www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

chinadaily.com.cn
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Tracing grandfather's footsteps

Updated: 2013-04-16 09:19
By Xu Jingxi ( China Daily)
Tracing grandfather's footsteps

Mark O'Neill at an event promoting his book, Frederick: The Story of My Missionary Grandfather, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. Zou Zhongpin / China Daily

Journalist Mark O'Neill thinks his destiny and connections with China started with his grandfather, he tells Xu Jingxi in Guangzhou.

After a tempestuous two-month voyage, Frederick O'Neill finally landed in China on Oct 30, 1897. Chilly rains, muddy roads and a wagon greeted the then-27-year-old missionary who had left his hometown of Belfast, the industrialized capital of Ireland. Three years later, the young man arrived at Faku in Liaoning province, where he was commissioned as pastor by the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. He was to stay in the rural county for the next 42 years, persisting through turbulence, war and epidemics.

Almost as soon as he arrived, he had to flee on another wagon to Vladivostok in Russia when the tide of sentiment turned against foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion (1900).

Bullets whistled by him all the way, but it was typhoid that downed him at the refugee camp. O'Neill returned to Faku after staying at the camp for only a month because he "shouldered obligations for Chinese parishioners".

In Faku, he struggled to keep the local church going, along with its school and hospital when Northeast China became the battlefield between the Russian and Japanese (1904-1905), and when the county was invaded by the Japanese in 1931.

Neither war nor the pneumonic plague sweeping across Northeast China during the winter of 1910 was able to scare away O'Neill. He was finally forced to say goodbye in 1942 when the Japanese declared war against the Allies by bombing Pearl Harbor.

All these stories would have been buried in time if Mark O'Neill, Frederick's grandson, had not decided to trace his grandparent's footsteps through China, North Ireland, France and Japan, and finished his biography.

The experienced journalist, who's currently freelance writer, says he did not start out with the intention of publishing a book on history.

"I was just curious as to why my grandfather chose to endure the long separation with his children back in Belfast and stay in China most of his lifetime," says O'Neill, who never met his grandfather.

His father, estranged from his grandfather by the long separation, seldom talked about this "mysterious" figure.

A job opportunity in Hong Kong took Mark O'Neill to China in 1978. One month after O'Neill's arrival, Deng Xiaoping announced the opening-up and reform policy.

The journalist was assigned to work in Beijing in 1985. And in the spring of 1986, Chinese government opened 240 cities to foreigners. Faku was in the list.

O'Neill was finally able to visit the county that his grandfather had worked and lived all those years ago.

"It seems as if my grandpa had been leading me all the way to China. My connection to the country might be destined," O'Neill says.

While uncovering his grandfather's stories, he has also written his own about China. He was one of the first foreign reporters in the country and worked on the mainland for 16 years. He married a Chinese and has settled in Hong Kong.

Related:

A pastor's life revisited

While many biographies attract readers with juicy anecdotes and vivid reproduction of the past, Mark O'Neill's Frederick: The Story of My Missionary Grandfather reads more like a history book or a long news report. More...

Tracing grandfather's footsteps

Tracing grandfather's footsteps

 A pastor's life revisited Turning a new page 

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

8.03K
 
 
...
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 精品国产高清a毛片 | 久久久精品在线观看 | 视频精品一区二区 | 久草资源网站 | 日韩高清在线播放不卡 | 亚洲精品不卡在线 | 中文字幕亚洲一区二区v@在线 | 国产一在线精品一区在线观看 | 九九爱精品 | 婷婷丁香久久 | japanesevideo乱子 japanese日本tube色系 | 欧美人成在线观看ccc36 | 国产精品成人观看视频网站 | 91香蕉视频免费 | 飘花国产午夜精品不卡 | 国产国产人免费人成成免视频 | 亚洲免费在线视频播放 | 欧美日韩精品国产一区在线 | 成人免费毛片观看 | 手机看片日韩高清国产欧美 | 亚洲成a人片在线看 | 国产aⅴ精品一区二区三区久久 | 成人精品一区二区三区中文字幕 | 欧美精品在线视频观看 | 久久黄色影院 | 在线一区免费播放 | 亚洲精品成人在线 | 成人午夜视频在线播放 | 成年人在线网站 | 亚洲国产天堂在线网址 | 欧美日韩一区二区三区在线视频 | 国产成人禁片免费观看视频 | 国产成人亚洲综合欧美一部 | 日韩精品永久免费播放平台 | 香蕉视频在线观看黄 | 免费人成在线观看 | 欧美日韩中文国产一区二区三区 | 国产日韩视频在线观看 | 欧美在线亚洲国产免m观看 欧美在线一级精品 | 亚洲素人在线 | 亚洲人成影院在线高清 |