Talk:Suzanne Hiltermann-Souloumiac

Moved unsourced content to the talk page

I have removed the folllowing text because it is either unsourced or inappropriately sourced. Feel freee to re-add this content - together with reliable secondary sources. Please see WP:BURDEN and WP:OR for more info. JimRenge (talk) 15:30, 4 May 2018 (UTC)

Biographies of the main actors of the recognition of China have been sourced. A link to Nieng's book published in USA has been made. A Souloumiac. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alain.souloumiac (talk • contribs) 09:20, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

The recognition of China by France

In 1963 Touty receives the visit of Bernard Anthonioz, Counsellor of André Malraux and husband of her friend Geneviève de Gaulle. Several talks relate in particular to the future mission of Edgar Faure - who General Charles de Gaulle intends to send in Peking for the recognition of China by France. Touty strongly supports the interest of France to take such a decision. Unlike many other people of her generation, she does not consider the communists as enemies. Many of her friends in the resistance belonged to the Communist movement. She believes in a sustainable alliance of great nations beyond changes and political evolutions. She repeats the arguments her father in law, Baron François Cornelis Van Aerssen, had issued 16 years earlier to convince the Dutch Crown.

Her friend Bernard is conquered. Discussions go very far. They consider the historical dimensions of such recognition, to contain and resolve the Vietnam war. The composition of the first team who will represent France in Beijing is evoked. Touty recommends the quality of Pierre-Jean Rémy, then vice-consul in Hong Kong. He will later be admitted to the French Academy because of the importance of his work in China. The personality of the first ambassador of France in Beijing is also considered (Lucien Paye).

Nien Cheng

The same year, she meets and becomes friend with Nien Cheng, an exceptional Chinese woman. As a sign of gratitude for their first discussions on China, the arts and the meaning of life, Nien Cheng offers to Touty four paintings by great masters of Chinese painting, including a Qi Baishi.

Back in Europe, Touty learns the abuse her friend and her daughter are subjected by the Red Guards. Cheng's daughter, Meiping is a bright and promising actress. Brutalized an entire day by the Red Guards, while she has not yet twenty, Meiping returns in the evening to the apartment she shares with her mother in Shanghai. When pressed by Nien Cheng, she admits the brutal treatments that were inflicted to her, as "'dirty daughter of a mother serving bourgeois’ imperialism.'" At that time, her mother represents in China the Shell Company. The guards wanted Meiping to condemn her mother. Nien is in tears. Meiping replies: "But, Mom, they can hit as hard as they want, the truth will remain and they will be unable to change anything."

Soon after, in early 1967 Touty learns that Nien has been arrested and deported. She then writes a letter to President Mao Zedong to beg him to free her friend. In vain. Nien underwent several years of captivity in harsh re-education camp. Nien renews relations with Touty soon after leaving the camp. In 1980, the United States and Canada where she emigrated, Nien writes long letters to Touty about the memories of this torment. From the mountains of the Ardèche, where it is housed, Touty relives in these sad episodes some of the agony she suffered in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. To write is release. She suggests to her Chinese friend to write a book. Nien is persuaded. She ask her to read some of her chapters as she writes. The book is published in 1987 under the title Life and Death in Shanghai. It experienced considerable international success.

References