| Chinese Wood Blocks
The Chinese Wood Blocks on exhibit throughout the website are by various known and un-known artist and were given as a gift to John G. Colling by Zhou En-lai and depict daily life in Yenan. Currently the original block carvings are on loan from the Colling family to the Indiana University Eskenazi Museum of Art.
In Memory of John G. Colling (1920-2003) Aged 82 years
FROM HIS BOOK: THE SPIRIT OF YENAN
Huang Hua’s Dedication
Congratulations to John Colling on the publication of his book. This book is a historical record of the many precious moments of contact between China and the United States. From one angle or another, the photographs capture the spirit of Yenan – the sacred site of the headquarters of the Chinese revolution.
In the past, the road to accord between China and the United States was narrow and tortuous. But the efforts of the two countries have finally led to a broadening in their relations with each other.
As a young officer of the United States Military Mission to Yenan, John Colling lived and worked among the Chinese people in Yenan and in the base areas behind enemy lines. There he felt the great strength of the Chinese people to win victory in their war against Japanese aggression and in their cause for liberation.
This book is a precious record by John Colling of the Yenan days.
Huang Hua
February 1989
It was by no accident that John Colling was one of the few US officers sent to Yenan; his father, William Colling, was a Captain of the 15th Infantry of the US Army stationed in Tianjin. When William Colling retired in 1929, he and his wife chose to stay in Tianjin where they raised three sons. John Colling’s youth in Tianjin gave him an understanding of Chinese culture, a proficiency of the language, and an introduction to the war against Japan. In 1937, the Japanese occupied most of China’s coastal areas, including most of the Chinese part of Tianjin. John Colling, 17, joined the British Volunteer Corps, a group of young foreign men formed to protect themselves and their families within Tianjin’s foreign concessions.
In 1938, when Americans were instructed to leave Tianjin after the evacuation of the 15th Infantry, Colling, his brothers, and his mother departed for the US. In July 1941, five months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Colling joined the US Army. After reaching the rank of lieutenant in 1942, he requested a transfer to the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater of War. At the time, US servicemen knowledgeable about China were being selected to serve under General Joseph Stilwell, president Roosevelt’s military representative and Chief of all US forces in the CBI Theater under the command of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. He was based in Burma as part of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, and was involved in guerilla warfare and intelligence gathering tasks. The Yenan mission followed. In 1957 Colling came to Hong Kong and from nothing set up his apparel exporting business.
The United States Army Observer Group, code name The Dixie Mission, was sent on a secret mission approved by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and dispatched under overall command of General Joseph Stilwell from the China-Burma-India Theater of War, in Chongqing. The mission was sent in two groups of nine. The first, which included John Colling, arrived in Yenan on July 22, 1944; the second arrived on August 7, 1944.
The Dixie Mission’s objectives were to establish liaison with the Chinese Communists; to save downed B-29 crews who were bombing Tokyo and Manchuria from bases in Chengdu; and to determine the effectiveness of the Shandong peninsula, China, preparatory to what was the intended full-scale Allied invasion of Japan after Germany’s surrender.
On August 6, 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. On August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and Russian armies stormed into Manchuria. On August 9, another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. On August 10, Japan made a tentative offer of surrender. On August 14, USArmy General Henry H. Arnold launched a thousand-plane raid on the Japanese mainland. The planes were still aloft when Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s unconditional surrender. The Dixie Mission was formally recalled on August 16, 1945.
Foreword
John Colling has rescued a lost chapter in American policy in China, one which might have changed contemporary history and spared the country two lost wars in Asia – the Korean and Vietnam.
Colling was a member of the Dixie Mission sent in 1944 to Yenan, China to explore the potential of Mao Ze Dong’s Chinese Communist forces. The Mission’s findings were buried, first by the impact of Hiroshima which ended the war with Japan and then by the McCarthyite attack on the men ‘who lost China’.
Colling has written a book which both American policy makers and citizens should study with care. Colling has illustrated his book with extraordinary photos taken by himself of the scenes in the Communist areas of China.
Harrison E. Salisbury
July 1991
The relationships forged throughout his life in Tianjin and during his time in Yenan, had a profound impact on Mr. Colling throughout his US Army, US Intelligence, and professional careers. Mr Collings consulting work through his Hong Kong based corporation; John Colling Associates Ltd. (JCA) was responsible for numerous multi-national business endeavors in to and out of China.
