Draft:Wu Chu-Fang

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Wu Chu-Fang

Wu Chu-Fang with husband, General Li Hanhun, visiting refugee children during the Sino-Japanese War, circa 1940.

Wu Chu-Fang (吴菊芳) was born on September 10, 1911, into a feudal family at the time of China’s transition from Empire to Republic. As noted in her joint autobiography[1] with her husband Li Hanhun, she was the only child of a father who had little interest in a daughter and a mother who died during her infancy. Her life story was one of relentless striving for a place in society for herself and for those she was in a position to help, especially children and women.  As a teenager, she defied the wishes of her father and insisted on getting an education.  When Republic of China General Li Hanhun (李汉魂), a commander of the famed Fourth Army, was stationed in Ichang, Hubei where she resided in 1929, he proposed to her, asking her what she would wish as his wife; “obtaining a college education” was her reply.  She recorded in a diary her life with him in war-time China, and afterwards in America, from which her autobiography was drawn.

The Sino-Japanese War Years[2][3]

As a young army officer’s wife, she organized literacy and home economics classes for other officers’ wives while her husband was chief civil-military administrator in Shaoguan, Guangdong. With a third child on the way, she entered the Sun Yatsen University College of Agriculture in Guangzhou (Canton) with the inaugural group of eight female students, receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1941.

With escalations of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, her husband General Li was recalled to active duty. Wu Chu-Fang began organizing the officers’ wives to raise funds in Hong Kong for medical supplies and winter wear for the soldiers in the frontline. Her personal participation in relief activities at the front was incidentally mentioned in Freda Utley’s book China at War[4], wherein she recounted her visit to General Li camp and her impressions of him.

As the wife of the Governor of Guangdong Province (1939-1945), Wu led the rescue operation of over 20,000 refugee children from occupied territories and war zones.  Seven Children’s Homes and Schools were established in succession to accommodate the refugee children, ages 6-18, each nurturing and educating over 1,000 children at any given time.  Also founded were a normal school, vocational high schools, and the Lixin High School for gifted students.  Factories were established to accommodate those older than 18 years.  The children called her Mother, even decades later when many of them have become professors, journalists, engineers, teachers, military officers, in China, Taiwan, and abroad.

She also founded the Women’ Brigade, which accommodated over 1,000 young women who lost their soldier husbands in service of their country.  The women learned literacy, farming, and cottage industry skills, and received military training towards civil defense.

Wu Chu-Fang was also an elected member of the first National Assembly of the Republic of China, the only nationwide popular election ever held.

Life in the United States

Madame Li Chu-Fang at China Garden Restaurant

After the Communist takeover of China in 1949, General Li and Mrs. Li settled in New York City. Having scarce financial resources to support the four children they brought with them and then a fifth born in America, she took up one of the few career options opened at that time to Chinese immigrants with limited English, that of a restaurateur[5]. She first learned the mechanics of operating a restaurant in a “chop suey house” type of place, the Good Will, in NYC’s Washington Heights, which she went into with several partners experienced in the business.  Then in 1955 she opened her own restaurant in White Plains NY, the China Garden, effusively described by in a New York paper as “a temple of excellent dining[6]. By means of innovative menus and presentations, and by working personally to educate customers to the appreciation of gourmet Chinese dining, she brought this restaurant to great heights of recognition in the whole New York City area[7].

The success of Mrs. Li’s restaurant business had implications not only for the fortune of her own family, but also consequences in a broader way for how Americans viewed Chinese restaurants and their workers. Many Chinese graduate students as well as her own children worked in the restaurant, and she never lost an opportunity to let her distinguished customers know it. They in turn drew inspiration from that experience, as in the instance of her son Victor Li playing a key role in the ending the practice of unlawful and menacing raids of Chinese restaurants by Immigration officers at that time[8].

A chapter of Wu Chu-Fang’s autobiography[1] is titled “[My] life’s greatest satisfaction: [my] children’s accomplishments gladdening [my] heart.” Here, she celebrated the successful transplanting of her family from China to the American, and the successful careers her children were able to attain through the high education they pursued with her staunch support. Some have made seminal contributions in their fields, as in the case of son Frederick Pei Li of the Li-Fraumeni Syndrome fame.

Chu-Fang Wu died on December 10, 1999, in New York City where she spent most of her later years

References

  1. ^ a b 1.      枕上梦回: 李汉魂吴菊芳伉俪自传, 广东人民出版社, 2012-8-1
  2. ^ 张, 慧真 (2012). 弦歌不輟：烽火中的廣東兒童教養院. Hong Kong: 广东人民出版社.
  3. ^ Deng, Qiyao (September 28, 2015). "Institution Director and 'Mama" for Refugee children: Sun Yat Sen National University alumna Wu Chu-Fang, wartime rescuer of refugee children". http://xiaobao.sysu.edu.cn/. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  4. ^ Utley, Freda. "China At War" (PDF).
  5. ISBN 978-1-59102-081-3
    .
  6. ^ Keller, Allen (August 15, 1963). "White Plains China Garden Mixes Art and Fine Cuisine". New York World-Telegram and The Sun.
  7. ^ Small, Susan (August 9, 1973). "The Observer". The Observer: a weekly newspaper serving Eastchester, Bronxville and Tuckahoe. p. 1. "In a short time China Garden became well known among gourmets, not only in Westchester, but in the whole metropolitan area": quote from "Madame Chu Fang Li: noted gourmet, proud mother and successful businesswoman"
  8. ^ Ching, Frank (March 12, 1971). "Drive Seeks End to Chinese Restaurant Raids". The New York Times. p. 39.
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