Some facts about the Communist take-over of Kiaohsien (Jiaoxien Æ now again called Jiaozhou) and Tsingtao (Qingdao) by Lally Rinell
The firsttime the Communist troops entered Jaizhou was one week after the end of WWII inAugust 1945. On August 19th the Church had planned a thanks-givingservice, but on Saturday night the troops came in. The Chinese army had not yethad time to send troops to North China and the Japanese troops had retired tothe barracks outside of town. So there was no resistance. The Communists that camein were armed with hand grenades, rifles and a few machine guns, and most ofthe soldiers did not wear uniform Æ they were the guerrilla troops that haddisturbed the Japanese occupation through the years! After one week, theChinese government ordered the Japanese troops to drive out the Communists. They put up a cannon and shot two shellstoward the North Gate in the City QWall, and the Communists left through theSouth Gate. Æ After this confrontation the Communist troops entered the Townsix or seven times and at last remained there Æ even when Qingdao was stilldefended by the US forces.
It seemsthat General Marshall and his co-workers spent much time negotiating peace andin the mean time the entire countryside of China was taken over by Communisttroops. After that it was only a case of gaining access to the big cities.(Most of this is reported from a Jiaozhou-perspective for the period August 181945 Æ August 19 1946 in a small book by Gerda Rinell, Ljuset lyser i mùrkret,Baptistsamfundets fùrlag, Stockholm 1947. I believe Margie has translated thisinto English!)
AboutPastor Kung Enyung (Now: Gong Enyung), he was shot in late 1947 outside of hisChurch in Wangtai. When Oscar and I went to China we met Mrs Gong. She hassince passed away. However, in April 2004 I met three of their four children.One is a doctor at a local hospital in Jiaozhou (built on the property wherethe Mission had a Bible School), one is in Qingdao and one lives far away inXinjiang Province. They are all active Christians and I have been able to sendthem photographs of their father and family pictures, which I found in DadÍsalbums. They of course had no pictures left from those days. I even got acouple of pictures from one of the missionaries, Sigurd Engberg, on theirfamily from when they were refugees in Qingdao. They are eager to build up theChurch in Wangtai. It was torn down, but the property is still vacant. Æ Wewere successful to find the deeds from when the property was bought in thearchives at Bethel Seminary in Stockholm, so I have sent copies of these tothem. I hope they will be able to build this Church!
It shouldbe said that it was not only Pastor Gong that was shot in Wangtai. A few otherleaders/members of the Wangtai Church met the same fate. For several yearsOscar was the missionary designated to the Wangtai Church and the surroundingChapels (out posts) in the area. Wangtai was first visited already by oldLindberg. On the trip I made with Oscar we met people who still remembered howJA and Hedvig came to Wangtai. Hedvig led one child, carried one and waspregnant with the third! Æ Later on several other missionaries worked in thisChurch: Leander, Lidqvist, Strutz, Martin Jansson etc. No missionary ever livedin Wangtai, since Wangtai is only 25 km from Jiaozhou. The two-story house inHuayuan where OscarÍs stayed, was designated for the missionary in charge ofthe Wangtai area. Of course in the beginning Wangtai was an out post toJiaozhou Æ but they became an autonomous church, I think in connection with thededication of the Church in 1935, Dong was ordained minister in 1940.
AboutChristmas 1947
About theTAS - the students represented many different nationalities, even if many wereAmerican and brought there by Missionary or Military parents. However therewere quite a few Germans Æ since the German School was discontinued and theAmerican School used their buildings - several were White Russians, whosefamilies had a dreary and sad history of being refugees for many years, somewere business peopleÍs children from different European Countries. John and Iwere the only Swedes, but there was a girl from Estonia there too.
