The Remarkable Chester Ronning To China Hands, old and new Contents Foreword: A Remarkable Man in a Remarkable Time ix Preface: Chester Alvin Ronning xiii Acknowledgements xix A Note on Names xxi 1 Chinese Childhood 1 2 Bucolic Youth 25 3 Return to Fancheng 37 4 Principal and Politician 65 5 Diplomat in China 95 6 Nanking Forever 123 7 The Coming of the People’s Republic of China 139 8 A Long Way to Norway 157 9 Delhi, Nehru, and Dief 179 10 A Smallbridge Too Far 195 11 Unfinished Business 209 12 Returning Home 223 13 Taking His Measure 249 Notes 261 Bibliography 291 Index 295 Foreword A Remarkable Man in a Remarkable Time In early spring of 1968, a year remembered for its “revolutionary” activity in Canada, the United States, and Europe, Chester Ronning gave the keynote lecture at the annual theological conference of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon. This is the seminary of the denomination he belonged to throughout his life in Canada that had given birth to Camrose Lutheran College where he was principal for a time and which is now the Augustana Campus of the University of Alberta. The invitation to have him speak was not without con- troversy. The Cold War had created hostile and fearful attitudes toward China. Despite, or perhaps because of, the longstanding role of Lutheran missionaries to China, the fear of communism and the negative rhetoric about China and its leadership since the revolution shaped the attitude of many in the Lutheran community, including most who came to the theological conference. Everyone knew of Ronning’s affection for China and his untiring work to normalize Canada’s relationship with China. Many knew he was a socialist and had deep sympathies with the revolution in China. Within Lutheran circles, lectures given in seminaries or churches are both anchored in biblical texts and sprinkled with them. Biblical ix Foreword texts have a position of central authority, orient the listener, and pro- vide an assurance that the lecturer shares the community’s faith and understanding. In his speech, Ronning departed from this pattern. He did not begin with a biblical text and there were none sprinkled throughout his lecture. To the gathered faithful, the oddness of this was only matched by the subject of his talk. He mapped the history of the Christian mission movement in China from its beginnings through his parents’ generation, including his early childhood experi- ence in Fancheng. As was always the case, his lecture was sprinkled with stories and anecdotes full of charm that spoke to his love of China and were intended to open up the audience to see China in a new light. He went on to make what for many in the audience that day was a disturbing argument. The Christian mission movement, he said, played an important role in the liberation of China from the oppression of colonialism, internal tyranny, and systemic poverty. It was formative for the revolution in China. A friend of mine attend- ing the seminary that year listened to Chester Ronning and noted the uneasiness that moved through the auditorium. Ronning’s thesis was not how most of them understood the mission movement, much less its purpose. But, as was often the case, Ronning’s humour and affable spirit were hard to resist. Only at the very end, when he had made his case and wooed the audience to think of China differently, did he, like all great rhetors, return to the familiar and drive home his point. He quoted from one of Jesus Christ’s better-known sermons, a text familiar to everyone in the audience that day. It comes at the end of a lengthy discourse in which Jesus is pointing to the many and varied ways we mistake what is central to being righteous and, through focusing on secondary matters, miss doing that work which brings liberty and dignity to all people. With his finest cathedral voice, Ronning concluded with the words from Matthew 6:33: “But, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Chester Ronning used his considerable gifts in service to extend- ing justice, liberty, and dignity in all the contexts of his long and extraordinarily fruitful life and did so without rancour, ideological x Foreword brittleness, or false righteousness. Brian Evans has beautifully captured the spirit of Ronning as he brings us through the various periods in his life. Evans brings his own love of China and affection for Chester Ronning, his skill as a historian, and his sensibilities, which, like Ronning’s, were partly honed in the diplomatic service to his country, to this book. As Evans points out: it is time this story was told. I am delighted Evans has placed it before us. He has done so in a way no one else could have and we are richer for it. David J. Goa, Director Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life December 2012 xi Preface Chester Alvin Ronning Chester Alvin Ronning died the last day of December 1984, aged ninety. Those who gathered at his funeral a few days later included family, friends, colleagues, and admirers from Canada, the United States, Norway, and China. During his nine decades Ronning touched many lives and accomplished many things. He received many honours, among them the Alberta Order of Excellence, the highest accolade given by his home province; Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest civilian award given by his country; and numerous honourary degrees. In 1983, to mark his ninetieth year, the govern- ment of China held a dinner in his honour at the Great Hall of the People in Peking (Beijing), and later the mayor of the city of Hsiangfan (Xiangfan), Hupei (Hubei), hosted a celebratory banquet and fire- works display to mark Ronning’s return home. Canadian newspaper, television, and radio commentators marked Ronning’s passing as that of a great man: a farmer, rancher, teacher, musician, sculptor, soldier, pilot, politician, author, and diplomat, but many failed to note his greatest source of pride: he was born in China. Ronning’s Chineseness was so apparent that some of his Chinese friends called him an “egg”: white outside, but yellow inside. One xiii Preface was not long in Ronning’s company before he referred to his birth at Fancheng, Hupei, where his Norwegian American parents had estab- lished a Lutheran church mission. With a smile, he boasted he was the first non-Chinese baby born in Hsiang Yang (Xiangyang) county, and then he would add slyly, a Chinese wet nurse suckled him. From the day of his birth, 13 December 1894, Ronning’s life was entwined with the history of China. Fate kept drawing him back to the land of his birth, and when recalling his life, he invariably measured it by key events in the history of modern China. I first met Ronning in August 1965 in Banff at a conference on international affairs, and again the next year following his spe- cial missions to Hanoi. He graciously agreed to be a guest lecturer in my course on the history of modern China at the University of Alberta. For those who did not have the pleasure of spending time in Ronning’s company, let me attempt to give some inkling of the manner and character of the man, as I knew him. First, he was a polymath; a natural at everything he attempted from sculpting to diplomacy. He was tall, slender, handsome, loquacious, interested in everyone and everything around him, gregarious, a talented public speaker, engaging, trilingual—at least, fearless, filled with the milk of human kindness, and funny. I say at least trilingual because in addition to standard Mandarin Chinese, he spoke the Hupei dialect, which in its oral form might as well be another language. In addition, while at Camrose Lutheran College, he taught agriculture, music, mathematics, religion, and German. A meeting with Ronning was invariably punctuated with laughter and amazing stories of exotic places and extraordinary people. After Canada, he identified with China and Norway, and latterly with the United States. Thus, he was a proud Canadian with Chinese sensibility, Norwegian calm prac- ticality, and American drive. Throughout his life, he used languages to great effect, communicating easily with people. His intelligence, impish sense of humour, and innate curiosity made him a natural teacher, politician, and diplomat. I am guilty of waiting far too long to complete this biography. Thirty years ago, Mel Hurtig suggested I meet with Ronning to xiv Preface interview him with an eye, perhaps, to producing a biography. I trav- elled to Camrose one afternoon in late November 1979 to discuss the project with Ronning in his snug little house full of mementos of China and India. After 6 p.m., we walked to the York Café where we had superb noodles served to us by a pretty Chinese waitress to whom we spoke Mandarin. Later, a craggy old farmer came in and spoke at first to Ronning in Norwegian. He reminded the world-famous dip- lomat that it was people like him, who walked behind oxen to till the fields, who raised the funds for Ronning to go to China in the 1920s. From May to September 1980, I returned to Camrose many times, taping interviews with Ronning, who in no way looked or acted his eighty-five years. I grew familiar with his life story, most of which he had already published in his own A Memoir of China in Revolution,1 or was recounted in the National Film Board’s China Mission (1980), directed by Tom Radford, or supplemented by Audrey (Ronning) Topping’s Dawn Wakes in the East,2 describing the family trip in 1971 to Fancheng, their meeting with Chou En-lai (Zhou Enlai), and including a long essay by Ronning on his return to his hometown.