The Travels of Fu Tsun

As a young man of 21, Red China's Fu Tsun was a good enough pianist to win third prize in Warsaw's 1955 International Chopin Piano Competition. Belgium's Queen Mother Elisabeth invited him to play in her country. Recognizing a valuable cultural export, Red China granted Fu Tsun permission to study in Poland and to give 200 concerts in the satellite countries of Eastern Europe.

With him in Warsaw were two other Red Chinese pianists: a young man and a girl. The three soon had few secrets from each other. The two men spoke of their growing distaste for the way things were going back home. The girl, though present at these talks, made no comment herself, and the men thought her just a sweet, simple girl with no head for politics.

A few months ago, the Red Chinese embassy in Warsaw summoned Fu Tsun's friend, castigated him for his political "thoughts," and put him aboard the next plane for China. Disconsolate, Fu Tsun realized that the only persons to know these thoughts were himself and the "innocent" young girl. Fu Tsun's turn came in November. The Chinese embassy warned him to wind up his studies by mid-December and return to his homeland. He complained to Polish friends: "I will be made to do manual labor. This will ruin my hands. My playing will be finished." He also learned that his father, a distinguished translator of French classics, had already been arrested in Shanghai on the charge of "translating without authorization" the works of Nobel Prizewinner Remain Rolland.

Fu Tsun got a British visa, bought a ticket on a regular British European Airways flight to London. Last week he went to the airport, fearing that at any moment he would be turned back. But the Polish officials passed him, and Fu Tsun flew safely on to London. Friends hid him out in the country, but he was willing to answer a few questions from the press. What did he think of things in China? Said Fu Tsun tactfully: "Whatever people may think of Mao Tse-tung's policies, I say he is the greatest modern Chinese poet."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.