Image
  • Home
  • By The Way
  • About
  • Books
  • Archives
  • Media

Archive for Richard Nixon

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution:We Had The Great Wall To Ourselves (Part 3)

by Beverley
July 6th, 2013

Chapter Six
WE HAD THE GREAT WALL TO OURSELVES
Part Three

Beverley Jackson on the Great Wall of China, 1975.

Beverley Jackson on the Great Wall of China, 1975.

The tombs of 13 Ming emperors are North West of Peking, at the foot of T’ien-shou Hill where the low mountains overlook the flatlands. A great deal of modern construction had taken place around the tomb that was opened to the public. In 1975 only one tomb had been excavated. We toured that tomb, deep under the ground, and visited the museums adjacent to it that housed many of the treasures that were brought out after the tomb was located and opened.

The tomb museums were filled with treasures and propaganda. The propaganda was already all too familiar, such as endless quotes from Chairman Mao which of course everyone already knew from the little Red Book of Mao sayings that all Chinese were required to have. The treasures included two magnificent kingfisher feather headdresses inlaid with jewels that particularly intrigued me.

When asked for a translation of banners with Chinese writing, sometimes we got an answer, sometimes we didn’t. The big white characters on red background hung on the lofty wall of small moss-covered stones in front of the Ming tower at the tombs prompted me to try one more time. “It calls for the support of the North Vietnamese,” came my reply. I was to later ask about the larger orderly red graffiti painted on the beautiful carved
Chu-yung Barrier Gate we passed on our route to the section of the Great Wall on our way to visit. “It says this was built in 1343,” was the answer this time. I very much doubt if 1343 had anything to do with that recent graffiti!”

On this part of the journey we rode beside railroad track that was particularly well tended and armed guards were stationed at switch points. Our guides explained that this was the route of the legendary Trans-Siberian Railroad. Just the mention of it brought a tremendous thrill to all. However, he told us it only ran one day a week and we would not be seeing the famed train.

Suddenly we took a hairpin turn on the narrow climbing road, and far off in the distance I spotted the shiniest green train in China. “Today must be the day!” I shouted optimistically running to the back of the bus where I’d left my camera case. And it was. For at least five minutes we rode beside the world’s most famous train, adorned with red medallions on alternate cars, as it wound through the hills of north China on its journey to Russia.

Only a very small section of the Great Wall had been restored at the time we were there. We’d seen pictures of President Richard Nixon on that short strip of wall three years before. We’d seen Henry Kissinger there. In fact, any photo of anyone on the Wall was taken there. So we knew what to expect. But we weren’t prepared for the emotional excitement of actually walking on the Great Wall of China.

President and Mrs. Nixon visit the Great Wall of China and the Ming tombs. Photo by Byron E. Schumaker.

President and Mrs. Nixon visit the Great Wall of China and the Ming tombs. Photo by Byron E. Schumaker, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

Everyone climbed the steep incline of the Wall at their own pace. Two-thirds of the way up I stopped and stared out over the mountains and plains of China, and the length of the Great Wall that was within our sight. It would be difficult for people only familiar with today’s photos and films of the Great Wall of China, with thousands of tourists from all over the world, vendors hawking Coca Cola and tee shirts, graffiti, to grasp the emotion of being there in February 1975. I was in China, walking on the Great Wall. Tears started to blur my vision. So I sat down to allow the emotion of the moment to subside.

He was in my lap before I was aware of his presence — a tiny toddler in bulky quilted clothes protecting him against the intense cold winds blowing off the Gobi Desert so close to us in that location. A dear little boy who didn’t yet know about strangers and East and West and cultural revolutions and distrust. Even his parents watched fascinated from a short distance, for a few moments not thinking of possible consequences from those who were always watching them as well as us since the average Chinese citizens were not supposed to have any contact with Westerners.

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books, My Life

A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: And So the Adventure Begins

by Beverley
October 2nd, 2012

Since Fluffy took off to save his turkey friends from Thanksgiving disaster there haven’t been any health reports and queries come in from all over the world. Thank all of you for caring. I’m proud to report I’m making great progress. Tracey was here again and got me to dine at Lucky’s, Via Vai & even lunch at the Pharmacy. She found a stairless path from the parking lot in.

