愛國之心，信守真相 - 張國興先生生平事績

yangharrylg

Patriot Who Stuck to the Truth

In 1928, when eleven-year-old Chang Kuo-sin and his father left their native Hainan Island in search of a better life in Kuching, North Borneo (now East Malaysia), he had only a rudimentary education in Chinese. The farm boy could not have dreamed that 20 years later, he would have mastered English, and his coverage of the Chinese civil war would be read by millions in the English-speaking world. Nor would he have expected to become an unofficial emissary who might have altered the course of Sino-Indian relations, a film producer who amused millions, and a teacher who inspired a generation of young people. When the former head of the Communication Department of Baptist College (now Baptist University) passed away on 2 February 2006, he left a legacy that has few parallels. He was 89.

Chang was born on 18 September 1916 to a rural family, at a time when China was still a sleeping giant and life for the ordinary people was tough. In those days, in the coastal provinces of southern China, it was common for men to leave behind their families for better prospects in Nanyang, a term that literally means the “south seas” and refers to a region now covered by Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Chang’s father found a job as a restaurant hand in Kuching. As the eldest son, he followed him there. He was enrolled in St Joseph College, but soon had to quit because his father was not earning enough to support his studies. Luckily, with the help of relatives, he was admitted to a school in Johore Bahru, north of Singapore, the next year. The teenager was already an over-aged student, but he made up for lost time by studying diligently, and was granted accelerated promotion five times to enable him to catch up with his peers. Chang felt in love with English and read countless books in the school library. In 1937, although he had to quit school for family reasons before getting his secondary diploma, he had already acquired good English skills that would serve him well.

Back in Kuching, Chang helped represent litigants who did not speak English in the local courts. By then, the Sino-Japanese War had already broken out. He would follow the war by listening to the BBC at night and recount them to fellow Chinese the next morning. In 1938, Chang won a lottery that paid a handsome $275. The filial son sent $100 to his mother in Hainan, used another $100 to start a coffee shop with eight partners, and installed his father as the manager. When his father fell out with his partners, Chang opted to buy out his partners with borrowed funds. A year later, the coffee shop had become a thriving business. He paid off his debts, and then sent for his mother, younger brother and sister to join him and his father in Kuching.

The young man could have settled down for a life as a businessman, but his patriotic spirit urged him to return to China to help defend the nation. Chang’s plan was to join the air force, but that was derailed by a chance encounter with Richard Wong, a young overseas Chinese from Hawaii who was returning to China to study. The two became such good friends that Wong, whose family was close to a senior Chinese official, helped him enroll in the National Southwest Associated University. Based in Kunming in Yunnan province, the university was the war-time amalgamation of Peking, Tsinghua and Nankai universities. Fortunately for Chang, although he had weak Chinese writing skills, the professors allowed him to take his admission tests in English. He was accepted as an audition student, and formally admitted to study political science a year later after passing more tests. At the university, Chang met his future wife Lucy, who was a student at the foreign languages department.

After two years as a student, Chang was taken ill and had to suspend his studies. While recovering from ill health, he was tapped for his good English skills and became a translator with the Allied Forces in India. Working in Kashmir, he helped sift through mail from Japanese-occupied territories in China for intelligence on the situation there. On returning to China, Chang resumed his studies. When he graduated in 1945, he joined the Central News Agency in Chungking as a reporter, and was soon despatched to Nanking, capital of the Nationalist government. A year later, Chang was recruited by the American news agency United Press to help cover the biggest news at the time – the failed peace talks between the Nationalists and the Communists, and the latter’s progressive victories over the former in the battlefields. He was the first to report the conclusions of the six agreements between the Nationalists and the Communists under General Marshall’s mediation in 1946, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s decision to step down in December 1948, and the fall of Nanking in 23 April 1949.

