1 Alley, Rewi, “Who do you work for?” Poems for Aotearoa (Auckland: New Zealand-China Society and Progressive Books Society, 1972), pp. 23–24.Google Scholar

2 I have capitalized such words as Friendship and the People to draw attention to the highly politicized meaning of these phrases in Chinese political discourse.

3 This paper is drawn from a much larger study on Alley, Man to Myth: Rewi Alley of China, currently in progress. It is based on interviews with people whose lives intersected with Alley, some of which are cited in the footnotes, as well as sources in Chinese and English from archives in New Zealand, Australia and China.

4 The slogans in Chinese are Gu weijin yong, yang wei Zhong yong (actually, “Use the past to serve the present, make foreign things serve China”) and Zhong wei ti, xi wei yong.

5 See Hollander, Paul, Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China and Cuba (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), and “Pilgrims on the run, ideological refugees from Paradise Lost,” special pamphlet, Encounter (1986);Google Scholar Caute, David, The Fellow Travellers: A Postscript to the Enlightenment (London: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, 1974);Google ScholarEnzensberger, Hans Magnus, “Tourists of the Revolution,” Raids and Reconstructions (London: Pluto Press, 1976), pp. 224–252;Google Scholar and Chow, Rey, Writing Diaspora: Tactics of Intervention in Contemporary Cultural Studies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993) for writings on fellow travelling.Google Scholar

6 Literally “Old Friend of the Chinese People,” the standard translation of the term is, however, Friend of China, possibly in the interests of making it seem less overtly political in English.

7 It is important to distinguish Internationalists in the Chinese sense from the original Comintern meaning. For the Comintern, Internationalists were people who were willing to fight for the cause of international Communism; while for the Chinese, Internationalist means those foreigners who unstintingly served the interests of the Chinese revolution. Anne-Marie Brady, “Red and expert: “China'ss Foreign Friends in the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution,” China Information (December 1996).

8 In all, 1,390 Soviet experts returned home. Jia, Wenhua and Gao, Zhongyi (eds.), Sulian duiwai guanxi (The Foreign Relations of the Soviet Union) (Zhengzhou: Henan jiaoyu chubanshe, 1989), p. 249.Google Scholar

9 “Bush optimistic about Sino-US relationship,” China Daily, 10 April 57:177 1996, p. 1.

10 Bitao, Zhao, Waishi gaishuo (Outline of Foreign Affairs) (Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexue chubanshe, 1995), p. 72.Google Scholar

11 “He Meiguo jizhe Anna Louyisi Shitelang de tanhua” (“talks with the journalist Anna Louise Strong”), Mao Zedong waijiao wenxuan (Selected Works of Mao Zedong on Diplomacy) (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1994), pp. 57–62

12 “No ground given,” Far Eastern Economic Review, 2 December 1993. Inquiries have been unable to establish the titles of these books.

13 David and Nancy Milton, The Wind Will Not Subside: Years in Revolutionary China–1964–1969 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1976), p. 93.Google Scholar

14 See Terzani, Tiziano, The Forbidden Door (Kowloon: Asia 2000, 1985).Google Scholar

15 Johnson, Hewlett, The Upsurge of China (Beijing: New World Press, 1961), p. 364.Google Scholar

16 For similar examples of this genre see Alley, P.J., An Engineer in China (Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1960);Google ScholarJack Chen, A Year in Upper Felicity: Life in a Chinese Village During the Cultural Revolution(New York: Macmillan, 1973);Google ScholarFox, R.M., China Diary (London: Robert Hale, 1959);Google ScholarPubMedStuart and Roma Gelder, The Timely Rain: Travels in New Tibet (London: Hutchison, 1964);Google ScholarHan Suyin, The Wind in the Tower: Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Revolution 1949–1975 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976);Google ScholarEdgar Snow, Red China Today: The Other Side of the River (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974);Google ScholarRoss Terrill, 800,000,000: The Real China (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971).Google ScholarPubMed

17 Johnson, The Upsurge of China.

18 Lu Wanru, former secretary of Rewi Alley and ghost-writer of his memoirs, writer of numerous commemorative articles on him, currently working for Chinese Industrial Co-operatives, interview, Beijing, 31 October 1990.

