The reputation of Norman Bethune is enormous. If fame can be measured by name recognition, like the concept of branding, then Bethune ranks in the top tier. Last July I participated in a unique Sino-Canadian tribute to Bethune in the thriving industrial city of Shijiazhuang where the Martyr’s Memorial features the Canadian doctor who found his calling at the side of ordinary Chinese men and women in the struggle against fascism. Mao Zedung’s essay about Bethune (紀念白求恩) and his spirit of selflessness, is required reading by all Chinese students. To say that Bethune is respected or revered in China is not an overstatement. This fact was demonstrated to me a few months later in a chance meeting with a calligrapher in the Shaanxi city of Xi’an, ancient capital of eleven dynasties and now renowned for the nearby eighth wonder of the world, the Terracotta Warriors.
There is much more to Xi’an than the self-aggrandizing memorial of a Qin emperor’s place in history. Xi’an is the ancient capital of China, origin of the Silk Road, home to eleven universities, site of the best preserved ancient city wall in China, home to a diverse and cosmopolitan population and the location of a unique collection of stone tablets marked with ancient texts carved into the stone preserving the form of the old characters. The Xi’an Beilin Museum is a calligrapher’s primary source for study of not only the text but also the form of calligraphy itself. Clear examples of different styles of calligraphy like ‘clerical script’ (Lishu style), ‘running style’(Xingshu) and ‘grass script’ (Caoshu) can be studied by experts. Rubbings are carefully made from select tablets for wider study or for the tourist appetite for a unique souvenir.
Our particular memory occurred in an unusually different manner while strolling amongst the tall black steles (stone tablets) of the museum. James, Berd and I were lagging behind our tour leader and the others in our small group in the late November afternoon, enjoying the tranquility of the monastic-like setting, which actually is an old Confucian temple complex. A scholarly young man on his way somewhere hurried past us and stopped abruptly, frozen like the words carved in the stone tablets. His gaze was fixed on Berd. He said something in mandarin to James and I picked out the name "Bai Qiu-en" (白求恩), Bethune pronounced phonetically in putonghua, the language of the common people.
The young man was a student of calligraphy and an expert in Mao style, a form of Caoshu script. He continued to gaze at Berd, exchanging a dialogue with James in an excited pitch. He was carrying a sample of his work and wanted to show us. He unrolled the scroll and James began reading it aloud, exclaiming ‘This is a poem by Chairman Mao. I know this. Its about every Chinese going to the Great Wall’. The calligrapher grinned with pleasure at James’ recognition of his work as I took a photograph of him with Berd holding the unrolled scroll. He then turned to Berd and gestured while saying, through James as the translator of his excitement in this chance encounter that he wanted to give his work to ‘Bai Qiu-en’ in recognition of the great man. He described how he had a very large portrait poster of Bethune hung in his home to remind him daily of the great man. Berd looked just like him he said. Next he searched through his satchel and pulled out another scroll, this time explaining that it was his mission to collect ten thousand signatures to present to the Beijing Olympics representing the contribution of calligraphers to the historic games. All three of us signed our names, joining the already long scroll of signatures. Again he went into his bag and searched out a blank page upon which he scribed there on the spot, another well-known poem, again from Mao’s opus, commending students to ‘Study, Study, Learn, Learn’. This he gave to me but not until it was stamped with three different chops or seals authenticating it as his work. Again he returned to his bags for another blank page and with perfect spacing, writing in vertical columns, scribed another famous work of the Great Helmsman. This he gave to James. A small token reciprocated this magnificent gesture of friendship and we parted ways in the soft late afternoon light within the walls of the old museum.