Through his work, Chang got to know many senior Nationalist and Communist leaders. But he never allowed personal feelings to cloud his judgment, and was determined to expose the truth as a journalist. Chang later learned that, for exposing corruption in the Nationalist government, he was once suspected as a Communist sympathizer and Chiang had wanted him dead. Fortunately, Chiang was dissuaded from sending for the killers by advisers who knew Chang better. In fact, when he was at university, while most students were pro-Communist, Chang was among a minority who felt communism was an ideal that would not work.

After the Communist forces took control of Nanking, Chang was barred from filing to the news agency. But he kept taking notes of his observations on Communist rule. When the time came for him to leave, he knew that his notes would not pass through the censors. By what he described as a stroke of luck, he thought of a way of sneaking them out. “My idea, which to my delight proved to be a complete success, was to buy a Chinese dinner set – for 12 persons – of porcelain bowls, dishes and spoons and a big camphor chest. I packed the whole dinner set in the camphor chest using my notes as wrapping paper. The Communist guards on several occasions looked into the camphor chest, but when they saw the dinner set wrapped in what they thought was merely used paper, they passed me on,” he recounted later.

Arriving Hong Kong in December 1949, Chang turned his notes into 22 pieces on life under Communist rule in China for the United Press. The articles were widely used all over the world, and he was credited with being the first writer to use “Bamboo Curtain” to describe Chinese Communist rule. He later expanded them into a book called Eight Months Behind the Bamboo Curtain. In the book, he observed that “the Communists would have to change their ways or they would ultimately fail” and that “as Communists, they would succeed, while their communism would not.” He was happy to note, in 1999, that his observations had been confirmed by subsequent developments. “The Chinese Communists have changed and they are still in power. They retain their name – communists – but have abandoned their communism,” he noted. Remark *

In 1952, with the support of the Ford Foundation, Chang started Asia Press to publish the works of scholars who had left the mainland. Between 1952 and 1960, it published more than 400 books, including novels, dramas, history and biography. In 1953, he went into film-making by launching Asia Pictures. Several of his films became big hits. Long Lane became the first Hong Kong film to win an award in the Asian Film Festival in 1956. Another film, The Three Sisters, released in the early 1960s when Hong Kong was ravaged by cholera, broke the box record for mandarin films and catapulted actress Chang Chung-wen to stardom. The film’s theme song, Char Siu Bao (or Roast Pork Bun), which was adapted from the English hit Hey Mumbo, has become a classic. Its lyrics were written by Chang’s wife.

In 1962, war broke out between China and India in the Himalayas. In Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek regarded that as an opportunity to persuade New Delhi to switch diplomatic recognition from Beijing to Taipei. By then, Chang’s work in Hong Kong had convinced Chiang that he was not a communist and could be trusted as his unofficial emissary. Chang was secretly dispatched to India, where he met with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, but the mission was unsuccessful. On the same trip, he also met the Dalai Lama, who had set up his exile government in India after fleeing Tibet in 1959. In fact, Chang’s friendship with the elder brother of the Dalai Lama dated back to his student days in Yunnan.

In order to achieve his secret mission to India, Chang resigned as president of the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island East, to the surprise of fellow Rotarians. He had been a veteran member, having joined the Rotary fellowship in Nanking in 1947.

In 1968, Chang had a stint with the South China Morning Post as editorial consultant. Between 1971 and 1978, he wrote a weekly column, A Chinese View-point, for the paper. From 1976 to the 1990s, his column, A Chinese Opinion, appeared in the Hong Kong Standard. Chang’s writings were widely cited for his insights. In 1973, he correctly concluded from reading the article “Confucius the Man” in the People’s Daily that it was an attack on Chinese Premier Chou En-lai. Chang was also author of A Survey of the Chinese Language Daily Press (1968) and Mao Tse-tung and His China (1978).

