Canadian Isabella Crook was born in Chengdu in 1915. She experienced the great changes in China's history for more than a hundred years. After the founding of New China, she cultivated a large number of foreign language talents and made contributions to China's education and friendly exchanges with foreign countries. . In 2019, she was awarded the "Friendship Medal" by the Chinese government.
In order to tell Isabel's story, Chengdu writer Tan Kaizhong traveled to Hanyuan and Lixian in Sichuan, Bishan in Chongqing, Shilidian in Hebei, and then went to Toronto, Canada to interview Isabeth and her family, as well as other witnesses and witnesses. The author wrote a reportage of more than 300,000 words in three years, "I Love China with My Life: The Story of Isabeth Kruck". In April this year, the work was published by Tiandi Publishing House.
On May 13, the seminar "I Love China with My Life: The Story of Isabel Crook" was held in Beijing and Chengdu in an online and offline manner. The 107-year-old Isabel and her son Ke Makai expressed their greetings and thanks to the guests through the Internet.

Isabeth and her son Komakai

Writer Alai, vice-chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, said that this is an excellent work with precise and powerful expression. "The use of emotion is so touching that readers can't help but burst into tears. The thinking part can also be thought-provoking and write about the power of faith." Alai, "During the years of interviews and writing of this book, the author himself Deeply influenced by the anthropological investigation of the protagonist and the writing spirit and method, he is not afraid of danger, goes into details, has detailed materials, and has a pious attitude. More importantly, the author has a sense of historian.”
Yan Jingming, vice-chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, said that the greatest inspiration from "I Love China in My Life: The Story of Isabeth Kruck" is how we can truly tell Chinese stories. "How a foreigner spent his whole life in love with China, the author did not use conclusive language to tell, but solidly narrates each nuanced story." Yan Jingming also believes that the author opens up a wider range of readers than the book. "We seem to have the feeling that Lady Isabeth's story will never end."
In the opinion of Shi Zhanjun, secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association, "I Love China with My Life: The Story of Isabeth Kruck" is also of special significance in the history of literature. It is mainly manifested in four aspects: first, the author writes The character's behavior is improved; the second is to grasp the scale of writing, and there is an objective description of Isabeth's serious, persistent, and innocent character, and there is no trace of artificiality; the third is a sincere inner understanding, no matter whether Isabeth is a human being Scholars, teachers and observers, the author's pen and heart can understand her; the fourth is sincere praise and thinking. "The author captures a point that Isabeth not only has a great and noble side, but also her firm and simple side."

Book Cover of "I Love China With My Life: The Story of Isabelle Crook"

Pan Kaixiong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a critic, believes that "I Love China with My Life: The Story of Isabel Crook" is a great book of life written by an 80-year-old for a 107-year-old. . He sorted out the context of the whole book, and pointed out that the author roughly divided Isabel's life experience into three stages: the first stage was the period of the Anti-Japanese War, which focused on showing her education experience and the course of engaging in anthropological research; the second stage It is the period of the War of Liberation, mainly showing Isabeth's experience of reporting on the land reform in the revolutionary base area and continuing anthropological research; the third stage describes Isabeth's identity transition from the later period of the Liberation War to the new China. , become one of the founders of foreign language education in New China. The life of the legend of Isabeth is a life closely related to the development of Chinese society. It is not only of great historical value to record these experiences completely and truthfully, but also brings readers a lot of thinking and inspiration.
He Xiangyang, head of the creative research department of the Chinese Writers Association, said that this book revealed the people's nature in Isabeth's "love", and also wrote about a woman's pure and persevering soul and her basic cognition and highest belief in the world But the last thing this book should ignore is that it also describes Isabeth's contributions to scholarship as an anthropologist.
"Isabeth does carry the history of modern China, and it is the embodiment of the overlapping and fusion of a person's life and the development history of a nation, but the most important thing about her experience and contribution is the writing in her life. Some. For example, the rural research on Xinglongchang in Bishan, Chongqing in the south, and the rural research in Shilidian, Hebei, in the north, these researches on rural surveys in China can no longer be replicated due to the age. But they will remain for a long time in time for us to read and understand. In the early 20th century, rural writing was in the fields of poverty and blind spots." He Xiangyang said.

seminar

Scholars at the meeting also believed that Isabeth's story is not only for China, but also for the world. The keynote of Isabeth's century-old life is her deep love for China and the Chinese people. Her spirit can not only infect more international friends and contribute to China's future construction, but also infect more Chinese readers.
The seminar was hosted by Literary News Agency and Sichuan Xinhua Publishing Group Co., Ltd., and undertaken by Xinhua Winshare Publishing and Media Co., Ltd. and Tiandi Publishing House.