Subject: Re: New Questions

Dear Mr Wu,

Hello, this is Carinne Binda Cunningham, daughter of Solange Jacqueline Binda MacLean (her maiden name is de Saint Hubert).

Yes, Mme Jacqueline de Saint Hubert is very much still alive.

Please forgive my long delay in responding back to you. She lost her husband on Veteran's Day. They first met in Tientsin (now Tianjin), after the Weihsien Camp's liberation in 1945.

Understandably, the last months have been difficult.

My mother was interned in the Weihsien Camp with her parents, George and Simone de Saint Hubert along with her younger brother, Christian, all Belgian nationals. She remembers they were among the earliest to be interned. She has very clear memories of the Japanese confiscating their Tienstin home, the arm bands, her parents scrambling to leave possessions with Russian and Chinese friends, her needing to leave her beloved dog behind and walking through the streets of Tientsin to the train station with the few possessions they could carry to a frightening and unknown future. She recalls how the local Chinese residents were cheering for them and wishing them good fortune.

Her parents first moved to China in 1920, where her father was employed as an engineer in developing the railroads. Later he worked with the Credit Froncier de l'Extreme Orient. Both my mother and her brother were born in China. My mother, known as Jacqueline to family and European friends, has used her name Solange since moving to America in 1948. I shall refer to my mother as Jacqueline throughout the rest of this email.

Jacqueline was born in Chenchow in Honan province in 1922. At the time, their home was so remote that she was delivered by a horse veterinarian. Her family later moved to Shanghai, then Tientsin, where her brother was born, then Beijing and back to Tientsin. Jacqueline's wonderful memories from these years include summers in Peitaho and Shanhaiguan, picnics at the Great Wall, and many friendships with young women from local Chinese families as well as other expatriots. She grew up learning five languages (Mandarin being her first, with her Amah). Beginning at a young age she designed most of her clothes and selected fine silks that were then hand sewn by one of the Chinese domestic workers living in their home. While Jacqueinle was gifted in painting (some of the paintings on the Weihsien website are hers) and seriously trained in voice, it was dance where she exceIled. In Tientsin, she studied with the famous White Russian teacher, Mme Voitenco. Several other Camp internees also studied with Mme Voitenco including the Lambert and Marshall children.

These recollections are in stark contrast to the Camp years, which were a difficult, dark chapter. Her parents wanted to provide for her as best they could and she wanted to provide for them. She has an incredible story about the time she climbed through a window where the Japanese soldiers resided and stole a chair for her father. An act of courage and defiance for a young woman wanting to comfort her parents. Jacqueline has another story of a very close Italian friend who entered the Camp with her infant son months later. The Italians occupied a separate area of the Camp that was out-of-bounds for the other internees to enter. Jacqueline and her friend would communicate to each other through singing a special musical note. One day Jacqueline snuck into the Italian Compound to visit her friend when the Japanese realized someone was missing at the twice daily roll calls. The Japanese began to search every room of the Italian Compound. Quickly, Jacqueline hid behind logs under her friend's bed as her friend pinched her infant so that his crying would distract the guards inspecting the room. Meanwhile she sang a lullaby in French which the guards could not understand, urging Jacqueline to keep quiet and reassuring her all would be well. Fortunately, Jacqueline was not caught and safely returned to her Compound hours later. Jacqueline also remembers the rare festive occasions of Camp life such as being part of the Dramatic group that would put on variety shows. For those evenings of entertainment, she often designed and made the posters for the various performing groups.

After liberation from the Camp, Jacqueline and her parents returned to Tientsin where her father continued to work for the Credit Froncier. In those months right after liberation, Jacqueline met both her first husband, Jeffrey Binda, a USMC Lieutenant, and also Captain William MacLean, USMC, whom she would eventually marry in 1966.

Jacqueline retained her Belgian citizenship though she never lived in Belgium for any extended time. She spent her first 24 years in China and the last 74 years in America, living in Northern Virginia for most of that period. She started her first ballet school in 1949. Shortly after she established the Ballet Academy of Northern Virginia which flourished for over 6 decades. Even now, she continues to teach a weekly zoom ballet class. Her indelible influence on the lives of generations of young girls is remarkable and continues to this day. She has thousands of former ballet students who currently range in age from 75 to 18 who visit, write, and telephone her. To all of them she is still fondly referred to as "Madame Binda". Her flair for fashion that she acquired as a young girl growing up in Shanghai and Tientsin served her well as she has designed and sewn many thousands of costumes for her young dance students over the years.