The storyabout our trip to Jiaozhou goes like this (in my version):
One dayshortly before Xmas our cook came from Jiaozhou. He had a short message writtenon rice paper stuck up into his sleeve. (Rice paper is soft and does not giveany noise if one should be searched!) Mother had typed a few lines on this paper saying that if we wished wecould follow the cook home for Xmas. We were happy about this Æ but since wehad heard that there had been fighting between Jiaozhou and Qingdao, we decidedto try and find out if travelling was safe. So Johnny, I and the Yang Shefo(the cook) went to see the General of the Chinese 8th army, who hadhis office in Qingdao (along the same street where Farfar had his house!) Wewent there and were let in by the guard. We were shown to a reception room,furnished with large easy chairs around the walls in Chinese style. After awhile the GeneralÍs wife came in and we were served tea. We never did meet theGeneral!!!
We had somesmall talk Chinese fashion and then I asked the question: Is it safe to travelto Jiaozhou at present? Suddenly the lady did not understand what I said.Instead she asked me: How can it come that your face is so white? So we continued to do some moresmall talk Æ and I asked our question once more. Again: How can it come thatyour skin is so white? When this was repeated a third time we thanked her forthe tea and left the place Æ without any valid information at all.
Since wehad no information about the safety on the roads we decided to try it out.Martin Jansson had the mission car in Qingdao and he said heÍd drive us as faras he dared (lest the car be confiscated!). So we drove past Cangko (Tsangko)and into Sifang (satellite towns to Qingdao). In Sifang we noticed that thestreets were empty and no people were visible in the houses we past by. SoMartin said that it probably wasnÍt safe to drive any further. That is when wegot off and walked. I donÍt remember going on a wheel-barrow at this time, butthere were other travellers on the road and several squeaking wheel-barrows.When we drew close to the River (Dagoho) we suddenly found ourselves in themiddle of shooting. We tried to hide in the ditch Æ but it was quite shallow,since we were close to the river banks and there was much sand. I did see a bulletdig its way down through the sand right next to us, but no one in our littlegroup was hurt. I remember that I was worried because Johnny wore western styleclothes and I was quite visible too in spite of wearing Chinese clothes,because I was so tall! But the soldiers didnÍt seem to notice. One of theCommunist soldiers came close to us and cried: ïGo over to the other side ofthe River. ItÍs safe there in Communist land!Í
So that iswhat we did. It was winter and the river was almost dry, so there was noproblem in crossing over. (At that time the bridges were washed away every timethere was a rainy season. Today they have large good bridges and a modern freeway in this place!) It was quiet on the other side and we walked to twovillages called Xiao Mawan and Da Mawan. At Da Mawan Dad met us! In his pockethe had a document from the Jiaozhou authorities permitting him to travel tomeet his children, who were coming home to celebrate a foreign festival. Wewere stopped by a nervous guard standing at his post. Then there was a ratherqueer conversation:
Guard: Whoare you?
Dad: We arefrom Jiaozhou and I have come to fetch my children who have been in Qingdao.
(He showedthem the travel document ƒ. But the soldier was illiterate!)
Guard: Areyou American?
Dad: NoweÍre Swedish.
Guard: Whatis that? Æ IÍm sure you are American!
Dad: Swedenis a little country on the other side of Russia!
Guard: Istill think you are Americans!
Anotherguard came up at this point. The first soldier told him to go and look at DadÍshair. The fellow was quite short and had to tip toe to reach DadÍs hat. He exclaimed:This is American hair!
The secondsoldier could read a little and he noticed that Dad had the title ïYuan ZhangÍwhich could be Principal of a School for higher education Æ but it could alsobe the title of an officer in the army. This added to the confusion, and Dadhad to explain that he was not an American, not an officer but the principal ofa Chinese School.
At last anofficer turned up, and he could read. Æ So we were permitted to go on the fewmiles left and arrived safely in Jiaozhou at last.
Wecelebrated Xmas together Æ and then it was time to go back to School. This tripwas quite unadventurous so I really donÍt remember it at all. But in China thisyear I met a daughter to FarfarÍs cook, and she told me that we had shared awheelbarrow on our way back to Qingdao! The last part of the way we were pickedup by army trucks. We never had another chance to return to Jiaozhou. In May1948 we left for Sweden.