Israel Epstein - Wikipedia

Israel Epstein - Wikipedia 7/14/24, 01:44
Israel Epstein
Israel Epstein (20 April 1915 – 26 May 2005) was a Polish-
Israel Epstein
born Chinese journalist and author. He was one of the few
foreign-born Chinese citizens of non-Chinese origin to become
a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
Early life and education

Israel Epstein was born on 20 April 1915 in Warsaw to Jewish
parents;[1][2] Warsaw was then part of Congress Poland, which
was under Imperial Russian control. His father had been
imprisoned by the authorities of czarist Russia for leading a
labor uprising and his mother had been exiled to Siberia.
Epstein's father was sent by his company to Japan after the
outbreak of the World War I; when the German Army
approached Warsaw, his mother and Epstein fled and joined
him in Asia. With his family experiencing anti-Jewish Israel Epstein on 12 December
sentiment in several places, in 1917, Epstein came to China 1942
with his parents at the age of two and they settled in Tianjin Members of the Standing
(formerly Tientsin) in 1920. Epstein was raised there.[2] Committee of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th,
10th Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference
Career In office
June 1983 – 26 May 2005
Israel Epstein began to work in journalism at age 15, when he
wrote for the Peking and Tientsin Times, an English-language Personal details
newspaper based in Tianjin. He also covered the Japanese Born 20 April 1915
Invasion of China for the United Press[3]: 203 and other Warsaw,
Western news agencies. In the autumn of 1938, he joined the Congress
China Defense League, which had been established by Soong Poland,
Ching-ling, Sun Yat-sen's widow, for the purpose of publicizing Russian
and enlisting international support for the Chinese cause.[2] In Empire (now
1941, he faked news about his own death as a decoy for the Poland)
Japanese who were trying to arrest him. The misinformation Died 26 May 2005
even found its way into a short item printed in The New York (aged 90)
Times. Beijing, China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Epstein Page 1 of 5
After being assigned to review one of the books of Edgar Snow, Political party Chinese
Epstein and Snow came to know each other personally and Communist
Snow showed him his classic work Red Star Over China before Party
it was published. He was deeply influenced by the
Occupation Journalist,
progressivism of Snow and became involved with the
author
democratic movement in China, becoming an editor for Snow's
magazine, Democracy.[2] Chinese name
Simplified Chinese 伊斯雷尔·爱
In 1934, Epstein married Edith Bihovsky Epstein, later Ballin,
泼斯坦
from whom he was divorced in the early 1940s. In 1944,
Epstein first visited Britain and afterwards went to live in the Traditional Chinese 伊斯雷爾·愛
United States with his second wife Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley for 潑斯坦
five years. Transcriptions [show]
Standard Mandarin
After escaping from an Imperial Japanese concentration camp,
Hanyu Pinyin Yīsīléi'ěr Àipōsītǎn
he worked for Allied Labor News, becoming editor-in-chief. He
published his book The Unfinished Revolution in China in Wade–Giles Īszūléi'ěrh
1947.[3]: 203 His book was enthusiastically reviewed in The Àip'ōszūt'ǎn
New York Times by Owen Lattimore of Johns Hopkins Yale Yīsz̄léi'ěr Àipwōsz̄tǎn
University. Romanization
Yue: Cantonese
In 1951 Communist defector Elizabeth Bentley testified to the
Yale yì sì euìh yíh ngoi
U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, "Israel Epstein
Romanization put sì táan
had been a member of the Russian secret police for many years
in China."[4] Jyutping ji1 si1 eoi4 ji5 ngoi3
put3 si1 taan2
Many years later, his wife, Fairfax-Cholmeley, would become
known to a generation of Chinese-language students in China and around the world as a
contributor to one of the most widely used Chinese-English dictionaries published in the PRC.
After Fairfax-Cholmeley's death in 1984, Epstein married his third wife, Huang Huanbi.[5]
In 1951, Soong Ching-ling invited him to return to China with his wife Fairfax-Cholmeley.[3]: 203
There, Epstein served as an advisor to People's China (Renmin Zhongguo), the forerunner of
Peking Review.[3]: 203 With Soong, he started the magazine China Reconstructs (Zhongguo
Jianshe),[3]: 203 which was later renamed China Today. Epstein also worked on the translation of
the Selected Works of Mao Zedong (Mao Zedong Xuanji).[3]: 203 He remained editor-in-chief of
China Today until his retirement at age 70, and stayed on as editor emeritus. During his tenure at
China Today, he became a Chinese citizen in 1957 and a member of the Chinese Communist Party
in 1964.[2] In 1955, 1965 and 1976 Epstein visited Tibet, and based on these three visits in 1983
published the book Tibet Transformed.[6]
Imprisonment
Epstein was imprisoned twice, separately by the Empire of
Japan and later by the People's Republic of China.
He was placed in a concentration camp by Imperial Japanese

authorities following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He
escaped along with some of the other prisoners.[2]
During the Cultural Revolution, on charges of plotting against

