Mundane wonders

Author: Sun Yaodong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The interviewee of this book, Mr. Sun Yaodong, is an exceptional figure from old Shanghai whose legendary experiences, if thoroughly explored, would be enough to fill three or five books. He was born in Anhui Shou County in 1912, and his great-uncle Sun Jian was a tutor to the Guangxu Emperor. Both his grandfather and father were officials. He was born in Beijing and grew up in Shanghai, attending St. John's University, studying in the United States with a focus on finance, and returning to Shanghai for career development. He worked as a comprador in a French commercial firm and as the manager of the Chongqing Silver Company. During the (Wang) era, he served as the president of the Fuxing Bank and a supervisor of the Bank of China, and he even worked as a confidential secretary to the major collaborator Zhou Fohai. After the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, he spent time in prison, later contacting the Communist Party of China underground organization and working under Yang Fan in secret, even turning around important figures from the Military Government of the Republic of China (MGR), such as Deng Baoguang. During the transition of power, he contributed to the farewell of the old and the welcome of the new. In 1955, when the Pan Hannian and Yang Fan injustice case broke out, he was imprisoned and sent to the Baimaoling Farm in Anhui for labor reform. In 1975, he was granted special amnesty and returned to Shanghai, later serving as a senior advisor to the Overseas Chinese Committee of the Xuhui District People's Political Consultative Conference in his later years. He had once been as wealthy as Tu Zhu and as poor as a beggar; he associated with high-ranking officials of the party-state and with major collaborators; he married a dance girl and had affairs with celebrities. With such a prominent family background and such a colorful life, whether in Confucianism, commerce, or politics; whether in darkness, grayness, or redness; whether in Beijing or Shanghai; whether Chinese or Western—his life was as unpredictable as moving between heaven and earth, from luxury to solitude, full of twists and turns, mottled and diverse. Without firsthand visits and firsthand accounts, even Shakespeare reborn could not have woven such a bizarre, dramatic, and captivating story.