Editor’s note: China Daily presents the series Friends Afar to tell the stories of people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. Through the vivid narration of the people in the stories, readers can get a better understanding of a country that is boosting openness.
In an era of strained US-China relations, Steve Harnsberger is on a mission to rekindle the flame of friendship between the two nations.
From a family with deep ties to China, Steve Harnsberger has taken up the mantle of “citizen diplomat”, dedicating himself to discovering and sharing forgotten stories of cooperation and mutual respect between US and Chinese people during trying times.
Steve Harnsberger, the founder of US/China People-to-People Exchange, or PPX, an educational nonprofit organization based in San Anselmo, California, believes it is his “calling” to tell such stories.
“These stories are deeply rooted in our families’ histories, including oral accounts and photographs. We are the descendants who can share how Americans and Chinese worked together during past disasters and pandemics,” he said in a recent interview with China Daily.
Steve Harnsberger’s journey began in 2001 when he accompanied his Chinese-born father on a trip back to the country. Visiting the houses and cities where his family had lived decades earlier, he was profoundly moved by the experience.
“When we first returned to Gaoyou (a city in Jiangsu province), all my father wanted to do was go on the Grand Canal on a boat because he had grown up living on a native Chinese houseboat,” he recalled.
“The life of an innocent child born in a different country and his desire to ‘go home’ before he died moved me in a way that changed my life,” said Steve Harnsberger. His father passed away in 2005.
The transformative experience led to his first project in China: a 2005 exhibit about the 1931 flood in Gaoyou in partnership with the Gaoyou Water Conservancy Department. The exhibit honored his grandfather, Thomas Harnsberger, who arrived in China in 1912 as a missionary and was known as He Bokui among Chinese people.
Thomas Harnsberger played a crucial role during the catastrophic 1931 Yangtze River flood, one of the world’s deadliest natural disasters, with an associated death toll exceeding 2 million.
In August of that year, he traveled to the Gaoyou dikes to assess the situation and proposed raising funds for reconstruction to the Shanghaibased China International Famine Relief Commission. The commission funded the project, with Thomas Harnsberger serving as a supervisor.
“This story has persisted in my family for 75 years. This was my father’s dream to remember his father,” Steve Harnsberger said.
For his efforts to commemorate this forgotten chapter of US-China friendship, Steve Harnsberger was named an honorary citizen of Gaoyou city in 2005.
For years, Steve Harnsberger balanced his passion for US-China cultural exchange with running a small software company. However, a trip to China in October last year changed everything.
“When I was in Shanghai, a porter at my hotel walked up to me and said, ‘We are not the enemy.’ This came out of nowhere, and it really affected me — just a common man in Shanghai seeing an American. This is why I feel a responsibility now,” Steve Harnsberger recounted.
The encounter prompted him to commit to his cultural exchange work full time. He recently established PPX to broaden the scope of his efforts.
Steve Harnsberger is currently leading two projects that exemplify his approach to cultural diplomacy. One is a concert in memory of Frances Roots’ The Lushan Suite, a piano duet composed to celebrate her love for the Chinese people and the Lushan Mountain.
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