Yuan-Tsung Chen’s relationship as daughter-in-law to Chinese revolutionary Eugene Chen allows her a unique insight into a man who helped shape modern China. Eugene Chen’s revolutionary activities indirectly allowed Mao Zedong to gain control. He also signed the Chen-O’Malley agreement which set the precedent for Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule seventy years later in 1997.
Eugene Chen and Chinese Communism
Eugene Chen was born in Trinidad to Chinese ex-patriots. He enjoyed the best education his parents could acquire. While still a young man, he started a successful law firm and married a beautiful girl. Seeing an opportunity to assist revolutionaries in China, he abandoned his law practice, wife, and children to return to his Father’s native country.
He blended Marxism, Confucianism, and Communism, using the political and religious ideology of others to support his personal agenda for China. He worked closely with Russian agents to strengthen the Chinese Communist Party. When Mao Zedong seized power he could have thanked Eugene Chen. (He did express his gratitude to Jack Chen.)
After his wife’s death in 1926, his mostly-grown children followed him to China. Jack Chen became a popular political cartoonist in service to the revolution and was an acquaintance of Mao Zedong. Jack met Yuan-Tsung through revolutionary activities.
Yuan-Tsung Chen Marries Famed Revolutionary Jack Chen
Yuan-Tsung Chen (also her maiden name) was born in Shanghai, raised in a middle-class family, and educated in American Missionary Schools. Her employment in the Department of Film Scenario Writing in Beijing allowed her to serve the Chinese revolution. When Yuan-Tsung was arriving in Beijing in 1950 Jack was returning from London where he established the First New China News Agency in the West.
They married in 1958. Yuan-Tsung was at first reluctant, but Jack was persistent. He believed that his political connections could protect both him and Yuan-Tsung from the violent and irrational purges of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, and this may have been a factor in persuading her to marry.
Chens Betrayed by Chinese Communist System
The Red Guard eventually came for Jack, demanding that he write a confession. The Chens were accused of crimes by the very system they helped create. Since Jack spoke English and very little Chinese, Yuan-Tsung acted as his translator.
The Chens secretly wrote a history, as opposed to a confession, of their family's revolutionary activities. They were forced to do most of the work at night until they escaped from China. Return to the Middle Kingdom was born of Yuan-Tsung’s desire to save her family’s revolutionary heritage from Mao Zedong’s revision of history.
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