The following article was written by Sun Zhaohua, deputy director of the State Foreign Experts Bureau, about his knowledge of Erwin Engst (or Yang Zao his Chinese name).

I knew the names of Yang Zao and Han Chun when I was a student. I saw some reports on them in newspapers. But it was in the early 1980s that I really came to know them. I remember when I first came to work in the State Foreign Experts Bureau, although I often had dealings with foreign experts, I felt the mystique of some old foreign experts who had long been living in China, I asked myself these questions: Why did they come to China? What's the reason that they preferred to stay here? And how were they living in this country? Etc. It happened that a relevant department planned to publish a book series under the title "My China Heart", the editor asked me to write about a foreign expert who has long been working in China, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to get close to contact them, so as to get rid of the doubts and suspicions in my mind. Having thought over the matter, I chose Yang Zao and Han Chun as the objects of my interview.

A birthday party was given to Yang Zao, 83, and Han Chun, 80, at Xiaowangzhuang Farm Machinery Testing Station in Beijing's Changping on November 7, 2001.

Yang Zao majored in animal husbandry at Cornell University, USA. During his study in the university, he lived together with Han Ding, elder brother of Han Chun, the two men became bosom friends who often had discussions on topics ranging from peasant poverty to worker movement, and from world war to economic crisis��engaging in discussion, exploration and search. At the time he read Edgar Snow's "Red Star Over China". From the book he came to know the Communist Party of China (CPC), and the people's army led by the CPC. He decided to go to China to have a look there, so he sold his family property and waited for an opportunity. One day, a friend told him that Dong Biwu (a late Chinese leader) had come to Washington, so he immediately hurried there, but Dong Biwu had already left, he was very much regretful about this.

At the party, Han Chun recalled her early education given by her mother, as well as her participation in US nuclear bomb tests and China's revolution activities.

Later when he learned that the UN Relief Program was advertising for someone to go to China to raise milk cows, so he entered his name without the least hesitation. What he thought at that time was: "Although he was not sure whether he could go to the Liberated Areas, he had at long last taken the first step forward toward Red China". This was his actual thinking at that time. In March 1946 he left his mother and nine brothers and sisters and came to China. After his arrival in China, he was successively engaged in relief work in Shanghai and Hunan. During the period, he saw many shabbily dressed and homeless victims of natural calamity who died of starvation on the roadside and witnessed the corruption of the Kuomintang. Shocked at the sight of this situation, he determinedly resigned from his work at the UN Relief Program. Through the introduction of our underground Party, he came to Beiping (now Beijing), and with Comrade Huang Hua's help he arrived at Yan'an.

When I had an interview with them, it was already late autumn and very cold at night. They worked at daytime and stayed at their bedroom (which was also their office), dressed in heavy and thick clothes, they chatted with me about things of their own while drinking tea. Their living house was simple, with the bedroom linking to the office. Their desks were self-made, piled up underneath with bricks, above each of which was a large desk top, giving people the impression that it was a makeshift house. I talked with them for three nights in a row, through which I got a better understanding of them and had greater esteem for their long-time work and life in China.

A corner of Xiaowangzhuang milk cow plant

At first Yang Zao had the idea of coming to China just for a look and was prepared to go back to the United States after two or three years. But after his arrival at Yan'an, he was fascinated by our Party policy and moved by the people's honesty and warm-heartedness, in his own words it was "the more I look here, the more I do not want to leave". Yang Zao and Han Chun decided to stay to engage in construction together with the Chinese people. His special skill is raising milk cow, he had been working in succession in Guanghua Farm in northern Shaanxi; Caotan Farm in Xi'an; Hongxing Farm in Beijing's Daxing; and Xiaowangzhuang Farm Machinery Testing Station in Beijing's Changping, devoting his whole life to the work of raising milch cows. During the period, although he had moved from place to place, and was subject to impacts and had his unhappy time, he firmly believed that China would have a bright future and that his choice was correct. Therefore he remained in China until he died. After his death he had his bone ashes buried in Changping's Xiaowangzhuang where he had worked and lived for more than 20 years.

Simplicity is a distinguishing feature of Lao Yang. He liked people calling him "Lao Yang" or directly calling him "Yang Zao". The first impression he left to many people was that he was an old farmer.

Mechanized milking equipment

In 1966 Yang Zao and his wife were transferred from Xi'an back to work in Beijing, at that time the Foreign Expert Bureau under the State Council, considering that their 100-odd yuan monthly wage each was too low, was prepared to raise their wages after consulting with a department concerned. But when Yang Zao and Han Chun learned of this news, they firmly disagreed, saying that their wages were already quite high compared with those of the Chinese comrades around them. The department concerned could not but dropped the idea. The couple had long before been approved to enjoy the treatment for vice-ministers, but they still went to the city proper by bikes. It took more than two hours to travel a course of over 20 km by bike, in the 1980s when they had been over 60 years old, they still went to city districts by bikes to handle affairs or visit friends.

Straight cold milk tanks designed by Han Chun

As a matter of fact, being simple and pragmatic was Yang Zao's consistent style of work. When he studied in university in his early years, he was first admitted through examination into the Medical Department of Illinois University, a year later he gave up the favorite specialty and instead took up the animal husbandry specialty in Cornell University where he dropped out after two years and returned home to raise cattle. His explanation on this was that he had studied the basic theory and there was no need to stay at the school. On the eve of the "cultural revolution", the department concerned, considering that their working and living conditions in Shaanxi Province were rather harsh, transferred them back to Beijing, Yang Zao was assigned to dub films at the China Film Distribution and Exhibition Corporation, and Han Chun was assigned to examine and polish English manuscripts at the State Commission for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. They were not accustomed to and disliked such kinds of work, after several years, they raised the request to do their own lines of work, so they returned to the agricultural front.

A calf who receives extra care

Nothing could be more simple and crude than their residence at Xiaowangzhuang, Their rooms, like peasants' single-story house, were connected to office, and there was no luxury goods in their rooms. Linked to their house was also a small workshop packed with pliers, spanners and other simple tools. In Yang Zao's own words, One must work with one's own hands at any times, only by doing so could one not become stupid. Therefore, some simple pieces of furniture and parts and components were of his own-making.

Despite their simple life, they did not want others mentioning too much of this, still less fabricating details of a story. They said living a simple life was their habit built up over the years, not purposefully putting on affected airs. For instance, words spread from outside that in order to maintain their simple and arduous lifestyle, they did not eat rice and meat, and instead they only drank some corn porridge every day. Yang Zao was offended with this, he said: Drinking corn gruel is the habit we have built up over the years, furthermore, we also eat rice and meat. This also reflects his simple and pragmatic spirit.

Comrade Yang Zao had left us for one year, as a foreign expert who had participated in Chinese revolution before the founding of New China and had shared weal and woe with us, he left to us valuable spirit wealth. We cherish memory of him forever.

By People's Daily Online