Tuesday, June 15, 2010

China's Great Wall of Silence: "Remembrance" and Dr. Weili Ye.

                                                                                              


Three years ago when I began my bomb-throwing over the murder of Bian Zhongyun and the presence of so many former Red Guards in America, one of the first people I contacted was Dr. Weili Ye, the man pictured above. I had read Dr. Ye's book Growing up in the People's Republic in which the murder is specifically mentioned. 

So I emailed Dr. Ye:

From: Benjamin Harris

Sent: 2/23/07 8:49 PM
To: Weili Ye

Subject: Bian Zhongyun

Who killed her and what is the evidence that she/they killed her? Two books specifically accuse Song Binbin.


Direct, I admit. To the point yes, that was my intent. It seemed to discombobulate Dr. Ye and it didn't take him long to reply: 


From: Weili Ye

To: publocc@gmail.com
Date: Fri, Feb 23, 2007 at 11:22 PM
subject: Re: Bian Zhongyun.

Hi, could you tell me who you are and what are the two books you're talking about?  I would like to know. Thanks!

Ye Weili


So I did!  You're welcome!

from: Benjamin Harris

to: Weili Ye

date: Sat, Feb, 24, 2007 at 9:30 AM
subject: Re: Bian Zhongyun

Mao, the unknown story by jung chang and jon halliday, page 506 and Emily Honig in the anthology Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities, by Susan Brownell and Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom.
from Benjamin Harris
to Weili Ye
date Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 9:36 AM
subject RE: Bian Zhongyun













Oh, and in answer to your first question I am a prosecutor and I also have a websitewww.publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com on which I've written about Song Binbin.

from: Weili Ye
to: Benjamin Harris

date: Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 12:52 PM
subject: RE: Bian Zhongyun

Please read my article, "The Death of Bian Zhongyun" in The Chinese Historical  Review, Fall 2006, pp. 203-241. I believe I did more thorough research on the topic than the authors of the two books. Thanks!


So I did! You're welcome again!  You pompous ass!  

Chinese Historical Review is published at that renowned academic center for China studies, Indiana University...of Pennsylvania. What the Chinese Historical Review is doing at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, I do not know.  What I do know is that in publishing The Death of Bian Zhongyun they published an awful piece of “scholarship” that couldn’t get published in a more respected journal.  And published it poorly.  Besides the title page every other page of Weili’s article is titled at top, The Death of Bing Zhongyun.  “Bing,” like in Bing Crosby, like “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” Bing Crosby.  It’s embarrassing.
The correspondence between Dr. Ye and me continued for a little while longer. I tried to get in her soul, to empathize:

From: Benjamin Harris [mailto:publocc@gmail.com]
Sent: Fri 3/9/2007 3:49 PM
To: Weili Ye
Subject: Bian Zhongyun

...

Doctor, you dedicated your article in The Chinese Historical Review to Bian, you wrote of the anguish that you felt when you first met Wang Jinyao [note: Bian's widower], you spoke with apparent emotion about Bian's murder on Morning Sun--you obviously care about your "Aunt Bian." [note: Boo-hoo-hoo.] (1)
...
You don't know me and I know that you don't trust me.  You are dismissive, almost contemptuous of me and my amateur inquiries.  Perfectly understandable,[note: I am so sensitive.] I'm used to rejection.[note: And I am!]  All I ask is that you not shut me out completely.  Give me one person to talk to.  If you feel the need for more privacy than email provides this is my cell phone number, [866-F*** YOU ($3.95/minute)].  Please respond in some way.  Thank you. 


from Weili Ye
to Benjamin Harris
date Mon, Mar 12, 2007 at 8:57 PM
subject RE: Bian Zhongyun

Hi, Mr. Harris,

I learned from a friend (the producer of "Morning Sun") [that would be Carma Hinton] that the publisher of the book which has Emily Honig's article already made an apology to Song Binbin and promised to revise it in future editions. [That is true, Song threatened to sue Honig, Brownell, Wasserstrom and their universities if they didn't delete the offending passage and this threat comes up again below. Note here however that Weili does not mention Chang and Halliday's book.]
Could you tell me, Mr. Harris, how did you find my name? I am just curious.
Thanks. 

Ah-ha!  I got to her a little bit with my sensitivity; no pompous, dismissive, "Thanks!"
But her last question annoyed me out of my sensitivity:

From: Benjamin Harris
Sent: Tue 3/13/2007 4:34 PM
To: Weili Ye
Subject: Re: Bian Zhongyun

Dear Dr. Weili,

Sure, I used a very sophisticated investigative technique.  I googled Bian's name and up came your article.

Doctor, I have nothing against Yan Song. [I referred to Song Binbin several times in our correspondence by this, her “American” pseudonym to let Weili know I knew.]  In finding out who is responsible for the murder I will necessarily find out who was not. I offer you the opportunity to say to me whatever you wish.  I will come to Boston if you will agree to a tape-recorded interview. Will you talk to me?

Oh yeah, right:

From Weili YeWeili.Ye@unb.edu
To Benjamin Harrispublocc@gmail.com
Date Tue, Mar 13, 2007 at 7:00 PM
Subject RE: Bian Zhongyun

Mr. Harris, I don’t think I want to be interviewed.  What I have to say I’ve said in the article. Hope you understand.

And I did. I truly did understand. It seems evident to me in the change of tone that Dr. Ye felt bad at the end of our exchange.   I remember reading this at the time and feeling sorry for her.  I think by the end she was troubled.  She had been doing what was expected of her, and what she was used to doing:  being loyal to her friend Song Binbin, to her generation of elite Red Guards (she claimed to have designed the armband), to China, to the Maoist legacy that is her, her generation’s, and China’s raison d’etre. And then on a mellow Friday night some guy she's never heard of emails her out of the blue and harshes her mellow.  But she got over it.  After our correspondence ended I published an article here on The Death of Bian Zhongyun and sent it to her as a courtesy but I never heard back from her.  


Back then I was just an idiot blogger.  Today, I’m an idiot blogger with four followers. And Weili has chosen not to ignore me.  At the beginning of May, Weili, Liu Jin, and Song Binbin put together a special edition internet zine called “Remembrance” for the Girls School where Teacher Bian was murdered.  The link is immediately
below.


It sounds like quite a project, over 50,000 Chinese characters long, and the website is impressively designed.  Weili specifically writes about me, I don’t think it’s much, but I can’t really tell.  The Google-translate version is almost as incomprehensible to me as is Chinese,  “ jibberish-jibberish-jibberish Benjamin Harris jibberish-jibberish-jibberish.”  Weili seems to concentrate her fire on Dr. Youqin Wang of the University of Chicago for steering me off the Shining Path but we’ll see. I’m paying to have it professionally translated and the job should be done in a couple weeks.


1. The photo of Weili is taken from Morning Sun and Weili is a woman, not a man. 

Posted by BENJAMIN HARRIS at 9:46 PM