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Liao and the Chungking Press Hostel A
merican writer Bill Lascher passed through Hong Kong in March on his way to research the work of his relative Melville Jacoby, a freelance correspondent based in Chungking in 1940-41. However, he also had already in hand photos from that period, including one of the FCC's Liao Chienping standing in front of the Press Hostel. Mr Liao and his family spent most of his early years in retreat through China from the invading Japanese.
Mr Liao retired as Club captain in 1977 after 40 years service with the Club in Chungking, Nanjing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Unusually, he was given a proper send-off with a dinner presided over by the legendary correspondent Richard Hughes. When told of the FCC's search for a precise date of when the FCC The young Mr Liao in front of the Press Hostel in Chungking in 1937. Above, Mr Liao on the cover of The began, Lascher Correspondent when he retired in 1977. said he would share some of his He finished up in Chungking and got a job at the source material – Jacoby and White's personal papers Press Hostel – the precursor to the FCC – in June – to allow us to continue the search. 1937 at the age of 19. This residential club was a Melville Jacoby, who became a Time/Life 24-room establishment operated by the information correspondent after his freelance stint in Chungking, service of the Chiang Kai-shek Nationalist was also a close friend of author and journalist Teddy government. He then learned to speak English, cook White and the first husband of Annalee Jacoby, and adjust to the drinking habits of resident scribes. White's co-author on “Thunder Out of China”. 32
THE CORRESPONDENT