When Baptist College started its communication programme in 1968, founding head Professor Timothy Yu asked Chang to help teach feature writing as a part-time lecturer. That later turned into a full-time position, as he also took up press law, political science and China reporting. At a time when China was close to the outside world, Chang’s China reporting class generated a lot of interest. Drawing on his extensive network, he was able to invite many veteran journalists and diplomats with experience in China to talk to his students. In 1978, Chang became head of the Communication Department, and later dean of the social science faculty. In the early 1980s, he played a critical role in overseeing the successful validation of the communication programme by the United Kingdom’s Council for National Academic Awards. That paved the way for the programme’s eventual recognition by the Hong Kong Government as on par with an honours degree programme.

In 1985-86, Chang taught at the Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism in Athens, Ohio, as an exchange professor, before retiring from Baptist College. Students there liked him so much that the university asked him to stay on afterwards as an associate professor. By 1988, when he was already 74 and decided to retire for the last time, the university gave him a wooden rocking chair, a gift that was usually awarded only to tenured professors.

For his fatherly look and strict but affable character, Chang was known to his students as “Lo Yeh”, an affectionate term meaning a venerable patriarch. “I still recall his lovely gesture of sitting back and laughing cutely, with one hand soothing his grey hair, when he was talking about something funny or humorous,” remembers Wong Ling-ling, one of his students. An oft-repeated remark by Chang in class was about communism: “When you’re 18 and you’re not a communist, you’re a fool. When you’re 48 and you’re still a communist, you’re also a fool.” Although Chang was not fond of communism, that did not mean he was switched off to all communist thoughts. Another former student, Lo Wai-luk, recalls getting full marks for a piece on the future of communism in China after the fall of the Gang of Four. “Lo Yeh said: ‘I do not agree with your views, but your logic is good and your English is not bad. You’ve made an effort and I’ll give you full marks’,” says Lo.

Chang felt strongly that all mass communicators, be they in journalism, film-making or advertising, must have a solid grounding in reporting. He insisted that all communication students, regardless of their major, must take news writing and reporting courses. Above all, they must all stick to the truth. He made “Truth Is Virtue” the motto of the Communication Department. When the Sing Tao Communication Building, built with donations from Sally Aw, was completed in 1981, he inscribed that motto on a marble plaque and fitted it on the ground at the entrance.

For sticking to the truth, Chang was blacklisted by the Nationalists and the Communists at different times, but that did not stop him from speaking out. Nor did he change when both sides tried to win him over. In the 1970s, Chang went on an officially arranged tour of Taiwan, and was accompanied by Chiang Kai-shek’s son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who later became president. He was impressed by Taiwan’s economic success, but not its political suppression. In 1984, he went to the mainland for the first time since 1949 on the invitation of Beijing. He was happy that the Communists were changing their ways, but he did not like everything he saw. On both occasions, he expressed his feelings in his writings.

In retirement, Chang settled in the United States, where most of his children reside. In recent years, he lived in Sacramento, California, but came back to Hong Kong every now and then. Each time he was back, he was feted by his former students, who all have fond memories of how “Lo Yeh” exhorted them to stick to the truth and strive for the best.

Chang is survived by his wife, two sons, three daughters, their spouses, and five grandchildren.

Last updated on 22 February 2006


Remark* : The quotes are taken from Eight Months Behind the Bamboo Curtain. The book’s Chinese and English versions were published in 1950 and 1999 respectively.


Information for this piece was provided by Chang Chi-wu, Chang’s eldest son, and Professor Timothy Yu.


An abridged version of this article appeared in the South China Morning Post on February 11, 2006.