19 Zhonggong zhongyang tongzhanbu yanjiushi, Tongyi zhanxian shouc(United Front Handbook)(Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 1986), p. 288.Google Scholar

20 Zhao Bitao, Waishi gaishuo.Google Scholar

21 Gwen Somerset, Sunshine and Shadow(Auckland: New Zealand Playcentre Federation, 1988), p. 129.Google ScholarPubMed

22 “Gung ho” frequently mistranslated as “work together,” is in fact an abbreviation of the full title in Chinese of the Chinese Industrial Co-operative Movement, Gongye hezuo. It entered the English language when Edgar Snow wrote a well-known article in the Saturday Evening Post publicising U.S. colonel Evans Carlson, a close friend of Alley, who used the slogan “gung ho” to inspire his marines in the war against the Japanese. For Snow's work on Gung Ho and his articles in the Saturday Evening Post seeWu Chuliang, Sinuo zhuanji (The Remarkable Story of Edgar Snow) (Beijing: Huayi chubanshe, 1995), pp. 330–34. Gung ho in modern times has taken on the meaning of excessive enthusiasm and willingness to get involved.Google Scholar

23 The international attention which was the result of Snow's articles on Alley is described in Willis Airey, A Learner in China, a Life of Rewi Alley (Christchurch: Caxton Press and Monthly Review Society, 1970), pp. 178–79.

24 The evidence for this in Alley's correspondence with Shirley Barton and others is too numerous to list.

25 Rewi Alley, letter to Shirley Barton, 13 October 1953, Barton papers, Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), Wellington, New Zealand.

26 Courtney Archer, former accountant at the school in the 1940 s, interview, Rangiora, New Zealand, 5 July 1993.

27 Those interested in a more detailed description of the difference between Western and Chinese mores on the subject of homosexuality in the Republican era can refer to my article “West meets East, Rewi Alley and changing attitudes to homosexuality in China,” Journal of East Asian History, No. 10 (1995).

28 Bob Spencer, former doctor at the Shandan Bailie school in the 1940 s, interview, 19 July 1994. Peter Townsend and Mavis Yan, interview, 10 April 1994. Townsend was Executive Secretary of the International Committee of CIC, successively in Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing from 1943 to the end of 1951: Mavis Yan worked in the CIC office in Shanghai with Townsend and had earlier worked in the Hong Kong office from 1938 until the Pacific War broke out.

29 Courtney Archer, interview, Rangiora, New Zealand, 5 July 1993.

30 Rewi Alley, letter to Pip Alley, 9 May 1951, 3/22, Alley papers, ATL

31 Ibid

32 Ibid The U.S. government still denies use of germ warfare during the Korean War.

33 Sanfan yundong, known in English as the Three Antis Movement, was “to oppose corruption, waste and bureaucracy inside the Party and state organs.”

34 Archer, interview, 5 July 1993.

35 Garland, Margaret, Journey to New China (Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1954), p. 115. Margaret Garland was also a New Zealand delegate to the conference; she was a member of the peace movement in New Zealand.Google Scholar

36 Ibid p. 9.

37 Ibid pp. 44–49.

38 Ibid p. 130.

39 Locke, Elsie, Peace People: A History of Peace Activities in New Zealand(Christchurch: Hazard Press, 1992), p. 100.Google Scholar

40 Rewi Alley, letter to Shirley Barton, 23 August 1952, Barton papers, ATL. See Yo Banfa! (Shanghai: China Monthly Review, 1952).

41 Somerset, , Sunshine and Shadow, p. 29.EdgarSnow, Scorched Earth (London: Victor Gollancz, 1941). p. 94.Google Scholar

42 Rewi Alley, 1 August 1952, Barton papers, ATL.

43 Rewi Alley, letter to Don Kemp, 22 July 1952, Barton papers, ATL.

44 Rewi Alley, letter to Shirley Barton, 23 November 1956, Barton papers, ATL.

45 Bruce, Wallace, “At home in worlds apart,” The Listener, 13 December 1971, p. 15.Google Scholar

46 Rewi Alley, letter to Gwen Somerset and Pip Alley, 11 May 1952, 3*l21, Alley papers, ATL.

47 I'm not suggesting here that Alley was prematurely pro-Liu. He could not possibly have seen ahead to the differences that were to arise between the two men.

48 Rewi Alley, letter to Winston Rhodes, 24 July 1967, Rhodes papers, ATL.

49 Rewi Alley, Travels in China: 1966–71 (Beijing: New World Press, 1973), p. 54.

50 Gray Dimond, Inside China Today: A Western View(New York: Norton), p. 93.Google Scholar

51 Tom Newnham, ex-President New Zealand China Friendship Association, Auckland branch, interview, Auckland, New Zealand, 20 June 1993.

52 Rewi Alley, letter to Shirley Barton, 4 June 1980, Barton papers, ATL.

53 Mao Mao and Bao Bao Li, letter to Rewi Alley, undated, approximately 1978, Barton papers, ATL. (The letter was written in English.)

54 Zhao Gaiying, “Huainian Luyi Aili tongzhi” (“Remembering Comrade Rewi Alley” ), Renmin ribao (overseas edition), 20 April 1988.

55 Rewi Alley, letter to Pip Alley, 1 April 1972, Alley papers, ATL.

56 “Time running out for Alley's mission to China,” NZ Press Association report (December 1985), 58*264*6, NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Archives (MFAT), Wellington, New Zealand. Also mentioned by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang, well-known translators of Chinese literature, interview, Beijing, China, 27 October 1990.

