01 October 2019

A Personal Memoir: Oh The People You'll Meet! >> Sidney & Yulin Rittenberg

Why write again now about Sidney and Yulin Rittenberg?
For your MesaZona blogger it was one unexpected chance interaction in what we now call 'the gig economy' while at the same time having 'more than a full-time job' cooking in New York City in retail food markets, as well as personal and corporate catering and Special Events. Sidney & Yulin were frequent household guests invited many times for dinners and weekend-stays over the course of several years in a private home where yours truly enjoyed cooking as a private chef.
Keeping the word 'private' in mind as a professional. it was indeed a pleasure to meet them both on such a personal level. Other than finding out that Sidney had been a prisoner in China for many years and that Yulin was his constant loving companion, little was known, or cared-to-be-known by me. It was enough that they were warm, engaging and 'down-to-earth' in close encounters in the Gig Economy. So too was one of the next-door neighbors, who came by one day to borrow some eggs - she happened to own another home in  Florida, Mar-A-Lago. Never mind all that except to say free-lance work was interesting - for the social interaction
Today happens to be the 70th Anniversary of The Chinese Revolution.
As noted in an Obituary in The Wall Street Journal on August 30, 2019
Sidney Rittenberg, Mao’s American Friend, Survived Turmoil to Travel a Capitalist Road
Linguist translated Communist tracts, languished in prison and finally counseled U.S. investors in China
By  James R. Hagerty James R. Hagerty The Wall Street Journal
"When U.S. companies began investing in China in the 1980s and 1990s, many self-styled experts clamored to advise them. Few, if any, could match the insights and connections offered by Sidney Rittenberg.      
Mr. Rittenberg, a U.S. Army veteran from South Carolina, first met Mao Zedong in 1946. The occasion was a dance in Yan’an, the temporary headquarters of China’s Communist Party. Mao was doing the fox trot when he spotted Mr. Rittenberg, the American recalled later. The Chinese leader smiled faintly and said, “We are happy to welcome an American comrade.”
Mr. Rittenberg, an idealist who saw Mao as the savior of China, became a top-level translator of Chinese Communist propaganda, spent 16 years in prison for straying from ever-changing party lines and finally found a lucrative career advising Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and other U.S. companies doing business in China.
" . . . Mr. Rittenberg, who died Aug. 24 at age 98, never lost his yearning to bridge the gaps between China and the U.S. The gravest global problems could never be solved without their cooperation, he believed . . .
“I imagined a historic role for myself acting as liaison between their government and the American government,” he later wrote.
The ferocity of party zealots, beating those dubbed their class enemies, sickened Mr. Rittenberg. He persuaded himself it was the only way to “throw off the weight of centuries of oppression and fear.” Bombing raids terrified him during the Civil War between Nationalists and Communists; he recited Keats to calm himself. He struggled with the idea that individuals had to accept party dictates without question. In 1947, he married Wei Lin, a radio announcer.
Given a state broadcasting job, he strove to prove absolute loyalty to the party. He married Wang Yulin, an independent-minded secretary at the broadcasting agency, in 1956. They lived in an apartment on the Lane of the Fried Dough Twists in Beijing and collected Ming dynasty furniture, later donated to a museum. He was on an elite team that translated Mao’s works into English.
He welcomed the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, when Mao urged young people to seize power from older party bureaucrats. Mr. Rittenberg initially felt liberated, finally able to speak his mind. But the movement soon turned violent. He was again accused of spying and imprisoned in early 1968. Meanwhile, his wife was beaten and sent to a labor camp.
Mao died in 1976. After nearly a decade of prison, Mr. Rittenberg was released in 1977 and told the charges against him were unfounded.
He moved to the U.S. in 1980 and eventually settled in Fox Island, Wash., with a view of Puget Sound. Major companies hired him to explain the mysteries of China and help them navigate the bureaucracy. “Capitalism,” he wrote, “is the most powerful engine yet created for fostering economic growth.”
Mr. Rittenberg is survived by his wife, four children and five grandchildren.
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He never wavered on the need for friendship with China. “There are many things we don’t agree on,” he said in 2013. “Well, the answer to that is that all concerned just get over it.”
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Here are excerpts from a local report that appeared Fountain Hills Times
on August 24, 2019 by Barb Charzuk
Sidney Rittenberg looks back on revolution, life and love
"Sidney Rittenberg lives in relative obscurity in Fountain View Village for a man who, during his 98 years, attracted worldwide acclaim as a revolutionary, journalist, Chinese linguist and business consultant.
He witnessed much of what occurred at the upper levels of the Chinese Communist Party and knew many of its leaders, such as Chairman Mao Zedong.
He has shared his experiences in books and in television appearances. He was interviewed on CBS network’s “60 Minutes” more than any other individual. He called host Mike Wallace a close friend.
During his 35 years in China, beginning in the communist guerilla headquarters of Yan’an to the end of the Maoist era, Rittenberg was singled out as both a hero and victim to China’s revolutionary turmoil.
He spent a total of 16 years in prison in solitary confinement. . .
In his autobiography, “The Man who Stayed Behind,” published in 1993, he wrote that he had no regrets for the years he spent in China. The book is available through Amazon.
He says he was motivated then, as now, to support the Chinese people’s quest to taste the responsibilities and rewards of freedom.
In an interview a week before his 98th birthday celebrated today, Aug. 14, Rittenberg talked intelligently about present U.S. relations with China, sincerely about his love for his wife, Yulin, and humorously on “discovering the new Sidney.”
“I think as far as the United States is concerned, we don’t really understand what we’re dealing with in China, and therefore it is not possible to deal intelligently with it,” Rittenberg said. “Watching the President on TV is like a comic hour. The only thing is, it ain’t funny…Intelligent people are threatening the largest country in the world with destruction. . .
Readers of this blog are invited to read the entire Spotlight Feature using the above link
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