Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan
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Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan

Golden Memories

Lee Griffin

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eBook - ePub

Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan

Golden Memories

Lee Griffin

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About This Book

In Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan: Golden Memories, author Lee Griffin illustrates the importance of cultivating the memories of generations past, and looking positively toward the future as one grows older. The book contains the voices of prominent community members who reside in Kalamazoo and the surrounding areas, including Portage, Richland, Gull Lake, Galesburg, Augusta, Hickory Corners, Lawton, Allegan, and Marshall. Their contributions to the regions growth are varied, from a local mailman to a former college president. These extraordinary citizens are representative of men and women everywhere, and whose recollections span the globe. Included in these extensive interviews are first-hand accounts of the flu epidemic of 1912 and its effects on the Kalamazoo area, vivid memories of an African-American boy growing up on a plantation, and the moving story of a mans emigration from China and his test of bravery as he made his way to Kalamazoo, where he became a distinguished staff member of Kalamazoo College.

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Information

Year
2001
ISBN
9781439613269

DR. WEN CHAO CHEN

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Retired Kalamazoo professor and administrator Dr. Wen Chao Chen, c. 1999. (Lee Griffin Photo.)
Several persons suggest I talk to Dr. Chen, a well-known resident of Kalamazoo. I know little about him except for what I read in the newspaper. I’m aware he has a connection to Kalamazoo College and that he is active in civic affairs.
I meet Dr. Chen on a spring day at a choice retirement village in Kalamazoo where he lives with his wife, an artist. We become acquainted in the facility’s restaurant over lunch. He graciously points out I am his guest and insists on paying the bill.
Following lunch, I interview him in his apartment on the second floor. A broad expanse of windows overlooks a courtyard and flower gardens. Throughout the open living room and dining area, Chinese paintings, hand-crafted vases, bowls, and other oriental artwork are prevalent. Chen sits on a off-white patterned sofa and we begin to chat.
Chen, 80, has a Ph.D. degree in political science and two master degrees, one in public administration and another in library science. He also holds three honorary degrees; one from Western Michigan University, one each from Kalamazoo College, and Nazareth College.
“I was born in a small village located in north China called Chen Village, which belongs to my family. Two thirds of the residents or nearly 150 families are Chen descendants.”
“The first school I attended as a very small boy was located in the hamlet, inside a Buddhist temple. At the entrance are two fierce figures. When you get in there you will see a representation of Hell. One statue holds a fork, ready to throw a wayward man into boiling oil. Then there is a bronze post with a fireplace at the bottom. There is a figure of a person embracing the post who will burn to a crisp. You see the suffering on his face.”
Chen notes he is one of 12 students, all boys. Girls do not attend. School has been in session since September when there is no farm work to be done. It is December and very cold.
Chen walks through the courtyard and stops at the west side where a picture of Confucius is prominently displayed.
“I bow three times to the greatest of teachers and then I step up a few steps to the stage. On the right side is the teacher’s room. On the left is where the students are.”
Next, Chen bows in respect to the wise old man who sits on a large platform with his legs crossed. A small fireplace radiates heat, a luxury, Chen relates, that only the teacher receives.
“I obtain my daily assignment. It includes memorizing several Confucius sayings and three-character classics.”
Next, he leaves the area, crosses the stage, and enters the student room, which is bone cold and quiet.
“Teacher never enters here unless he hears commotion. He finds the offender who holds out his hands. The teacher hits, using a wooden plank.
“By the middle of the morning when everything is memorized, we go back to the teacher’s room, hand him the book with both hands, (a sign of respect) turn around, and begin reciting.
“If you forget or” he didn’t like what you said, teacher have this long bamboo pipe with a bronze bowl and hit you. Hot ash drop on your head occasionally. When you go home and father see the spot on your head, he say you must have misbehaved.”
Later, Chen went to live with his older brother who lived in Taiyuan and worked at the post office.
“That’s when I went to city school. The first year was terrible. I didn’t know arithmetic. I didn’t know anything except the traditional things I was taught to memorize.”
“That’s where I saw an electric bulb for the first time. It was just magical to see. Suddenly, it goes on all over the place.”
When Chen was 11 years old, his brother sent him to a boarding school called The School for the Poor. For two Chinese dollars a month1, he had room, board, and schooling, with the condition he work for a teacher or principal.
“By the time I was in what you call seventh and eighth grade, I was in boarding school. I had no problem academically. I took care of the principal’s rabbits, bees, and pigeons. I was also responsible for waking up a teacher every morning. I started a fire in his room and heated water for him to wash his face.”
“The dorm room was locked from 3 to 5 p.m., so you are forced to go outside to exercise.”
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Dr. Wen Chao Chen when he was director of the Kalamazoo Forum, c. 1986. (Courtesy of the Kalamazoo Gazette.)
Chen attended a junior high school, one his brother attended several years earlier. After he graduated from junior high, he says he had a falling out with his sister-in-law.
“It was probably my fault. She make me some clothing for graduation. The pants were too short in the legs, so I wrote her a letter saying thanks for nothing. My brother said, ‘Well, if you are that big, then you can help yourself.’
“Anyway, I didn’t want to go home again, because I didn’t want to be a farm boy all my life. I scrounged around for a year until my brother cooled down. He said if I do this, this, and this, he would send me back to school. I told him fine. I did that.”
“I was in high school, but by July 7, 1937, the Japanese had come to Peking, only 500 miles from where we lived. The governor of our province assured us that they would take care of the Japanese and we should go back to school. By November of that same year, the Japanese were in our village, so my family went south.”
“If there was a highway or railroad, the Japanese took everything at will. The Chinese were no match, technologically, so they went back to the mountains where there were no roads. The Japanese were stuck.”
For several years Chen floated, then took a national exam to go to college. He and a friend agreed that whoever passed the examination first would take the money both of them had earned and use it to attend college.
“My friend passed the first time and I didn’t, so I gave him the money. He went out on a date with a young lady and came home empty handed. A pick pocket lifted all his money. He went to college anyway.”
A year later, Chen also enrolled in college, but wasn’t required to pay tuition. The government paid his room and board. He needed funds only for spending money.
“To earn money, I worked for a newspaper as a proof reader. Proof reading in Chinese newspapers starts at 10 in the evening and finishes up at 6 a.m. You proof read, then run the copies.”
“I did that for awhile, but then it interfered with my classes, so I quit. Then I had no spending money.”
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Chinese and Americans agreed to work together. Chen then joined the Chinese Army. He had completed three years of college.
“I was a military interpreter after the Burma Road campaign2 in 1944. Then the United States Army began to select 100 people to come to the United States. I was one of them. I was picked because I was the chief interpreter of the Chinese Army which had three divisions.”
“After the war was over in 1945, it became obvious we were no longer needed for military purposes, so we asked the United States Army to let us out. They told us we were in the Chinese Army, so ask them. That we did. They said we were attached to the American Army. We asked both armies and proceeded to apply to colleges. Of the 100 interpreters, half applied to colleges. The rest of them went home.”
Chen didn’t have the funds to finance his education so he lived with the chaplain and his wife at Grinnell College in Iowa. In exchange for room and board, he cleaned house, washed dishes, and baby-sat. He remained there a year, long enough to finish his degree in political science. He then went to graduate school at St. Louis University in Missouri where he lived with a minister and his family, performing similar household chores as he had at Grinnell. In addition, Chen received $2 a week for car fare.
During this period, the political situation in China worsened, so Chen decided to stay in the United States and begin pursuing a Ph.D. degree.
“I met my future wife at St. Louis University. Her family was in much better circumstance than mine. I say this frequently. If we were both in China, her fam...

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