C.K. Lau





愛國之心，信守真相 - 張國興先生生平事績


張國興先生原籍海南島，一九二八年跟隨父親離鄉別井，前往北婆羅洲(即現今東馬來西亞)古晉尋找更好的生活。當年他十一歲，中文也只是略懂皮毛。這個農村小子萬料不到二十年後，他有能力駕馭英文，筆下的中國內戰報道，在英語世界廣為傳閱。他更想不到，自己可成為非官方的密使，差點兒影響當時中印關係的發展；及後搖身成為製片家，旗下的電影作品，為千萬華人帶來消遣和歡樂；更為人師表，激發年青後輩思維。張國興先生曾任香港浸會學院(現為香港浸會大學)傳理系系主任，二零零六年二月二日離世，享年八十九歲，一生傳奇，鮮能媲美。


張國興先生於一九一六年九月十八日出生，來自農村家庭，當時中國仍是沉睡的巨龍，百姓生活清苦。那時候，中國南方沿岸省巿的男子往往離家，遠赴南洋謀生。「南洋」字面解作南面海域，包括現今馬來西亞、新加坡和印尼一帶地區。張先生的父親到古晉一家餐館擔任幫工，他身為長子，亦一同前行。他獲當地St Joseph College取錄，但礙於父親收入難以兼顧學費，入學不久便要退學。幸好得到親友幫助，讓他能於下一學年轉至新加坡以北新山巿一間學校繼續學業。當時他已是少年，屬於班中的超齡學生，但他將勤補拙，努力彌補失去的光陰，其後五度獲許跳級，趕上與同齡學生一起學習。在學期間，他熱愛英國語文，在圖書館埋首書本，開卷無數。及至一九三七年，他因家庭問題，無奈於取得中學文憑前輟學，但他的英文程度，早已游刃有餘。


他回到古晉後，在當地法庭幫忙不諳英文的人進行訴訟，充當他們的代表。當時中日兩國已掀起戰幔，張先生晚上聽着英國廣播公司的廣播訊息，翌日早上便向華人同鄉複述戰情。一九三八年，他買彩票中獎，彩金多達二百七十五元，但他沒有打算獨享，反而克盡孝道，把一百元寄回海南島給母親備用，另一百元作為資本，與八人合夥開設咖啡店，由父親擔任店長。後來父親與夥伴相處不來，他便選擇貸款買下所有股權。一年後，咖啡店的業務蒸蒸日上，盈利足以讓他清還債務，並安排母親和弟妹移居古晉，一家團聚。


張國興先生本可一直營商過活，但他心繫祖國，驅使他日後返回中國，協助同胞抵禦外敵。他一心回國加入空軍，但因緣際會，結識了青年Richard Wong，對方是海外華人，從美國夏威夷回流中國進修，二人一見如故，成為好友。Richard家人與當時的中國高官關係密切，因此協助好友報讀西南聯合大學。大學位於雲南省昆明巿，是北京大學、清華大學和南開大學在戰時合辦的高等學府。張國興先生的中文寫作能力薄弱，幸得教授通融，准他以英文進行入學考試，最終獲取錄為旁聽生，一年後通過其他考試，正式獲取錄為政治學系學生。他更在大學校園邂逅羅宏孝女士，對方就讀外語學系，兩人後來共諧連理。


入學兩年後，張先生因病休學。休養期間，他優秀的英文能力備受青睞，獲委任前往印度，擔任聯軍翻譯。他在喀什米爾工作時，幫忙細查所有從日治中國寄來的信件，窺探祖國情報。後來他返回中國繼續學業，一九四五年畢業後，便加入重慶的中央通訊社擔任記者，不久獲調職南京，在當時國民政府的首府工作。一年後，他獲美國新聞機構「合眾社」羅致，報道當時的頭等大事 – 國共和談破裂，共產黨在戰場上節節勝利。一九四六年國共兩黨在美國上將馬歇爾斡旋下達成六項協議；國民革命軍總司令蔣介石於一九四八年十二月決定下台；以至一九四九年四月二十三日南京失守等重大消息，都是由張國興先生最先作出報道。


由於工作關係，張先生認識不少國民黨高層人物和共產黨領導人。不過，他沒有讓個人情感影響本身的判斷，矢志本着記者的立場，揭露事實的真相。他後來得悉，有次他撰文揭露國民政府貪污腐化，令國民黨人懷疑他是共產黨支持者，蔣介石更想把他置於死地。幸而蔣先生部下一些智囊對張先生為人認識較深，最後成功勸阻總司令收回格殺令。事實上，當時的大學生多屬共產黨支持者，他卻是感到共產主義太過理想，現實上難以執行的少數分子之一。


