US scholar's rare Party insight rediscovered

Garden bloom helps highlight work of T.A. Bisson, who interviewed Mao and other CPC leaders in Yan'an in the 1930s

The untold story of renowned scholar T.A. Bisson may have been forgotten forever were it not for a brightly blooming tree in a college campus.

It was spring 2017 when Yan Li, a professor and coordinator of Chinese language and culture studies at Renison University College in Waterloo, Canada, noticed an American bud in the garden.

Underneath, etched into a plate, was a dedication to US scholar Thomas Arthur Bisson, who taught at the college in the 1970s.

Li recalled she'd seen the name before, on a small book given to her by Renison's librarian years earlier called June 1937 in Yenan: Talks with Communist Leaders.

"Luckily, I found it from my bookshelf," Li told China Daily after giving a talk, entitled Canadian Friends and the Chinese Revolution, organized by the Hong Maple Foundation.

"I was shocked when I opened the book," she said. "The author, T.A. Bisson, not only was a colleague I had never met but also a long--ignored important scholar who deserved recognition in modern Chinese history."

Li said Bisson and several other North American scholars paid a covert visit to Yan'an in the 1930s and interviewed leaders of the Communist Party of China including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De.

The 70-page book contains details about the group's arduous journey to the poverty-stricken mountain area, and observations and conversations with Party leaders after the Long March (1934-36), a military retreat by the Red Army that played an important role in China's history.

Li was intrigued and decided to delve deeper into Bisson's life. Over the next year, she visited his son, a Harvard University professor, and talked with his friends and neighbors to learn more, such as about his youth, his work with the US government, and how as a reputable scholar he played a leading role in the development of East Asian studies.