerable, and we like a mother and 4 people, lost the only male family, remember the end of the war, one day she took us 3 days to hide in a shelter, is afraid of being defeated Japanese, also avoid just the American soldiers occupied Philippines, as her mother in their greatest strength to protect us.

After the war, our family went to the United States by ship, and on the sea for 24 days, a warship with hundreds of people was equipped with more than 3000 people. When I first came to America, my mother did not work. The mother was asking a friend if she could apply for work in the United Nations, "said the friend." how can you adjust to the morning work and the evening off? But the mother was trying to come into the United Nations Chief Concierge, the concierge reception work from the incoming ambassadors, arrange for them to submit his credentials to the reception at the UN General Assembly of heads of state, involving all United Nations official etiquette matters, not a little wrong. Mother has been working for 15 years until leaving office in October 1959. My sister and I have the opportunity to go to a good school, because the mother works to support the family.

Mother has maintained this optimistic spirit throughout her life, which may be the reason for her longevity! Mother has always wanted to keep her teeth and do not want to wear dentures. She had to have her teeth repaired every few weeks. The last time she went back to the hospital, the taxi came home when an accident broke out and her teeth were knocked out. When we heard the news, we were all very upset, but our mother consoled us and said, "I was lucky, because the taxi could cause a worse accident.". "

And Gu Weijun's happy old age

In 1959, his mother married Mr Gu Weijun in New York and became his third wife. Mother and Mr. Gu lived together for 26 years, until Mr. Gu's death, and this is Mr. Gu's most happy and stable life in his later years.

Born in 1888, Gu Weijun was a native of Shanghai, Jiading. He went to Columbia University at the age of 16, majoring in international law and diplomacy. In 1908, Tang Shaoyi visited the United States in the name of the special envoy of the Qing court and met 40 Chinese students in the embassy. Tang Shaoyi was very impressed with Gu Weijun's speech on behalf of the students. After the founding of the Republic of China and the ruling of Yuan Shikai, Tang Shaoyi became Prime Minister of Yuan Shikai, and he immediately recommended Gu Weijun to Yuan Shikai.

Yan Youyun and Gu Weijun

When he received an invitation to return to the English language Secretary of the presidential office, Gu Weijun was preparing his doctoral thesis, and his paper was written in a single order. In the middle of the dilemma, a mentor who served as assistant secretary of state told Gu Weijun, "you learn diplomacy to serve your country. Now you have such a good opportunity, you should catch it.". He believes that Gu Weijun alone is the starting point, and can be used as a doctoral thesis to reply. In this way, Gu Weijun successfully got a doctorate in 1912, before returning to his post. Gu Weijun, 24, served as Yuan Shikai's English Secretary and translator; at the age of 27, Gu Weijun was appointed minister to the United States, and then he had a reputation as one of the three great men in the capital. He was not only China's youngest envoy abroad, but also the youngest foreign envoy in Washington's history.

Mother knew Gu Weijun long ago, Mr. Gu was his father's former boss, and then he was in a very high position. My father had written to him before and asked some questions, and my family came to the United States. It was also Mr. Gu's help. Mr. Gu worked as a young man when he was young. In fact, the concept of "family" was very weak for him. There was no personal life and few private friends. Before marrying his mother, Mr. Gu worked in the International Court of justice in Hague, when he had no home and stayed in a hotel. May be long and no one to take care of me, when we met him, he was very thin, eat at home like a party official as someone special, stood behind him, handed him a piece of cloth to serve him, at first we all feel strange, because our family is very casual.

Gu Weijun is wearing a wedding ring Youyun Yan

Mr. Gu was a very serious man. He was with us for a long time. Mr. Gu was also transformed by us. He is a very interesting person, he will like children like birthday Party. Every year on his birthday, we all have to think about how to celebrate. His birthday was January 29th, and later became the most important day of the year except Christmas and spring festival. One year my family went skiing, and when he and his mother were old, he planned to take a walk around. One day when we came back, see he took the new ski clothes, he can not help but "childlike innocence", together with us to go skiing, then the "time" magazine also published an article, said the 72 year old Gu Weijun learned to ski.

My mother knew Mr. Gu used to get up late, worried about his health, every morning get up at 3, as he cooked milk in the thermos flask, with a "don't forget to drink milk" note on the bed. Mr. Gu's old age, when it comes to the secret of longevity, summed up the three: "walk, eat less snacks, wife care.". "

Although the twenties in high positions, but Mr. Gu never supercilious, even for the driver, waiter, are very kind. He is in front of us rarely mentioned his own experience, only occasionally talk about the story before, such as the 1931 "918" after the incident, he participated in the UN's "Lytton Commission", was Japanese to prevent his is very strict, even to prevent him from entering the northeast, to put a bomb in his train on the threat of dangerous situations. He still braved these dangers and submitted a lengthy memo to the United Nations on Japan's invasion of northeast china.

Mr. Gu Weijun's 92 birthday

So in his later years, he was happily married to his mother. Mr. Gu Weijun later completed his oral memoir in 17 years, which was inseparable from his mother's careful care. Mr. Tang Degang made the oral history as he is, he served as the Hague International Court of justice, Tang Degang used his annual vacation to New York for 3 months, every 4 hours to visit. While Mr. Gu is a diplomat, he keeps a diary every day and saves a lot of historical information. Together, they completed a total of 13 volumes and 600 million words "Memoirs of Gu Weijun", which left a particularly valuable historical data for Chinese modern history.

Mr. Gu is with us and has many friends. About 22 p.m. on the night of his death, he asked his mother, "what's this week?" "After a bath, finally at the age of 98 years. Although he left the mainland for decades, Gu Weijun did not join the American citizenship, and maintained the belief that "all his life was Chinese" until he left.

After the death of Mr. Gu, the mother donated 155 of his belongings to the Jiading Museum in Shanghai and donated $100 thousand to help set up an exhibition of Gu Weijun's life. In September 2nd this year, the statue of Gu Weijun was completed in Shanghai, finally coming home, for him, for his mother, round a wish for many years.

(pictures from the web)

The article copyright "Sanlian Life Weekly" all welcome, forwarded to the circle of friends, please contact the background.

Related labels:

Ladies

The dead

Life

century

Philippines University