THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 9, 1995 TAG: 9502070089
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 165 lines
FOR JUDE LEWIS, IT TOOK A TRIP she never thought she would make for her to discover roots she never knew she had.
She knew, of course, that her mother, Rose Mihelic, the former Liu Ying Sing, was Chinese. While working as a typist for Gen. Chennault's famed Flying Tigers during World War II, her mother had met her father, Tony Mihelic, while he was a young Naval officer on attache duty at the U.S. Embassy in Nanjing.
And she knew the stories and lore about those perilous days fighting first the Japanese, then Mao's Communists until, in 1949, the Nationalists were driven to Taiwan and the Bamboo Curtain descended, cutting off contact with the world's most populous country.
She knew all of this because her parents stayed active with the Flying Tigers Association. Her parents attended annual reunions, and they were responsible for the 1992 convention being held in Norfolk.
She also knew that she had family still in the Orient and friends of the family who had helped her parents to wed. But she grew up in Norfolk, a typical American child. She spoke only English, not Chinese. She never expected to venture to China, to come face-to-face with the people behind the names in the stories, to visit her mother's childhood home.
For most of her life, China - Communist China - was closed to Americans.
She would have had a better chance of getting to the moon.
But, in 1972, President Richard Nixon journeyed to China, reopening it to Americans. Then-Congressman Bill Whitehurst was able to locate the addresses of Lewis' relatives.
``Rose wanted to go because she had family and hadn't been back since the '40s,'' Whitehurst recalled. ``She was concerned about getting a visa because they weren't issuing to just anybody back then. ... I remember calling Han Shu, the No. 2 man in the liaison office here and asking him to see what he could do. He had been around a long time, having made the Long March with Mao.
``He was a decent man who became good friends with President Bush, and, later, China's ambassador to the United States. I told him that it would be a really nice gesture; she wasn't involved in politics but just wanted to see her family. And so it was arranged. I was delighted that it worked out for them.''
So, in 1979, and again in 1985, various family members, including Jude's parents, returned to sightsee, visit and relive old memories.
``But I never even really thought about it,'' Jude recalls. ``I was married, had a child, a job I couldn't leave for very long.
``My life was here; I didn't think I'd ever get there.''
Fate, however, and the Flying Tigers had other plans for this 44-year-old Norfolk resident. The 1994 U.S. reunion was scheduled in Long Beach. It included a side trip to Taipai, Taiwan, at the invitation of the Chinese Air Force; Jude's parents, who now live in Virginia Beach, decided to take advantage of it.
``My younger sister said, `Jude, why don't we go?,' '' she recalls. ``She really talked me into it, and then she didn't go!''
But Jude did.
Her travels took her to Taipai, Kinmen Island, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan, where her relatives lived. She visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, The Summer Palace, The Great Wall, Buddhist temples and an engineering university in Wuhan. She mounted a camel from the Gobi Desert along the Great Wall. She stayed in world-class hotels in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and dormitory-style, barrackslike apartments in Communist China.
``Beijing was like being in a Communist movie,'' Jude said. ``Tiananmen Square reminded me of Washington, D.C., the way it's laid out, with Mao's tomb and the government buildings all around.''
She hobnobbed with political and military leaders from the two Chinas. In Taipai, they were met by Republic of China Air Force Gen. William Chang, who was wearing a Flying Tigers cap.
In Beijing, they were met by ``Uncle'' George, Zhang Tso Chang, another old family friend. He had a luxurious, by Beijing standards, four-bedroom apartment. Jude and her family suspect that he has high-ranking connections in the Red Chinese Army.
In Hong Kong, she met ``Uncle'' Leo, another family friend. His father had helped Tony and Rose with the marriage papers in 1949. Educated at Columbia, Leo's connections were more obvious: international business interests in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Spain. He joined their party in both Hong Kong and Shanghai, treating them to, among other things, a visit to an opulent, extravagant nightclub overlooking Shanghai.
In Taipai, they were squired around by former Republic of China Ambassador to the United States Konsin Shah. At a reception, they found themselves on television with him. In Beijing, Jude's party took ``Uncle'' George's family to dinner; former People's Republic of China Ambassador to the United States Zhizhong Yu, another old friend of her parents, and his son came along as their guests.
``I got to thinking that here we were on both sides of the Cold War,'' Jude said. ``We were eating in different cities with people who were enemies, of each other and - in the case of the Red Chinese - the United States. I'm a licensed customs house broker; I was afraid I might be investigated about whom I'd come into contact with when I returned. It seemed like some of it might even be dangerous.''
Fortunately, no danger or diplomatic incidents materialized for Lewis, who is a manager at a Norfolk import-export firm, the John S. James Co.
The emotional high point of the trip was a visit to Wuhan. In humble surroundings she met her aunt and a bedridden uncle as well as numerous cousins. She visited the graves of her grandparents, on a mountainside outside the city, where their cremated remains had been placed in urns. She bought incense, as is the custom, and burned it to honor their memory.
While there, Jude learned of family members who had been sent to the communes to work the rice paddies. She visited a Buddhist temple and had her fortune read there. She rode in a rickshaw as well as one of the three-person motorcycles often featured in films about Red China. During her last night there, she plugged in her hair dryer and blew out all of the lights in the apartment complex where she was staying.
``Over there you don't just pick up the phone and call for an electrician,'' she said. ``No one seemed to know what to do. I felt awful, like the `Ugly American.' I managed to find the main junction box, however, and then the others who lived there took over, twisting little wires back together with paper-cliplike clips. I remember thinking, `This will never work.' But it did. I know they were all talking about me, though.''
The next day, Jude and her father left for the airport, accompanied by the family and Jude's mother, who remained behind for an extended visit. Her mother will return to her Virginia Beach home in March. Communist authority was in evidence everywhere; there were three checkpoints. Only persons flying out were allowed into the terminal. Once in, they were not allowed back out. Jude, her father and her mother reached out to hug one another to exchange tearful goodbyes after they realized this was not going to be like most international departures.
When their flight took off, they left one world, bound for another.
An hour after takeoff, they were landing in Hong Kong. From there, it was on to Taipai, Los Angeles, Dallas/Fort Worth, then home.
``I was so happy to get home to my husband . . . who had stayed behind,'' Jude said. ``But now I have a sense of being more universal and have an appreciation for my Chinese heritage and family. Before the trip, I felt I was totally American and had no appreciation for my Chinese ancestry.
``But I learned that I was a product of two cultures, and while I gained an appreciation for my Chinese heritage, I also found I appreciated my American heritage more than ever because I realized I had been given so much just by being born here, compared to living conditions in China.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS
The cover photograph shows Jude Lewis and her parents, Rose and Tony
Mihelic, in Tiananmen Square. All photos are courtesy of Jude
Lewis.
Photos
Although she may not have put this side trip on her itinerary, Jude
Lewis did indeed mount a camel from the Gobi Desert while she
visited the Great Wall.
In the middle of this photo, Jude Lewis and her father can be seen
on the Great Wall.
From left, front row, Tony and Rose Mihelic, Shao Han, Mei Mei, and
back row, Jude Lewis, Shao San and his wife at the gravesite of
Jude's grandparents in Wuhan.
Jude Lewis, right, with her parents, Rose and Tony Mihelic, at Mao's
tomb in Tiananmen Square.
Map
STAFF
by CNB