Jack Chen, journalist, examining his trusted Leica camera, 1920s

born Ivan Felix Bernard Acham, 1908

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Published by MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc.

ISBN 3 3084 00173 3109

Ivan Felix Bernard Acham, a/k/a Jack Chen, was born on July 2nd, 1908 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, witnessed by cousin Stella Rooks - Birth certificate, click on image to enlarge

Cousin Stella Rooks

At the Elms, a primary school in London, second from left, Jack; the third, Silan, holding Jack's doll

Jack's self portrait, at 17 years old, apprenticed to a law firm on Piccadilly

L to R, Percy and Jack with warlord Feng Yu-hsiang, after negotiating safe passage from China to Russia for Mikhail Borodin, August 1927. The instruction from Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shik was to kill all those on the Borodin caravan. Uncle Percy convinced Feng to avoid retribution by Stalin, as Chiang would invariably deny having given any order to kill.

Jack Chen, 1920s

Fleeing Chiang Kaishek's Coup de'tat and crossing the Gobi Desert. From left to right, Borodin (Stalin's advisor to the KMT), Percy, Jack with a shovel held in his hand, wife of Borodin's personal physician, Zhanf Ke, a secretary from the Foreign Office, and the American journalist Anna Louis Strong.

1937, embarking on a world tour exhibiting anti-Fascist drawings

Women's Militia Yanan, 1938

Summer of 1938, Jack's first visit to Yanan, communist base camp, drawing (click on word to view more drawings) in front of his room in Yanan's grand guesthouse

Early 1950s, Jack came back to Peking and worked diligently to build a better future for all, but gradually he watched, in amazed disbelief, his unfinished Eden sliding into chaos

1959, Jack with Jay and I

1963, Jack decided to throw in his lot with Zhou Enlai who advocated to reach some understanding with the West. Jack took Jay and me on an exploratory trip to Hong Kong, discussing the matter with Percy who was a legal adviser to the Chinese Government (from left to right, son Jay, author, Jack Chen)

The purge, baptized by Mao Zedong as the Cultural Revolution, broke out in 1966 and stopped Jack's plan of launching a lecture tour abroad until 1971. The theme of the lecture was: Strengthening the understanding and friendship between the Chinese and American peoples. Jack spoke in Great Neck, Long Island.