In a common dormitory building at Beijing's Wai Chinese University, a centenarian lives, and every day she walks from the third floor to the Beiwai campus with the help of her son or nanny. When people on campus saw her, they would greet her kindly, and she always had a calm and serene smile on her face. She is the 107-year-old Beiwai tenured honorary professor, Isabelle Kruk.
On September 29, 2019, Isabelle was awarded the Order of Friendship, the country's highest honor to the outside world, by President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China. Tiandi Publishing House recently published "I Love China with My Life: The Story of Isabé Kruk", which was created by the famous writer Tan Kai after three years of interviews. In more than 300,000 words, the work tells the life story of Isabe, a centenarian born in 1915.
The work begins with Isabelle's family and parents. In 1912, after the Xinhai Revolution, Isabe's parents came to China from Canada and took root in Chengdu. They participated in the establishment of West China Union University (now West China Medical Center of Sichuan University) and Chengdu Diwei Primary School. Born in Chengdu and raised in Huaxiba, his life experience has left the mark of his hometown in Isabe's heart. There are Chengdu Plains and Chinese culture that nourish her, there are childhood friends and Sichuan cuisine, there are also Chinese friends who call her Chinese "Rao Sumei"...
The Kruks
Influenced by her parents and her feelings for her hometown, Isabe has looked down from an early age and is full of deep sympathy for the suffering of ordinary Chinese people. The porters of the Three Gorges, the coolies of the docks, the porters on the Tea Horse Trail, and the disabled children in the blind, deaf and mute school founded by their mothers are all taken to heart by Isabelle. She is also pondering the reasons for China's poverty and backwardness, and this kind of thinking affects her choice of research direction and life partner.
In 1938, after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Isabelle graduated from the University of Toronto and returned to Chengdu. In war-torn China, Isabelle turned firmly from child psychology to anthropology. She hopes to find out the reasons for China's poverty and backwardness through anthropological research. From the Zhao Hou Temple in Hanyuan, Sichuan, to the Badhwa in Lixian County, to the XinglongChang in Bishan, Chongqing, the experience of three field trips not only made Isabeu and the villagers form a sincere friendship, let the title of "Miss Rao" be passed on for more than 80 years, but also let Isabeau first taste the bitterness of anthropological research, harvest precious materials and deeply understand the complexity of Chinese society - the oppression of officials, bandits, and landlords, the numbness, ignorance, and selfishness of the people at the bottom... Isabelle knows that if China wants to turn a new page, it must prescribe the right medicine.
In 1940, It was in Huaxiba that Isabeau met David Kruk, who would later become his lifelong companion. In 1941, Isabeus and Kruk met to retake the road of the Red Army's Long March, and finally the two of them settled on the iron cable bridge.
"I'm not so great, I just choose China every time, choose to stay in my favorite place, choose to be with the people I like." This is a sentence from the heart of Isabel. It is precisely with this original intention, whether it is staying in Nanhaishan to participate in the establishment of the Central Foreign Affairs School, or staying in New China to cultivate foreign language talents, or when experiencing unfair treatment during the "Cultural Revolution" and receiving invitations from famous foreign universities... Both Isabelle and Kruk firmly chose to stay in China and participate in the construction of New China together with the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people. Especially in the aspects of English teaching and educational reform, they participated in the compilation of the first set of university English textbooks in New China and compiled the Chinese-English Dictionary. They revolutionized the past, taught and educated people, and cultivated a large number of foreign language talents for the new China.