[Excerpts] ...

[...]

We had dances in a dining room on Saturday nights. A specially formed dance band supplied the music. Because the camp lights went out at 10 p.m., the dances finished too early for us. In the camp there were some African-American musicians who played in the dance band.

Members of the Salvation Army also had a band which regularly played musical instrument. Reverend Norman Cliff, then a schoolboy, learned how to play the trombone from them and used to perform at their recitals.

[excerpt]

There was a stone church building in the camp which the inmates used for talks, study and recreation.

We had amateur concerts in there and some plays. I can remember singing a solo song in a concert. The song was called `Daddy wouldn’t buy me a bow wow.’ Letitia Metcalfe and I also sang `September in the rain.’

This concert was written and produced by Letitia’s stepfather Gerald Thomas, a Tientsin businessman who concert-billed himself as ‘Professor Thomas and his Stewdents.’

[excerpt]

... After liberation ...

The adults had to attend meetings chaired by American officers where they were told of the progress in returning us to our homes.

They told us to be patient because it would take some time.

For my family it took about two months.

The American civilian internees were the first to go. I know some of them declined repatriation to the United States because their homes were in China and they wanted to stay there. As for my family, the only home we knew was Tsingtao and that’s where we wanted to go. I don’t remember being impatient to go home because I started to enjoy myself. No more being dragged out into the open for roll call.

There were dances every Saturday night with the soldiers.

The American soldiers were extremely polite and well-mannered. They appeared strong and healthy. Everybody liked them. We rightly regarded them as our saviours.

Inevitably, I got into trouble with my boyfriend, Brian Clark (1923-1988), for dancing with the Americans. He never spoke to me again.

[furter reading]
http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/books/ForgivenForgotten/p_FrontCover.htm

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