Yesterday Holly Lord and I lunched at Tydes and last night Bill Cornfield took me to Plow & Angel for dinner beneath the magnolia trees filled with sparking lights. And we even had a full moon!

And now I’m getting back to work. I haven’t felt up the hassle of getting my book “A Front Seat at the Cultural Revolution” published. This story of Jayne Meadows, Steve Allen and I getting into China in 1975 is fascinating and has an ending that is astounding! And great photos of a China were not a single person in the entire country owned a car. Where everyone wore the same shabby Mao suits. Today the roads are filled with Ferraris and Bentleys. Fifteen thousand dollar Birkin handbags can’t be found in New York now. They are all going to China!

Tracey suggested I serialize the book on my blog so here goes. Come with me to a China totally unrelated to China today. Take a front seat at the Cultural Revolution with Jayne, Steve and me……….

Beverly Hills April 2005: Monday’s society columns reported that Merv Griffin’s Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel ballroom was filled to overflowing, the gala benefit chairman wore a floral print chiffon gown from Oscar de la Renta’s spring collection and $250,000 was raised for the charity.

“You live in Santa Barbara I understand,” the elegant older woman, an American of Chinese descent, sitting to my right said in opening conversation. And my affirmative answer was followed with, “Do you know Rosa Wu* by any chance?”

“Indeed I do. It was thanks to Rosa that I was able to visit China during the Cultural Revolution 34 years ago. Just last week I told a friend about a remark I made to my fellow traveler Steve Allen(1) in 1975, that Rosa’s mother must have been the Madame Claude(2) of China to get us into China during the Cultural Revolution, and to get us a one month visa at that…


* Name has been changed
1. Steve Allen was actor, composer, author, comedian and possibly best known for starting the Tonight Show in 1954 on NBC.
2. Madame Claude ran the most famous, most glamorous house of prostitution in Paris the second half of the 20th century. Many of her beautiful, elegant, well trained girls married into the French aristocracy.


Chapter One
AND SO THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Part One

They were an incongruous pair, the flame-tressed American woman and the stylish American of Chinese descent belting out chorus after chorus of Hello Dolly in Mandarin Chinese. Big red-painted wheels rolling noisily over rusted train tracks played backup for the twosome as we made our way towards the crossing point into the People’s Republic of China.

White mist from the steam engine up ahead cast a protective shield over a cluster of baby water buffalo grazing beyond our train windows. Big-footed Hakka women, who unlike most Han Chinese women never bound their feet, labored in the fields, shielded from the 20th century by black ruffled curtains cascading from their crownless straw sun shade hats. Viewing the serene ancient pastoral scene outside our train windows one could lose prospective of the ideological fanaticism of the Cultural Revolution that gnawed away at the remarkable ancient Chinese civilization.

And we were singing our way right into the eye of that frightening storm.

It was February 24, 1975 and ten of us from southern California were going into China. During that dark period of Chinese history people didn’t go to China, or leave China, visit China, take a trip to China. One was either going into China or coming out of China. It was rather like gaining admission to a high security prison.

The trip had come upon us quite unexpectedly. Rosa Wu had gone from Santa Barbara to visit her mother in Peking, a rather surprising event in 1974 when American citizens were not welcome in China unless their name was Nixon or Kissinger. While there she learned from her beautiful mother that the Chinese government was hoping to somehow get 10 Americans for the upcoming First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair to be held in February 1975. The had ten Rumanians and ten Czechoslovakians, ten Russians and ten Bulgarians. But suddenly they wanted ten Americans.

Jumping into action Rosa flew out of China to Hong Kong and from there contacted her friend actress Jayne Meadows Allen in Los Angeles and on the telephone she, Jayne’s’ husband Steve Allen and Jayne formed a carpet company. That was three out of required ten Americans. Then Rosa remembered that she had seen me taking notes for my society column in the Santa Barbara News-Press in shorthand and remembered me once saying I longed to some day walk on the Great Wall of China. “Call Beverley Jackson in Santa Barbara and ask her if she wants to come as the secretary of our carpet company.” Without a thought of how I would swing it of course I said yes!