Zhou Enlai, he was imprisoned in 1968 in the north of Beijing
in Qincheng Prison, where he was subjected to solitary
confinement. In 1973, he was released, and Zhou apologized.
His privileges were restored.[7] Despite his 5 years
imprisonment, he remained loyal to the ideals of Communism
until his death. Israel Epstein was elected as a member of the
Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body, in
1983.
Honors
During his life, Israel Epstein was honored by Chinese political
leaders Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin,
and Hu Jintao. His funeral was held at the Babaoshan
Cemetery for Revolutionaries, in Shijingshan District, Beijing
on 3 June 2005 at 09:30. The ceremony was attended by many
officials, among then President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen
Jiabao, as well as Politburo Standing Committee members Jia
Qinglin and Li Changchun. After the service, his body was
cremated.
Israel Epstein, 1936/1937, Yan'an,
then capital of Chinese Soviet
Published works Republic
The People's War. [An Account of the War in China to the

Fall of Hankow], V. Gollancz, 1939, 384 p.
I Visit Yenan: Eye Witness Account of the Communist-led Liberated Areas in North-West
China, People's Publishing House [Bombay], 1945, 94 pp.
Notes on Labor Problems in Nationalist China, Garland Pub., 1980, 159 pp.
My China Eye: Memoirs of a Jew and a Journalist, Long River Press, 2005, 358 pp.
History Should Not be Forgotten, 五洲传播出版社, 2005, 286 pp.
First published in English

The Unfinished Revolution in China, Little Brown and
Company (1947), hardcover, 442 pp.
Published in Chinese, translated into English

From Opium War to Liberation, New World Press (Beijing,
1956), hardcover, 146 pp.
Tibet Transformed, New World Press (Beijing, 1983), trade
paperback, 563 pp, ISBN 0-8351-1087-7
Woman in World History: Soong Ching Ling, New World
Press (Beijing, 1993), hardcover, ISBN 7-80005-161-7
See also
Epstein (front line, second right)
Rewi Alley visited Yan'an in 1944 with Mao (top
Sidney Rittenberg right)
Sidney Shapiro
Jews in China
Round Eyes in the Middle Kingdom – a documentary about Israel Epstein
References
1. Israel Epstein Obituary (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1491973/Israel-Epstein.ht
ml). The Telegraph, Retrieved 15 December 2014.
2. Pan, Guang (2019), Pan, Guang (ed.), "Jewish Refugees and the Chinese People: Friendship
in a Troubled Time" (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9483-6_6), A Study of Jewish
Refugees in China (1933–1945): History, Theories and the Chinese Pattern, Singapore:
Springer, pp. 63–83, doi:10.1007/978-981-13-9483-6_6 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-981-1
3-9483-6_6), ISBN 978-981-13-9483-6, retrieved 9 April 2021
3. Li, Hongshan (2024). Fighting on the Cultural Front: U.S.-China Relations in the Cold War. New
York, NY: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231207058.
4. Medford Evans, The Assassination of Joe McCarthy, Western Islands Press, 1970, pp. 117–
118
5. Song, Anna. (2010). The Heavenly Ford. Tianjin People's Publishing House. p. 151. ISBN 978-
7-201-06559-5. OCLC 862144523 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/862144523).
6. Israel Epstein, a famous apologist for the Chinese Communist regime (http://www.rfa.org/tibeta
n/chediklaytsen/ukaylatsen/bodnaykheswang/2005/06/10/life-and-death-of-israel-epstein/)
7. Israel Epstein. Emigre journalist whose devotion to Communist China withstood even
imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituari
es/article530937.ece), 8 June 2005, The Times
Adapted from the Wikinfo article "Israel Epstein" (https://web.archive.org/web/2007093015463

5/http://wikinfo.org/wiki.php?title=Israel_Epstein) 2 June 2005
Sources and external links

New York Times Obituary by Douglas Martin (https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/internationa
l/asia/02epstein.html)
Obituary People's Daily Online (http://english.people.com.cn/200505/31/eng20050531_18777
8.html)
Retrospective, China Today (https://web.archive.org/web/20050425144441/http://www.chinatod
ay.com.cn/English/e2005/e200504/p30.htm)
Biography by China Tibet Information Center (https://web.archive.org/web/20070930171039/htt
p://info.tibet.cn/en/news/tin/t20050421_25098.htm)
Xinhua Newsitem on funeral (http://english.sina.com/china/1/2005/0603/33460.html)
Views of a life in China, China.org.cn (http://www.china.org.cn/english/2005/Etsteri/126123.ht
m)
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Israel Epstein - Wikipedia 7/14/24, 01:44

Early life and education

He was placed in a concentration camp by Imperial Japanese

During the Cultural Revolution, on charges of plotting against

The People's War. [An Account of the War in China to the

First published in English

Published in Chinese, translated into English

Adapted from the Wikinfo article "Israel Epstein" (https://web.archive.org/web/2007093015463

Sources and external links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Israel_Epstein&oldid=1230828853"

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