阅读伊斯雷尔·爱泼斯坦 Israel Epstein在小说之家的作品!!! |
爱泼斯坦出生于华沙的一个犹太人家庭,当时波兰正在俄罗斯帝国的控制范围内。他的父亲曾因领导劳动者起义而被俄罗斯帝国的当权者关押,母亲则被放逐到了西伯利亚。爱泼斯坦的父亲在第一次世界大战爆发后被他所在的公司派往日本;当德军逼近华沙时,爱泼斯坦和他的母亲逃亡到亚洲投奔了他的父亲。在历经了一些地区的反犹歧视后,他的家庭最终于1917年迁往中国,并于1920年定居在了天津。
爱泼斯坦于15岁(1931年)开始从事新闻工作,其时他在一家设立于天津的英文《京津泰晤士报》(Peking and Tientsin Times)报社担任新闻工作。他亦在抗日战争中与美国合众国际社和一些西方新闻社参与了掩护中国平民的行动。在1938年的秋季(一说是1939年),他在香港参加了孙中山遗孀宋庆龄发起组织的保卫中国同盟,为中国的抗日战争进行宣传并募集国际援助。 1941年,他制造了自己死亡的假新闻以欺骗试图逮捕他的日本政府,这则假新闻甚至被以短消息形式印刷到了《纽约时报》上。但是他仍然在香港被抓入集中营。1942年3月18日,他在后来成为其妻子的邱茉莉(Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley)的帮助下越狱成功。
在校订作家埃德加·斯诺的一本书的过程中,爱泼斯坦和斯诺得以相互认识。斯诺在出版前给爱泼斯坦看了他后来的经典之作——《西行漫记》。
1944年,爱泼斯坦第一次访问了英国,然后与邱茉莉在美国居住了5年。在这段时间内,他担任了《联合劳动新闻》(Allied Labor News)的总编辑并于1949年出版了《中国尚未结束的革命》(The Unfinished Revolution in China)一书。邱茉莉亦是一本在中华人民共和国出版的被广泛使用的汉英辞典的贡献者,在许多年后,逐渐被中国和世界各地学习汉语的一代学生所知。
1951年,爱泼斯坦应宋庆龄之邀,回到中国参与杂志《中国建设》(后改名为《今日中国》)的创刊工作,他在70岁以前都是《今日中国》的总编辑,70岁退休后成为杂志的名誉总编辑。在担任《今日中国》编辑的时期中,他于1957年加入了中国国籍并于1964年加入了中国共产党。
在文化大革命中,爱泼斯坦曾被非法监禁达5年之久,但是至死他都保持着对共产主义理想的忠诚追随。爱泼斯坦曾于1983年被选举为中国人民政治协商会议全国委员会常务委员会委员。
在他的一生中,爱泼斯坦曾先后被周恩来、毛泽东、邓小平、江泽民和现任中国国家主席胡锦涛所高度赞扬。2005年6月3日,爱泼斯坦被葬于北京石景山区的八宝山革命公墓。包括中国国家主席胡锦涛、中国国务院总理温家宝、中央政治局常务委员会委员贾庆林、李长春在内的许多政府官员出席了他的追悼会仪式。在仪式结束后,他的遗体被火化。
作品
《人民战争》,1939年
《毛澤東印象》1949年1月
《见证中国:爱泼斯坦回忆录》(沈苏儒等译)北京:新世界出版社(2004年),415页,ISBN 780187241X
《历史不应忘记》(沈苏儒,贾宗谊等译)北京:五洲传播出版社(2005年),230页,ISBN 7508506936
《见证中国:一个中国籍犹太人的诉说》,2005年
首先以英文出版的作品
《中国尚未结束的革命》,力图布朗公司(Little, Brown and Company)(1947年),精装442页
首先以中文出版,后翻译成英文的作品
《从鸦片战争到解放》,北京:新世界出版社(1956年),精装146页
《西藏的转变》,北京:新世界出版社(1983年),平装563页,ISBN 0835110877
《宋庆龄:二十世纪的伟大女性》,新世界出版社(北京,1993年),精装本,ISBN 7800051617
Early life and education
Israel Epstein was born on April 20, 1915 in Warsaw, which was at the time under Imperial Russian control (currently part of Poland). 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. After having experienced anti-Jewish sentiment in several places, in 1917, Epstein came to China with his parents at the age of two and they settled in Tianjin (formerly Tientsin) in 1920.
[edit]Journalism
Israel Epstein began to work in journalism at age 15, when he wrote for the Peking and Tientsin Times, an English-language newspaper based in Tianjin. He also covered the Japanese Invasion of China for the United Press and other Western news agencies. In the autumn of 1938, he joined the China Defense League, which had been established by Soong Ching-ling, Sun Yat-sen's widow, for the purpose of publicizing and enlisting international support for the Chinese cause. In 1941, he faked news about his own death as a decoy for the Japanese who were trying to arrest him. The misinformation even found its way into a short item printed in the New York Times.
After being assigned to review one of the books of Edgar Snow, Israel Epstein and Snow came to know each other personally and Snow showed him his classic work Red Star Over China before it was published.
In 1934, Epstein married Edith Bihovsky Epstein, later Ballin, from whom he was divorced in the early 1940s. In 1944, Epstein first visited Britain and afterwards went to live in the United States with his second wife Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley for five years. During this time, he worked for Allied Labor News and published his book The Unfinished Revolution in China in 1949. Many years later, Ms. 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 Ms. Cholmeley's death in 1984, Israel Epstein married his third wife, Wan Bi.
[edit]China Today magazine
In 1951, Soong Ching-ling invited him to return to China to edit the magazine China Reconstructs, which was later renamed China Today. He remained editor-in-chief of China Today until his retirement at age 70, and then editor emeritus. During his tenure at China Today, he became a Chinese citizen in 1957 and a member of the Communist Party of China in 1964. In 1955, 1965 and 1976 visited Tibet, and based on these 3 visits, he published in 1983 the book "Tibet Transformed".
[edit]Imprisonment
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. Zhou merely apologized. His privileges were restored. Despite of 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.
[edit]Honours
During his life, Israel Epstein was honored by Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and current Chinese President Hu Jintao. His funeral was held at the Babaoshan Cemetery for Revolutionaries, in Shijingshan District, Beijing on June 3, 2005 at 9:30 A.M. The ceremony was attended by many officials, among them 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.
[edit]Published works
The People's War, 1939
A Memoir of More than 80 Years in China
My China Eye: Memoirs of a Jew and a Journalist, Long River Press, 2005
[edit]First published in English
The Unfinished Revolution in China, Little Brown and Company (1947), hardcover, 442 pp.
[edit]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