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Tuesday, September 30, 1997

Raising a war ship

Taiwan will soon be able to pay tribute to Sun Yat-Sen at the site of their hard-won independence from China

By Meghan Ward

Daily Bruin Contributor

Last month, a Buddhist monk and UCLA employee travelled to China to raise a sunken warship.

Dr. William Upton-Knittle, senior coordinator of the UCLA Office of Summer Sessions Advertising and Marketing, was invited by government officials of the People's Republic of China to help plan fund-raising for a project known as the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Victory Memorial.

An acquaintance of Upton-Knittle, Thomas Kao of Chinese News Channel 18 had asked him to write a proposal for the project.

Upton-Knittle jumped at the chance to participate in this important Chinese historical event.

Sun, known as the father of modern China, overthrew the Ch'ing dynasty and became the first president of the Republic of China.

It was to the Sun Yat-sen Warship that Sun and his wife secretly fled on after the presidential palace was seized in 1922.

Having formed a Republic out of the southern provinces of China, Sun fought the revolution against the northern provinces from aboard the Zhong Shan.

For 53 days, Sun remained aboard the warship, achieving the victory that gave birth to a unified Republic of China.

The warship was raised from the Yangtze River on Jan. 28, 1997, where it had remained for 58 years after being sunk by Japanese bombs.

Dr. Upton-Knittle emphasizes the importance of erecting a memorial at the site of the Sun Yat-sen in order for all people of Chinese ancestry to visit the spot where their Republic was born.

"Americans can go to Philadelphia to stand on the spot where the Constitution was signed. The Chinese have nowhere to go," he said.

While meeting with the wife of Dr. Sun's grandson and two of Sun's great-grandsons, as well as government officials of the People's Republic, a dilemma arose. Though the Yat-sen was raised up near the city of Wuhan, in the Hubei Province, the revolution was won while the ship was in the city of Guangzhou, in the Guangdong Province.

Unwilling to surrender the ship to the Guangdong Province, officials of Hubei Province agreed to consider Upton-Knittle's proposal to erect a second memorial at the original site where the revolution was won.

"The Chinese people should be able to stand on the exact spot where their Republic was founded," insists Upton-Knittle.

There will be a 26-kilometer superhighway built from Wuhan to the site of the ship, and a magnificent bridge will span the Yangtze River. The ship will be enclosed in crystal housing, and there will be a park, museum and historical diorama building.

"Dr. Sun is greatly beloved to the Chinese people. One man referred to him as 'my father'," Upton-Knittle remembers.

Upton-Knittle also proposed that the fund-raisers for the memorial seek financial support from Taiwan. "The Taiwanese would love to see their flag flying alongside the Chinese flag in two more places. Today, the only place in China that both flags fly side by side is at Dr. Sun's mausoleum in Nanjing."

In addition, Upton-Knittle found himself giving Communist officials a crash course in capitalistic thinking. Beijing has given officials permission to raise funds outside of China, a task unfamiliar to the officials working on the project.

When they showed Upton-Knittle the initial plans for the project, "there was no parking lot. Twelve million people in Beijing and they forget the parking lot," he remembers.

He experienced several such encounters, which showed him the need for better planning and envisioning.

For Upton-Knittle, it was a culture shock in other ways. He found that the China that he had studied and dreamt about for so many years was very different from the China he was discovering.

Having been a stateside student of Chinese medicine, he expected to go abroad and encounter it firsthand.

Mao Ju-Ying, director of research and development of the state pharmaceuticals company, and a member of the Zhong Shan fund-raising team, was unfamiliar with several of the ancient Chinese remedies that have become popular here in the United States.

He also wasn't sure how much remained of the old Communist privilege. Finding a couple days at the end of his stay to squeeze in some sightseeing, Upton-Knittle had a chance to go bowling with some of the government officials who were working on the project. Three lanes on the left side of the alley were reserved for Communist officials.

Upton-Knittle hopes to return to China soon, at which time he plans to "introduce the Chinese to some ancient Chinese remedies." Upton-Knittle was ordained 20 years ago as a Buddhist monk in all traditions.

A life-long practitioner of martial arts, Upton-Knittle's biography is published in "Who's Who in America," "Who's Who in Finance and Industry," "Who's Who in Entertainment" and the "International Authors and Writers Who's Who."