共產黨接掌南京以後，禁止張先生向通訊社發稿。可是他仍私下撰寫筆記，記錄他觀察共產黨統治的所見所感。離開祖國的時刻最終來臨，他深知筆記不會通過審查，對於這事，他形容自己相當夠運氣，想出把筆記偷運離境的方法。他憶述當時情況：「我的辦法十分成功，正是買來一套足夠十二人使用的中式餐具，包括瓷碗、瓷碟和匙子等，還有一個樟木櫃子。我用那些筆記作包裝紙，把所有餐具包好，然後放進櫃中。共產黨守衛反複查看櫃子數次，把筆記當作一般用過的紙張，就此通過了他們檢查。」


一九四九年十二月，他到達香港，二十二篇筆記亦避過了共產黨的沒收危機。他把筆記改寫後交合眾社發表，文中記載他於中國共產黨管治下的生活點滴。文章隨後於全球各地發表，他被稱譽為首個以「竹幕」形容中國共產黨統治的人。他後來整理筆記內容，結集成書，名為《竹幕八月記》。書中表達了他當時的觀察所得：「中國共產黨會在中國成功，但却不是共產主義」，以及「中共必須改變，不然便會失敗」（«竹幕八月記»第98及99頁）。他於一九九九年欣然指出，中國隨後的發展，正好肯定了他的看法。他表示：「中國共產黨已經變質，但仍手執大權。他們雖有共產黨之名，但已放棄了共產主義。」


及至一九五二年，張國興先生得到美國福特基金會支持，創立亞洲出版社，致力出版中國離境學者的作品。一九五二至一九六零年間，出版社相繼發表超過四百本著作，包括小說、戲劇、歷史和傳記等類書籍。一九五三年，他進軍電影製作事業，成立亞洲影業有限公司，旗下不少電影成為當時膾炙人口的作品。芸芸出品中，《長巷》更於一九五六年度亞洲電影節上勇奪奬項，開創香港在地區影展獲獎的先河。另一作品《三姐妹》於一九六零年代初登場，當時香港霍亂為患，卻無礙電影創出佳績，除打破國語電影在本港的票房紀錄外，亦造就戲中女演員張仲文一舉成名。電影主題曲「叉燒包」的旋律改編自熱門英文歌曲「Hey Mumbo」，由張先生妻子填詞，一曲經典，令人樂道。


一九六二年，中國與印度在喜瑪拉雅山區爆發戰爭。蔣介石身處台灣，認為可藉此機會，游說新德里放棄北京，轉與台北建交。當時張先生在香港的發展，令蔣先生相信他並非共產黨人，可委以重任，擔當他的非官方密使。為此，張先生秘密出使印度，與總理尼赫魯會面，設法游說，但任務最終失敗。他亦於此行與達賴喇嘛見面，後者於一九五九年逃往印度，在當地成立流亡政府。事實上，張先生早於雲南求學時期，已與達賴喇嘛的兄長結成朋友。


他為執行秘密出使印度的任務，毅然辭去港島東區扶輪社主席一職，社員都感到錯愕，只因他是資深會員，早於一九四七年在南京已加入扶輪社，服務社群。


一九六八年，他在《南華早報》兼任編輯顧問；一九七一至一九七八年間，他為該報每周撰寫專欄《A Chinese View-point》。一九七六年至一九九零年代，他亦於《英文虎報》設有專欄《A Chinese Opinion》撰文。他文章的真知灼見，經常被人引用；一九七三年，他讀到《人民日報》一篇題為「孔子 ─ 頑固地維護奴隸制的思想家」[備註1]的文章，斷定那是打擊當時總理周恩來的手段。他筆下尚有《A Survey of the Chinese Language Daily Press》 (一九六八年)和《 Mao Tse-tung and His China》 (一九七八年)等著作。


