Mr. Sima Lu, a well-known expert on the history of the Chinese Communist Party and the founding president of the New York-based NGO Chinese Scholars Association, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 28, and for those of us who were close to him, such a departure is a kind of consolation. It was a joyful mourning.
The century-long Life of Sima Lu is full of legends. In his youth, he was in the midst of the civil war between the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of China, and like many leftist youths at that Time, he aspired to the ideals set forth by the Chinese Communist Party and went to Yan’an to join the “revolution”. There he met almost all the leaders of the Communist Party, including Mao Zedong, worked directly under Zhou Enlai, and had a close friendship with Hu Yaobang, later General Secretary. After several years of contact with the Communist Party, the sensitive Sima Lu intuitively felt that something was not right with the party and left Yan’an to leave the Communist Party.
From then on, in his long career, collecting and analyzing the history of the CCP became his interest and ambition, and over time, he became an authority in the field of CCP history. He later immigrated to the United States and settled in New York, where he soon became widely respected in the local expatriate community, and many people from China came to ask him about the history of the Chinese Communist Party, and he became known as a “living dictionary of the history of the Chinese Communist Party. On his 80th birthday, he was honored with a birthday gift of $10,000. He used the money to found the “Chinese Scholars Association” and often held seminars and lectures to promote democracy in the overseas community.
He is also known for his legendary love life. Another senior Chinese Communist Party cadre, Auntie Go Yang, met Sima Lu at a young age and had a spark of affection at that time. But soon, the two were separated in the flood of history. It was not expected that after several decades, Go Yang, who had gone into exile in New York to protest against the June 4 massacre, and Sima Lu would be reunited. At the age of eighty-five and eighty-three, they tied the knot in the presence of Mr. Chen Hongzheng, a Taiwanese entrepreneur, and Zeng Huiyan, a famous journalist, which became a good story for a long time in the overseas community.
After Auntie Go Young passed away in her nineties, Elder Sima moved into a Home for the elderly. Before he moved in, he sent me to him and said, “The Chinese Friendship Association is in your hands”. From then on, I took over his responsibility and continued to chair the association. After that, the old man was relaxed, read the newspaper every day, and was always in good health. Every time I went to New York, I visited the old man and was amazed at how healthy he was. Once he quietly took my hand and told me, “See that old lady sitting by the window in the hall? She seems to be interested in me, and the sweater she is knitting now is for me! But I’m too embarrassed to ask her.” I was shocked at first, then couldn’t help but laugh. Faced with this “ninety years old Vet’s trouble”, at this time I was already very sure: such a person who is always young at heart will definitely live beyond a hundred years. The facts proved my hunch.
Mr. Lao’s 100th birthday was a big event, and our Chinese Scholars Association held a 100th birthday party for him at the Taiwan Association Hall in New York City. Each person said a blessing to him and two hours passed. According to our agreement with the home, he should not be overworked. I advised him to go back and rest, but the centenarian gave me a sidelong glance and said, “It was so much fun, I’m not going back, I want to eat some more cakes!” At that time I thought, “I’m afraid I have to prepare for a hundred and tenth birthday party. However, this time my premonition failed, the old man Sima still did not wait until he was one hundred and ten years old, he left us peacefully.
After experiencing his youth in war, his middle age buried in books, his call for democracy in a foreign country, and his love decades apart, Mr. Sima Lu’s 100-year life was full of so many legends, no wonder he could walk so peacefully and contentedly.
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