Julian Schuman

Julian Schuman
Born	Boston, MA
Died	1995-05-10 Beijing
Occupation	journalist
Known for	one of the few non-Chinese journalists living in China during the Cultural Revolution

Julian Schuman is an American, who lived in China for a long time, including during the Cultural Revolution and wrote a book about his experiences there, and was later prosecuted by the U.S. government for claiming that the U.S. had used germ warfare during the U.S. Korean War.

Schuman was first taught the Chinese language while in the US military, during World War II. He continued studying Chinese, under the GI Bill, after the war, and traveled to China in 1947. He returned to the USA in 1953, after having lived under both the Kuo Min Tang and Chinese Communist Party administrations. His book, Assignment China, later republished under the title China: An Uncensored Look, described his first six years in China.

A review by Thurston Griggs in the Journal of Asian Studies said Assignment China "shows a naive and politically parochial outlook" and that certain chapters "might as well have been written in Moscow."

Schuman returned to China, in the 1950s, and worked for a number of Chinese publications, living there for the rest of his life. He was one of the original journalists when China Daily commenced publication, in 1981.

In 1956, Schuman, and two American colleagues of his, at the China Monthly Review, an English language publication, based in Shanghai, were indicted for sedition. His colleague John W. Powell had written an article that repeated allegations from the Chinese government that, during the Korean War, American forces had used biological weapons - germ warfare. Powell faced thirteen charges of sedition. Schuman, and Powell's wife Sylvia, who were his editors, faced one charge each. After six years, when Robert Kennedy was the US Attorney General, the charges against all three Americans were dropped.

Count one of the indictment charges the three defendants with conspiring to circulate in the United States through the media of the Chinese Monthly Review false statements and reports intended to interfere with the success of the United States forces in Korea, to cause insubordination and disloyalty among the United States troops, and to obstruct recruitment.

Jan Wong, who had known Schuman when she was one of the first two foreign students allowed to study in China, during the Cultural Revolution, described working with Schuman's new wife Yan Yan, when she returned to China as a foreign correspondent, twenty years later. Yan Yan had been "a PLA soldier, a factory worker, and a party member", but, by 1993, she had embraced aspects of Western culture, including multiple ear-piercings, psychedelic hair colourings, mid-riff baring tops, and high-heels. Wong described how, when she and Yan Yan arrived to interview other Chinese, they routinely jumped to the conclusion that Yan Yan was the foreign correspondent, while the more modestly dressed Wong was her Chinese assistant.

Schuman met Yan Yan when she took a job as a typist at China Daily where Schuman worked as a Sports columnist. Their mutual superior warned Schuman not to marry Yan Yan, characterizing her as a "gold-digger". When they married anyway Yan Yan was fired.