香港浸會學院於一九六八年創立傳理課程，創系主任余也魯教授邀請張先生擔任兼職講師，傳授專題撰寫技巧和心得。這項職事後來卻成為他全職投身的工作，繼而執教新聞法、政治和中國報道等科目。在中國仍然封閉、外國難以接觸的年代，他的中國報道班掀起莫大的關注。他憑藉廣博的人脈網絡，邀得多位資深新聞從業員，還有在華經驗豐富的外交人員到校，在班上與同學分享經驗。一九七八年，他榮升傳理系系主任，及後更成為社會科學院院長。一九八零年代初，英國學術評審局審核浸會傳理課程，他全程監督，後來課程成功獲當局核實認可，他居功至偉。此舉更奠下重要基石，促使獲香港政府最終承認課程等同榮譽學位級別。


一九八五至八六年間，張先生在榮休和退任浸會教職之前，以交換教授身份前往美國俄亥俄州雅典城，在當地州立大學屬下E.W. Scripps新聞系執教。張教授深得該校學生愛戴，校方亦力邀他留校擔任副教授。一九八八年，張教授年屆七十四歲，真正榮休，校方特別送贈一張木製搖椅，以示感謝。那是難得的榮譽，一般只有終身教授才能享有這份殊榮。


張教授一臉慈祥，雖然為人嚴謹，卻不失和藹可親，學生都稱他「老爺」- 對德高望重長者的尊稱。他的學生黃玲玲回憶道：「我還記得他每談及一些幽默趣事時，總愛一邊摸著花白的頭髮，一邊開懷歡笑，動作十分逗趣。」他亦經常於課堂上重申對共產主義的意見：「當你十八歲，你不是共產黨，你是傻瓜。到了四十八歲，你還是共產黨，你真是傻瓜。」雖然張教授並不喜歡共產主義，但不代表他完全拒絕一切共產思想。他另一個學生盧偉力憶述，當年自己寫了一篇文章，關乎四人幫倒台後共產主義在中國的未來，結果張教授給他滿分。當時老爺說：「我不認同你的看法，但你的邏輯很好，英文不錯。你下了不少功夫，我給你滿分。」


張教授深感所有大眾傳播人員，不論從事新聞、製片或廣告宣傳工作，都必須具備扎實的報道基礎。他堅持所有傳理系學生，不論主修範疇，一律必須修讀新聞寫作和報道課程。最重要的是，他們必須堅持真相。他為傳理系立下「唯真為善」的名訓。一九八一年，蒙胡仙女士捐助，星島傳理大樓落成啟用，他更將訓言題刻於大理石牌，嵌鑲於大樓入口地板上。


張教授堅持講求真相，縱然先後遭受國民黨和共產黨列入黑名單，卻無阻他敢言的個性。即使兩方攏絡，他亦不為所動。一九七零年代，他獲台灣正式安排前往當地，由蔣介石兒子，後當選為台灣總統的蔣經國先生陪同到各處參觀。台灣的經濟成就，叫他留下深刻的印象，但對於當地政治壓制的情況，他並不苟同。一九八四年，他獲北京邀請訪華，令他自一九四九年離開以後，終能首次重臨中國。他身在中國，看見共產黨人漸漸改變做法，心感高興，但不是每件所見的事都這樣。在兩次行程後，他都撰文表達心跡。


張教授子女多數定居美國，他榮休後亦於當地定居生活。後來他移居加州沙加緬度市，但仍不時回港，每次都獲門生盛情款待。他的學生無不銘記「老爺」循循善誘，敦促他們堅持真相，精益求精的教誨。


張教授遺下妻子、兩個兒子、三個女兒、子女配偶和五個孫子。


http://www.comm.hkbu.edu.hk/chang/f_memoriam_cklau-scmp.htm