Jacqueline is a most extraordinary, charismatic and elegant 98 year old woman that was shaped by her parents' generation, her experiences growing up in China and her years in the Camp. She has tremendous inner strength and resilience, incomparable vitality and joie de vivre, resourcefulness and an ability to make extraordinary things from minimal materials.

Jacqueline still has personal family heirlooms from her 24 years living in China, including vases, dishes, linens, wood carvings, wood screens, some furnishings, curios, clothing including silk embroidered robes, paintings, personal family photos dating before before the Camp, postcards of China dating between 1920-1040, a few books, and reviews of Mme Voitenco's performances (in Russian and English).

She doesn't have artifacts from the Camp years except some of her drawings, which are on the Weihsien website already, and she remembers somewhere she had a section of one of the parachutes from the Americans who liberated the Camp. She never returned to the Camp.

I believe you have already seen the video we recently made in August of Jacqueline's recollections of the Camp in honor of the 75th anniversary of liberation and the opening of the new museum in the old Camp Hospital. Leopold Pander graciously put it up on the Weihsien website for us.

For your possible interest, in 2007, my husband and I and our two children visited the Camp. We were in China as the Artistic Directors of the Sacramento Ballet, which was engaged to perform in both Shanghai and Beijing. After our tour, we were graciously welcomed to Weihsien by Sui Shude and Miss Lucy of the Weifang People's Government and given a wonderful reception, personal tour of the Camp and invited to several banquets in my mother's honor.

Incidentally, my husband and I were also in China in June of 1980 as dancers with the Boston Ballet on their historic tour as the first American ballet company invited to perform in China since 1949. Our opening performance in Beijing was my husband's production of Cinderella.

It was aired on Chinese television to 30 million viewers, the largest audience in ballet history at the time.

Best Regards,
Carinne Binda Cunningham

Sent: Friday, December 4, 2020 8:45 AM
To: Leopold_Pander

Subject: Fw: Wang Cheng-Han*** wonderful to see photos of Eddie

Hi Leopold,

Truly Eddie looks so well for his age - glad Neal Wu has provided us with the details of his visit to Eddie Wang

cheers angela

From: 乐道院·潍县集中营博物馆
Sent: Friday, December 4, 2020 3:04 AM
To: 潍县绘画

Subject: Re: Wang Cheng-Han

Dear Mr. Leopold Pander,

There are many things about the museum recently, so I didn't send you a message in time.
Recently, we are applying for the international city of peace and have done a lot of work.
I have sent you the relevant documents of Mr. Wang Chenghan. Please have a look.

Best wishes.
From,
Neal Wu

On November 15, a delegation of eight people, including Tian Suying, director of Weifang Municipal Bureau of culture and tourism, Ge Xiaodong, Deputy Secretary General of Weifang, and Ji Shuchun, director of Weifang Museum, arrived in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, and met with Wang Chenghan, a member of the "duck team" of Weihsien concentration camp. Wang Chenghan and his son warmly received the delegation.

Although Mr. Wang Chenghan is 96 years old this year. However, he was not blind and deaf. He had a three hour oral historical interview with curator Ji Shuchun, telling about his experience after he participated in the liberation operation of Weihsien concentration camp and his successful liberation of Weihsien concentration camp.

Wang Chenghan listened to the work report of The Courtyard of the Happy Way&Weihisen Concentration Camp Museum, highly praised the recent work of our museum, and gave the visiting group a piece of historical articles (parachute rope) and 240 Pages of text materials, including 17 letters of thanks from survivors, translation of thank you letters, translation directory 1, translation directory 2, translation directory 3, and U disk directory And electronic materials two U-disk content, and personally write two pieces of blessing to ledaoyuan · Weixian concentration camp Museum.

On the evening of November 15, the delegation held a work summary meeting to sum up the visit to Chengdu and Guiyang. It was found that the interview with Wang Chenghan was not comprehensive. In the morning of 16, Weifang TV station Yu Tao, Sun Li and Wu zongjun of ledaoyuan Weixian concentration camp Museum visited Wang Chenghan again to collect oral history.

On the morning of November 16, Yu Tao, Sun Li and Wu zongjun went to Wang Chenghan's home for a second interview with Wang Chenghan. During the conversation, they filmed, recorded and collected 7 books.

#

From: Leoplod PANDER
Sent: Wednesday, December 2, 2020 9:15 AM

To: ldybgs@163.com; weihsien@proximus.be

Subject: FW: Wang Cheng-Han

Dear Mr. Wu,

Your last message to us is now two weeks old !
How was your interview with Eddy Wang?
Have you met him?
Is he in good health?
Are you now back in Weifang?
In Belgium, I am still updating all the old Yahoo-messages … and also the old Topica messages … not quite finished yet but I will let you know.

Best regards,
Leopold