Episode 068 - HCW Live! | FU HAN (w/ MARK LEVINE) Live at The Bookworm

oday we bring you our very first "How China Works Live!" event, featuring Chinese businesswoman & force of nature, FU HAN, w/ special guest Mark Levine. We discuss Fu Han's collaboration with Mark, plus her documentary film about an incredible lady named Isabel Crook.


HCW Live with Fu Han - more info below!


Hosted by Yingying Li & Brendan Davis


Event Schedule (all times PM China time):

7:30 - Welcome to “How China Works LIVE” and introduction to the film by Yingying Li & Brendan Davis (10 minutes)

7:40 - “Isabel Crook: Childhood Memories From Bailuding” screening (24 minutes)

8:05 - Yingying & Brendan introduce filmmaker / guest Fu Han and interview her onstage about her life and the film (40 minutes)

8:45 - Special guest Mark Levine joins the group onstage to discuss his music partnership with Fu Han (15 minutes)

9:00 - Audience Q&A

9:30 - Event end, informal meet & greet & drinks begins


WATCH Fu Han’s film “Isabel Crook: Childhood Memories From Bailuding” (23 minutes):

https://m.v.qq.com/play.html?vid=a0890i293zp&ptag=v_qq_com%23v.play.adaptor%233&from=singlemessage&isappinstalled=0


LOCATION:

The Bookworm
Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road,

Chaoyang District, Beijing

100027, P.R China

北京市朝阳区南三里屯路三里屯南街4号院

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Isabel Crook & Fu Han: A Friendship Beyond The Century

世纪老人伊莎白和傅涵的朋友情 

Jung-Ha (Jamie) Suk 

On December 15th2018, there was the 103rd birthday celebration of Isabel Crook at Beijing Foreign Studies University where she devoted almost half of her life as one of the first foreign teachers in China. Hundreds of people including her family gathered to celebrate Isabel’s birthday. 

 2018年12月15日,北京外国语大学迎来了伊莎白·柯鲁克103岁的生日。作为新中国英语教学的拓荒者,她在北京外国语大学度过了几乎大半生的时光。当天,包括她的家人在内的数百人聚集在一起庆祝伊莎贝尔的生日。 

On this day, Isabel got the award of ‘The Most Influential Foreigner throughout 40 Years of China’s Development’ from the Chinese government to show respect to her dedication to the country. Also, she received a special gift from her friend Fu Han, who discovered and decided to help Isabel sharing her history to everyone. The film Memories from Bailudingbegins with Isabel’s recalling beautiful memories of her childhood in Bailuding. Bailuding mountain is where everything started with her, it’s also the base on which she began to build up her own history.

这一天,伊莎白被中国政府授予“中国40年发展历程中最具影响力的外国人”称号,以表达对她的敬意。与此同时,她还收到了朋友傅涵送给她的一份特别礼物——纪录片《西方女人类学家的中国记忆——伊莎白 白鹿顶》,该纪录片是伊莎白对她童年在白鹿顶生活的真实回忆,该影片讲述伊莎白人类学方面的成就,同时通过她的回忆说明童年对人生的重要影响。白鹿顶是代表了她一切的开始,也奠定了她人生历史的基础。 

Isabel Crook was born in China over 100 years ago, in 1915, and lived through all of China’s struggles and revolutions in the 20th century. Isabel worked as an anthropologist in Sichuan and focused in understanding people’s culture and living conditions. Her research was mainly about China’s villages and published several books about them. Isabel and her husband David, were also among the founders of Beijing Foreign Studies University, where they both taught for many decades. In addition to teaching many students, they also worked together and made the first English text book in China.

1915年,伊莎白出生在中国四川成都一个加拿大传教士家庭,见证了在中国革命时期,中国农村的历史变革,经历了抗日战争、解放战争、土地革命和新中国成立的历史时期,最后留在中国。20世纪30年代,伊莎白从加拿大返回中国,开始在中国进行社会调查,亲历了中国的农村生活。1948年,伊莎白和她的丈夫大卫·柯鲁克任教于北京外国语学院,共同出版了英语教材,为中国培养外语人才,将毕生献给了中国的革命和教育事业 。

 Fu Han (Flo) is the director of the film. Although well-known by media, government and businesses for her years of work with foreigners in various fields in China, this is her first endeavor in film making. Fu Han is also a Chinese folk musician who has performed in different Chinese Provinces and has appeared lots of times on Chinese TVs and radios.