57 Lu Wanru, interview, Beijing, 31 October 1990.

58 Alley's writing served a further purpose of providing politically correct English-language reading material for foreign language learners in China in times when foreign literature was banned. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Alley' s Travels in China, an account of the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1971 which among other things praises the Red Guards' destruction of ancient temples, was one of the few new foreign-language books available to Chinese readers in the early 1970s. Anonymous source.

59 York Yang, NZ Chinese who lived in China from the 1950s to the 1980s and knew Rewi Alley well, interview, Wellington, New Zealand, 18 January 1993.

60 Rewi Alley, letter to Pip Alley, 18 July 1969, 8/9, Alley papers, ATL. Alley makes veiled reference to his inability to travel for much of the period of the Cultural Revolution in numerous letters to his brother Pip and old friend Shirley Barton. However, in his book on the Cultural Revolution, Travels in China 1966–1971 (Beijing: New World Press, 1973), Alley makes no mention of this.

61 Rewi Alley, What is Sin? Poems by Rewi Alley(Christchurch:Caxton Press, 1967), p. 9.

62 Memorandum on: “Stories Out of China,“ by Rewi Alley, Courtney Archer papers, ATL. The memorandum seems to have been written to persuade Chinese authorities of the usefulness of Alley's writing to the Chinese Communists' quest for international acceptance.

63 Beijing: n.p.1962

64 Rewi Alley, letter to Pip Alley, 14 February 1961, 4/6, Alley papers, ATL.

65 See for example Rewi Alley, letter to Pip Alley, 7 May 1961, 4/6, Alley papers, ATL.

66 Rewi Alley, letter to Hugh Elliott, 26 August 1952, Barton papers, ATL.

67 Chappie, Rewi Alley of China (Auckland: Hodder and Stoughton,1980), p.88.

68 For example Alley's discussion with Ross Terrill in 800,000,000: The Real China, p. 209, Sidney Rittenberg's description of Alley in The Man Who Stayed Behind (New York:Simon and Schuster,, 1993), p. 209, and Alley's numerous vituperative comments about Mao's sex life, quoted in Harrison Salisbury's, China's New Emperors: China in the Era of Mao and Deng(Boston:Little, Brown, 1990).Google Scholar

69 Jack Ewen, ex-President New Zealand China Friendship Society, interview, Auckland, New Zealand, 27 June 1993.

70 Alley's refusal in 1978 to join the NZCP in criticizing the CCP when it “took the capitalist road” by adopting the economic policies of Deng Xiaoping is further evidence that Alley's membership of the party was a token gesture rather than a reflection of a deeply held belief in Marxism. As a good party member, Alley's loyalty should have been to the line of the NZCP; instead he chose to support China “right or wrong.” Many other fellow travellers and socialists took this attitude to socialist countries which they identified with, such as Freda Cook, a New Zealander much attached to the Soviet Union, and Ron Taylor, a New Zealand Friend of Albania. Flora Gould, interview, Auckland, 3 July 1993.

71 Ibid

72 Bruce Wallace, “At home in worlds apart,” The Listener, 13 December 1971, p.15.

73 “Rewi Alley commends Zers N. (sic) who beat counter-revolutionaries,” People's Voice, 11 November 1970, p. 7. The article featured a picture of Zhou Enlai talking with Rewi Alley in 1970, adding extra weight to the credibility of his words. Earlier articles discussing the visit of NZCP members to Beijing (which they did frequently at the expense of the Chinese government) featured a picture of Mao Zedong shaking hands with Rewi Alley. At a time when Alley's position in China was under threat in Cultural Revolution turmoil, such endorsements, from both Mao and the NZCP, were important.

74 See “Communist Party strengthened by removal of small group of splitters: Wilcox's opportunism exposed,” People's Voice,12 June 1978, p. 1; “Tea and cakes with Governor reward for class collaboration,” People's Voice, 28 May 1979, p.6, “Rewi Alley gives the show away,” People's Voice, 19 May 1980, p.7.

75 For instance the Australian government refused to renew the passport of Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett for 17 years because of his vocal support of the Chinese and other Communist governments. American Edgar Snow was made persona non grata in the U.S. in the 1950 s for his support of the Chinese government.

76 Rewi Alley, letter to Shirley Barton, 24 August 1980, Barton papers, ATL.

77 Geoff Chappie, The Listener, 28 November 1987, pp. 36–44

78 DrZhao Gaiying, interview, Beijing, China, 24 June 1991.

79 See Chen Faxing (ed.), Yongjiu de huainian: jinian Luyi Ailiyanchang 95 nian (Always Remember: In Memory of Rewi Alley's 95th Year ) (n.p., 1992), for the quintessential collection of hagiographic writing on Alley

80 Speech on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Shandan Bailie School, Governor of Gansu Province, Jia Shijie, 13 August 1991, 58/264/7, MFAT.