The story behind the story
When Han Suyin was young, she met a handsome British reporter in Hong Kong. Over the following year, they struggled hard, because the reporter already had a wife.
But before they could marry, the reporter was sent to cover the war in Korea. Soon after, she picked up a newspaper and read about his death on the battlefield.
She sat down in front of a typewriter and started writing her story, A Many-Splendoured Thing (Guibao in Chinese). Published in 1951, the book became an instant hit in Britain. It is said that every woman on any given London bus carried a copy of the book with her.
In 1955, 20th Century Fox adapted the novel, and the following year, the film, directed by Henry King and starring William Holden (as Mark Elliott) and Jennifer Jones (as Dr Han Suyin), won three Academy Awards for Best Costume, Best Song and Best Score.
Before publishing this novel, Han Suyin was a doctor. In 1954, she became a professional writer and began traveling around the world. In 2007, Shanghai People's Publishing House finally published Han's autobiographic novel in Chinese.
Also known as Rosalie Elisabeth, Kuanghu Chow or Elisabeth Comber, the woman behind the novel led a life that was nothing short of a legend.
She was born in Central China's Henan Province in 1916. Her father Chow Yen Tung (Zhou Yingtong), who grew up in a rich merchant's family in Sichuan Province, was one of China's first students to study abroad.
In 1902, when Chow studied railway engineering in Belgium, he met Marguerite Denis from a noble family. Faced with the family's strong disapproval, the young couple eloped to China, where they had eight children.
Han had always wanted to become a doctor. In 1935, she won a scholarship to study medicine in Brussels. After the Japanese launched war on China on July 7, 1937, Han decided to return home and serve her people.
On the journey home, she met a young man named Tang Baohuang, who said he would die defending the country. They soon got married, but the marriage turned out to be a nightmare. Tang demanded Han fully obey his orders and discontinue her social life and beloved medical career.
But a defiant Han finished her first book titled Destination Chungking, which was published in English in 1942. So, an infuriated Tang beat her savagely. The marred marriage ended in 1947, with Tang's death at the battlefront in Northeast China.
In 1941, Han left for Britain, where she continued studying medicine. In 1952, she married British officer Leon F. Comber. Together, they went to Johore, Malaya (present-day Malaysia), where she worked in local hospitals.
After their divorce, Han met an Indian colonel named Vincent Ratnaswamy while she was traveling in India. They got married, and Han gave her husband the Chinese name Lu Wenxing.
In 1993, when Han returned to Sichuan, where her father had grown up, she told local reporters a story. In 1960, the Indian government ordered Ratnaswamy to lead troops to the Sino-Indian border in preparation for a war to resolve border disputes. But Ratnaswamy refused the order, saying: "China is a friendly neighbor, and India should not fight with the Chinese."
During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), Han and her husband visited China many times and became good friends with Premier Zhou Enlai. Pictures showing the couple with Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou often made to the front page of leading newspapers. They became household names among the Chinese.
Besides novels and autobiographies, Han has written extensively about the country and its leaders, including The Morning Deluge: Mao Tsetong and the Chinese Revolution 1893-1954 (1972) and Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China (1994).
In 2003, her husband passed away in India. Han now lives in Lausanne, in Switzerland.
(China Daily 07/10/2007 page20)