她的朋友傅涵是这部纪录片的导演。虽然在媒体、政界和商圈与外国朋友合作了很多年,但拍摄这部纪录片对她来说还是第一次尝试。傅涵与美国人马克力文的音乐组合秀外慧中也曾多次在中国各大省份演出及媒体电视广播的采访。 

Isabel Crook and Fu Han first met around 8 years ago when Fu Han was invited to join in a tree planting activity that was organized by the Gung Ho organization which Isabel has been active in for many years. Since then, they got to meet more often at a variety of events and activities. As she learned more about Isabel, Fu Han’s fascination with Isabel’s story started to grow up. As she got to know more about Isabel, she also got close to her family and it ended up building strong and trustworthy relationship.

伊莎白·柯鲁克与傅涵第一次认识大约是在8年前,当时傅涵应邀参加了一个植树活动,这个活动是由伊莎白多年来一直积极参与的公益组织工合国际组织的。从那以后,她们经常在各种场合中见面。随着对伊莎白的了解越来越多,傅涵越来越觉得她的故事值得去分享和传播。彼此互动的频繁也使傅涵与她的家人越来越近,最终建立起了牢固而值得信赖的关系。 

The idea for this film started when Isabel suddenly fainted early this summer. This actually made Fu Han to decide recording all of Isabel’s valuable memories. Producing a documentary turned out to be much more difficult than Fu Han expected. Since Isabel was too afraid to talk to the camera, especially with unfamiliar people, Fu Han decided to do the filming and interviews by herself. In the beginning Isabel was occasionally overwhelmed even talking to Fu Han. However, as the time goes by, they both gained experience and became more comfortable with the project. 

103岁的伊莎白今年夏天不慎摔跤,记忆力和表达力逐渐减弱,这使得傅涵决定放下手头一切工作去做抢救性拍摄。但是制作一部纪录片明显不是想象中那么容易,因为伊莎白面对镜头会不知所措,也不大会和陌生人交谈,傅涵决定亲自去做拍摄和采访。不过,随着时间的推移,彼此都积累了经验,慢慢放松下来以更舒适的状态投入。 

One of the speakers at Isabel’s birthday celebration was Gong Changhua, the Vice-Mayor of Pengzhou City where town Bailu is located. “I already knew about Isabel’s stories long time ago since she contributed so much to the advancement of Bailu Town. Words cannot describe what she means to us.” After coming up with the idea for the documentary, Vice-Mayor Gong was contacted by Fu Han who introduced both the idea of the documentary and a proposal for Bailu to develop a museum in Isabel’s honor. Learning more about Isabel, he came to the same conclusion as Fu Han, that her memories and experience need be remembered and documented and he pledged the city’s support in both projects. Fu Han was moved to tears while retelling this story.

伊莎白生日会上的发言人之一四川彭州市副市长龚昌华在采访中提到,“伊莎白老奶奶的故事在我们家乡口口相传,她对我们白鹿镇的发展做出了巨大贡献。语言无法描述她对我们的意义到底是什么。”与傅涵有了拍摄纪录片的念头后,彭州市也同时决定接受傅涵的提议,以伊莎白的名义在当地建立一个博物馆。随着对伊莎白了解的越深,龚市长和傅涵一样,深感伊莎白的经历和贡献应该被铭记,他保证市政府会在这两个项目中给与支持。傅涵在重述这个故事的时候依旧充满了感动。 

70 years ago, ’Xinglong Chang: Field Notes of a Village Called Prosperity 1940-1942’ got published in United Kingdom, based from the door to door survey about the first time in Chinese history of social anthropology by Isabel Crook and her working partner, Yu Xiji who was a Chinese scholar. This book is a detailed record of daily life which happened on the rear area of the war of resistance against Japan. It is a must-read for people who are interested in social anthropology, the history of the People's Republic of China, and the history of the rural construction movement.

70年前社会人类学历史上第一部由西方女人类学家与其中国合作者完成的逐户采访式的社区调查《兴隆场:抗战时期四川农民生活调查》,以细腻、详实地记录了抗战大后方的大量日常生活细节,堪称社会人类学以及民国史、乡建运动史的必读之作。该书作者就是加拿大人伊莎白和中国女学者俞锡玑。

 In light of Isabel’s age and sometimes failing memories, Fu Han felt the need to work even harder to bring out Isabel’s stories as fast as possible. Everyone’s efforts were well worth the work as they ended up with the perfect film which is full of Isabel’s century old memories. The film created a lasting bond between Isabel, Fu Han and all who will see it.

鉴于伊莎白的年龄以及有时会出现的记忆衰退,傅涵觉得有必要更加努力地把伊莎白的故事尽快还原出来。每个人的努力都是值得的,因为他们最终拍出了一部完美的纪录片,充满了伊莎白百年的回忆。这部影片将在伊莎白、傅涵和所有观众之间建立一种永久的联系。