The first half of the 20th century was a time of great change in China. After the 1911 Revolution, leaders like Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek tried to modernize the government, education, defense, and more. With the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War and later occupation of Hong Kong, the focus of both the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party shifted to resistance efforts in order to survive. And who did they turn to for help?

To his children, Lee Sik-pang (李錫彭) was just an artist and antiques dealer in Hong Kong until the family immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. So why did several of his watercolor paintings depict possible Allied bombing targets? And how did he know so many famous people, including Sun Fo (Sun Yat-sen’s son), Admiral Henry Hsu of the Republic of China Navy, and the British High Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia Malcolm MacDonald?

By answering these questions and many more, this book argues that Lee Sik-pang was not only an accomplished artist, but also a well-connected covert operative first for the Republic of China in the 1930s and then for the Allies during World War II. Tracing his family history from Guangdong province to the California Gold Rush, from the Chinese Mass Education Movement to the British Z Force, the author makes the case that his father and, possibly, his mother, were not simply cultural leaders but geopolitical figures.

作者簡介

John T. Lee

Born in Hong Kong, John T. Lee moved to the United States with his family at age 12. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from San Jose State University. After serving in the US Army for three years, he spent more than 40 years in the semiconductor industry first in design, then project management and sales, retiring as a Vice President of Marketing and Sales. His significant experience in product definition, systems and functional analysis, and product positioning have informed his research and writing after retirement.

序

Preface and Acknowledgements (Extract)
This book presents the process in which I discovered the true identity of my secretive parents, the turbulent world they lived in, and how they became heroes of the underground during World War II. As a child, while living in Hong Kong in the 1950s, I witnessed many important diplomats, scholars, artists, and military officers (Chinese and Western) visit our home and show the deepest respect to my parents, who were seemingly “must see” people in Hong Kong after the war. These visits were numerous and served as the foundation for my curiosity regarding my parents’ lives. At the time, I only knew my mother to be a piano teacher and that my father was an artist, so these visits raised some questions, and, in time, uncovered many mysteries. In this book, I will share my discoveries.

I had to delve into many areas of recent Chinese history: the Boxer Rebellion, Sino-Japanese Wars, Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Double Ten Revolution, all the heroes and friends of the Republic who helped, and the overseas Chinese community’s role in the revolution and support in raising money to fight the Japanese invasion and World War II in the Pacific. After the formation of the Republic of China (ROC), the second generation “sons and daughters of the revolution” had to fight to save the nation. It turns out that they were working with many leading intellectuals, as well as influential progressive figures in the west. Ultimately, I would discover that both my parents were among these educated sons and daughters of the revolution and both were uniquely qualified in their fields.