They Chose “New China”: Three Chinese Interpreters’ Transpacific Encounters in World War II and Their Return from Early Cold War America

During World War II, the Chinese Nationalist government mobilized more than 4,000 college students to serve as interpreters for allied personnel in the China-Burma-India theater. Among them were Wu Ningkun, a sophomore at the Southwest Associated University who volunteered to serve the Flying Tigers in July 1941, and Mu Dan, a lecturer at the same university who joined the Chinese Expeditionary Force to Burma in March 1942. Following the Chinese army’s crushing defeat, Mu survived a gruesome three-month trek to India through the Burmese jungles. In early 1943, Wu was dispatched to the United States to interpret for Chinese air cadets. In November 1943, Mei Zuyan, the son of Tsinghua President Mei Yiqi, volunteered to join the Foreign Affairs Bureau (FAB)’s interpreter program. In early 1945, Mei was sent to America as one of the 100 FAB interpreters. After the war, Wu and Mei resumed their studies in American universities, while Mu arrived in America in September 1949. All three former Nationalist interpreters converged in Chicago. Between 1951 and 1954, overcoming great difficulties, they each chose to return to the PRC. Drawing on oral history interviews, documents, private papers, and secondary sources, this paper examines the wartime and postwar journeys of Wu, Mu, and Mei. Their histories provide a more nuanced and human-centered lens to understand the complex history of US-China relations in the early Cold War.