Despite being virtually unknown in his homeland Canada, Norman Bethune is among the most famous foreigners in China. Having struggled to treat the poor in Montreal as a younger physician, Bethune became a committed communist member in 1935, following a visit to the Soviet Union where he saw the country's system of public health care. Putting his ideals into practice, Bethune traveled to Spain to join the struggle against Franco in 1936, before leaving for China to support the Chinese Communist Party in its War of Resistance against Japan.

Written by none other than Mao Zedong, the obituary that follows was intended as a political call to action and self-sacrifice for members of the Chinese Communist Party. It later became a compulsory part of the Chinese education system - the major reason almost every mainlander you encounter is likely to have read it.

Although no longer required reading, this obituary is still widely read. And Bethune remains a public icon in China, resurfacing most recently during the campaign against SARS in 2003. His example of putting the welfare of others above his own also remains inspiring 70 years after Bethune's untimely death.
 said on
November 8, 2008
It's not "the struggle against Marco in 1936" but "the struggle against Franco in 1936".

Did you mixed up Franco (Spain) and Marcos (Philippines) ?

 said on
November 8, 2008
Yup. What an idiotic mistake to make. Thanks for the correction.
 said on
November 9, 2008
Any chance the vocab list will be in traditional characters in the future?
 said on
November 9, 2008
@swigr - you can customize the display by changing your preferences on the vocabulary page

The vocab controls affect: (1) what appears on lesson vocab pages, (2) what appears in the mouseover popups, and (3) what appears in the dictionary. We should probably add the controls to all lesson vocab pages as well.

 said on
November 10, 2008
update: the vocab controls are now getting displayed on lesson vocabulary pages as well. Should all be pretty self-explanatory. Let me know if anyone runs into any problems because of the changes.
 said on
November 10, 2008
Thank god for this. I've had so many taxi drivers talk to me and ask me about 白求恩, finally I can talk from a place of a little more understanding rather than out of my ass :)

Is Mao considered a good writer and poet?

And perhaps a suggestion: it might be convenient to have the title in Chinese as well. Otherwise when we're referencing these stories in conversation we'll be calling it 毛主席写的关于白求恩的那篇, which doesn't have the same ring to it as 纪念白求恩.
 said on
November 10, 2008

>> Is Mao considered a good writer and poet?

I never thought much of Mao's poetry myself, but there's something striking about this essay. Maybe it just resonates because Bethune was foreign.

Strangest thing about re-reading it here for me is the way it's so overtly a call to action about ideas and ideals. One even gets a sense for communism as an intellectual movement. Between the Three Represents and Eight Honors and Shames, Chinese political rhetoric at this point has descended so completely into farce that it's surprising to read a political essay that intends to be understood. I wonder how long it took him to write it.

 said on
November 10, 2008
@startman1 & marco64,

其实我自己读过的毛主席的诗也不多,所以也不好评论,不过非常喜欢他的《沁园春 雪》和《橘子洲头》但是就一位领导人而言,毛主席的文学造诣很深,他的诗都非常有气魄,伟人之作。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
July 16, 2009
Have just been watching this older CBC documentary about Norman Bethune. The section on his time in China starts about 45 minutes in, and has some stunning footage and photographs.

http://nfb.ca/film/bethune

 said on
August 23, 2011
Thanks for posting that video, what a find. Here is an interview with another interesting foreigner that was very involved in Mao's China - Sidney Rittenberg who was Mao's translator, inprisioned twice and a member of the party. He is an American and lives in the Seattle area.

http://english.cri.cn/7146/2011/05/04/164s635612.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBKgYu6jWRs&feature=related

 said on
August 24, 2011
The audio files for the vocabulary are not working.