Apr 26 2007
Ma Changhua 马昌华
Professor Ma is a native of Hefei, capital of Anhui Province and the cradle of the 淮系 Huai Clique that had dominated China and the world from 1860 till the death of its curator Li Hongzhang in 1901. He edited two books on the Huai Clique, one focused on the military leaders and one on civil which included two of my great great grandfathers. With some effort, I found him. Perhaps out of modesty, he dodged my question about if I should address him as professor. When I eagerly brought up my million dollar question, to my shocking surprise, he said he didn’t know about the Britons had played the major roll in this incident at all! “I used all the info I had, if I don’t know, how can I write about it?” He said defensively.
Perhaps he’s retired, Ma’s more willing to mentor, discuss and share than any other I came in contact with. When I asekd about the museum that the goverment built in honor of Liu, commemorating his defeat of the invadors during the 1884 Sino-French War: was because Liu’s descendant donated it? One of Lius runs a successful biz in Hong Kong, and is very active in sponsoring the math and science in China. Ma said no. But he heard that the same Liu shopped around at Fudan for a bio but balked at the RMB 200k (bout US$25k) asking price. It was 2003.