That was four out of ten. Rosa and Jayne filled out the remaining six with a couple who owned a carpet company, one of Hollywood’s leading interior designers and her daughter, a woman who had an important antique carpet company and a male interior designer. I was the least interested in carpets but I worked the hardest once we got to the Tientsin Carpet Fair as I had to keep writing the whole time — notes on all the endless meetings and transactions. I earned my trip by filling notebook after notebook of shorthand notes that were really of no interest to us but impressed the Chinese with how dedicated I was to my job. Jayne and Rosa bought lots of carpets for their company. Steve spent his time talking into his two small handheld recorders taking notes for the book he would write Explaining China.

Getting visas wasn’t easy. The United States and China had no formal diplomatic relations. George H. W. Bush was our representative in China but he was not an Ambassador. He was Chief of American Legation in Peking. There was no proper embassy in Washington DC and our visas had to come from a small office somewhere in our capital. Mine arrived special delivery air mail in the evening the night before I was to leave. Being optimistic I was packed and ready to go. I knew that I was going to China even though I had no visa for entry in my hand until hours before my departure from Santa Barbara.

This is what led up to our going into China on that old steam powered train with Hollywood actress and TV comedienne Jayne Meadows and Rosa Wu singing their way into China. Other than our own group, the passengers in our railroad car were returning Chinese carrying big bundles back from a day’s journey to the New Territories or Hong Kong who chose to ignore the strange singing and foreign words.

There was a bit of déjà vu for the two singers in the words “It’s nice to have you back where you belong”. Rosa had lived her early childhood in China, as did Jayne whose parents were American missionaries there. Jayne remembered her family’s hasty departure from China when conditions turned very bad for foreigners. She was seven years old and her sister, the late actress Audrey Meadows was five.

Hello Dolly in Mandarin wasn’t usual, nor was anything else about our journey into China in February 1975. Americans weren’t exactly running in and out of China in over-packed tour buses at that time. President Richard Nixon had been there. And Henry Kissinger. David and Evangeline Bruce had opened the U.S. Legation, but they weren’t swamped by an overflow of visitors from home. Barbara and George H. W. Bush were now holding down the Legation fort with no improvement in the situation. —to be continued

Chapter 1: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 2: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 3: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4
Chapter 4: Part 1
Chapter 5: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 6: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
Chapter 7: Part 1
Chapter 8: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 9: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 10: Part 1
Chapter 11: Part 1  Part 2
Chapter 12: Part 1
Chapter 13: Part 1

By The Way
This blog was started to sell my new book and I keep going off on other topics. Please do check out The Beautiful Lady Was A Palace Eunuch at Amazon.com
Acknowledgement:
Kathleen Fetner, Technical Advisor and Friend
Categories Books

Popular posts

  • Ollie Carey was a Grand Old Dame but Wouldn’t Have Wanted to be a Grande Dame
  • Sure I Cooked Dinner for Julia Child: Often and Unafraid
  • There Are A Lot Of Dragons Around My House
  • Sadly Diana Nyad Couldn’t But I Was With Florence Chadwick The Night She Did
  • You Haven’t Heard the Last of Polo Season
  • What Do You Give Your Ex-Husband For His Birthday?
  • The Fabulous New Home Everyone Wants To See
  • Let’s Talk MAJOR Movie Legends: Kirk Douglas, Marlene Dietrich & Rita Hayworth
  • The Saga Of The Countess Of Jersey’s Handbag
  • If She Were British She’d Be A Dame – A Very Special Dame!

Featured Posts

  • A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: We Had the Great Wall To Ourselves (Part 2)
  • To Hell & Back
  • A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The Legendary Capital Of China
  • Sadly Diana Nyad Couldn’t But I Was With Florence Chadwick The Night She Did
  • A Front Row Seat for the Cultural Revolution: The First Annual Tientsin Carpet Fair
  • But I Didn’t Know Gable

Search

Links

  • BirdCam on Cheltenham: Gazebo Flower Show
  • Hanna Bernhard Jewelry Paris
  • Scala Regia
  • Snowflower & The Secret Fan
  • Splendid Market
  • The Peak of Chic
  • The Style Saloniste
Beverley Jackson
Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved
iThemes Builder by iThemes
Powered by WordPress
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT