Sino-Western Yangtze River Family Stories
My Chinese family has deep roots at Ginling College, dating almost since its inception. First as students and then as faculty, women on both sides of my family – my grandfather’s side – the Shih family 石 and my grandmother’s side the Qian family 錢 – have been influenced by this remarkable women’s college.
The Chinese state visit was broadcast over a television set at the Yichang Crowne Plaza hotel café where I was eating breakfast. It was a stunning visual – a swarm of British dignitaries on a red carpet, flanked by men in uniform, welcoming the arrival of President Xi as he touched down at Heathrow Airport […]
Captain Cornell Plant’s Glimpses of the Yangtze Gorges was published in 1921, 1926 & 1932 and originally issued to coincide with the launch of S.S. Loong Mow, the first scenic passenger cruise ship in the Three Gorges. Ivon Donnelly illustrated the book. However, Captain Plant had launched commercial and passenger steamship service through the Yangtze’s […]
China is a large country to be sure, but after 50 years of missionary service at the center of the Yangtze River in Yichang, Mary Emelia Moore – one of the most universally respected women – had encountered plenty of people, including some of the most influential. Warlord armies fought fierce battles there. The Japanese […]
Surgeon’s Report re Samuel Cornell Plant, Deceased “Samuel Cornell Plant embarked, together with Mrs. Plant & two Chinese girls on board S.S. Teiresias 23rd February 1921. “I was called to see him first on the afternoon of following day. I was told that he had been ill for a week and that he was suffering […]
S.S. PioneerOn the morning of June 20, 1900 in Peking, German diplomat Klemens Freiherr von Ketteler was shot at point blank range by a Manchu soldier avenging Ketteler’s murder of a Chinese boy. Empress Dowager declared war on all foreign powers the next day. Meanwhile, 800 miles away in Ichang, Captain Cornell Plant set out to […]
In 1901, the French Navy dispatched its gunboat Olry to West China in an exploratory mission to the Yangtze’s upper reaches under Lt. Emile Auguste Leon Hourst’s command. Hourst’s achievement on Africa’s Niger River set high standards for the expedition and fate blessed him a second time. Upon arriving in China, Hourst was introduced to Captain Samuel […]