Israel Epstein (20 April 1915 – 26 May 2005), also known by his Chinese nickname "Aipei", was a Chinese journalist. Of Polish origin, Epstein was one of the few foreign-born members of the Chinese Communist Party.

Early life and education

Israel Epstein was born on 20 April 1915 in Warsaw to Jewish parents; Warsaw was then part of Congress Poland, which was under Imperial Russian control. His father had been imprisoned by the authorities of Tsarist 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 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 sentiment in several places, in 1917, Epstein came to China with his parents at the age of two and they settled in Tianjin in 1920. Epstein was raised there.

After being assigned to review one of the books of Edgar Snow, Epstein and Snow came to know each other personally and Snow showed him his classic work Red Star Over China before it was published. He was deeply influenced by the progressivism of Snow and became involved with the democratic movement in China, becoming an editor for Snow's magazine, Democracy. 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.

thumbnail|Israel Epstein in 1944, Jin-Sui Border Region (northwestern [[Shanxi)]]

After escaping from an Imperial Japanese concentration camp, he worked for Allied Labor News, becoming editor-in-chief. He published his book The Unfinished Revolution in China in 1947. His book was enthusiastically reviewed in The New York Times by Owen Lattimore of Johns Hopkins University.

In 1951, Communist defector Elizabeth Bentley testified to the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, "Israel Epstein had been a member of the Russian secret police for many years in China."

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.

thumb|Epstein (front line, second right) visited [[Yan'an in 1944 with Mao (top right)]]In 1951, Soong Ching-ling invited him to return to China with his wife Fairfax-Cholmeley.

Imprisonments

Epstein was placed in a concentration camp by Imperial Japanese authorities following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He escaped with other prisoners. In 1973, he was released, and Zhou apologized. His privileges were restored. Epstein died in Beijing on 26 May 2005. His funeral was held at the Babaoshan Cemetery for Revolutionaries, in Shijingshan District, Beijing on 3 June 2005.

Published works

  • 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,
  • Woman in World History: Soong Ching Ling, New World Press (Beijing, 1993), hardcover,

See also

  • Rewi Alley
  • Sidney Rittenberg
  • Sidney Shapiro
  • Jews in China
  • Round Eyes in the Middle Kingdom – a documentary about Israel Epstein

Notes

References

  • Adapted from the Wikinfo article "Israel Epstein" 2 June 2005
  • New York Times Obituary by Douglas Martin
  • Obituary People's Daily Online
  • Retrospective, China Today
  • Biography by China Tibet Information Center
  • Xinhua Newsitem on funeral
  • Views of a life in China, China.org.cn