1936, 17-year-old William Hinton was admitted to Harvard University, but he decided to postpone his admission and spend a year exploring the world. He started from Vermont, worked all the way and traveled all over the United States.
1937 In the spring, William Hinton got a job as a sailor and sailed from San Francisco to Japan with the ship. He worked as a journalist in Tokyo for five months, passed through northeast China and Siberia to the Soviet Union, then moved to Europe, became a sailor again and returned to the United States. Subsequently, William Hinton entered Harvard University.
From 65438 to 0939, Hinton transferred to Cornell University to study agriculture, thus starting his career as an agronomist.
1943, William Hinton read edgar snow's Red Star over China and was deeply shocked. Previously, he was a pacifist and opposed to all wars. After reading this book, he changed his mind and thought that some wars were just and worthy of support. He said that if he were from China, he would definitely take up a gun to resist Japanese aggression.
1945, Hinton came to China as an analyst of the US War Intelligence Agency. During the negotiations in Chongqing, William Hinton met with many important figures from both sides, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Soong Ching Ling. In many conversations with Mao Zedong and others, he had a deeper understanding of the China Revolution and its future.
From 65438 to 0947, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency donated a batch of tractors to China and recruited volunteers to use these agricultural machinery. Ding Han was recalled to China for the third time as a tractor technician and was sent to work in Northeast China. Dissatisfied with the corruption of the Kuomintang, he voluntarily came to the liberated areas of Hebei led by the * * * Production Party. Then, he was responsible for the development plan of southern Hebei in the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan border region. In the autumn of the same year, the United Nations ended agricultural machinery rescue work around the world and sent volunteers back to the United States. William Hinton decided to stay in China, and as always devoted himself to training the first generation of agricultural workers in China, resuming production and building the liberated areas. But the agricultural machinery had no fuel and could not be used, so William Hinton had to give up his job in the countryside. At that time, he was invited by the newly established Northern University near Changzhi, Shanxi Province to teach English.
1948, Hinton witnessed the land reform in Zhangzhuang, southeast Shanxi as an observer, and recorded what he saw and heard, forming more than 1000 pages of investigation notes. In the same year, Wang, the later director of National Cultural Heritage Administration, took this Chinese name. After the founding of New China, William Hinton continued to stay in China to train agricultural technicians.
1953, William Hinton returned to the United States, and Kama, who was less than 4 years old at that time, and his mother stayed in Beijing. However, as soon as he returned to the United States, William Hinton was persecuted by McCarthy forces. He was branded as a "traitor" by McCarthyism's anti-* * forces, and all the materials he brought were confiscated by the US Customs and held in the Senate Domestic Security Committee. He himself was closely watched, and agents recorded his whereabouts, tapped his phone and restricted his activities. 16 years, because my passport was revoked, I could not return to China. He was turned away from most technical and knowledge jobs and had to work as a mechanic in the garage. In the end, I can only make a living by farming on the land I inherited from my mother. He grows corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa, which is 15. He made many speeches and put pen to paper, publicized the revolutionary achievements of China people, and exposed and condemned McCarthyism. In the first year of his return to the United States alone, he delivered more than 300 speeches. He fought for several years for those materials, and almost lost all his money. After a long struggle, he finally won the case and chased the materials back from the US Customs and the Senate Domestic Security Committee. William Hinton said that his confidence in these people came from the support of the masses when he gave speeches everywhere.
1959, Hinton got married for the second time, and later gave birth to a son and two daughters with his wife Leizhou Ansheng.
1966, William Hinton's long documentary literature "Turning Over" reflecting the land reform in Zhangzhuang was published by new york Monthly Review Publishing House. This book is divided into seven parts. The first two parts introduce the history of Zhangzhuang, and the last five parts introduce what the team learned after entering Zhangzhuang and the struggle led by the farmers there. In the first few years, it sold more than 200,000 copies in the United States and 300,000 copies abroad. Later, it was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Bengali and published in 10 languages. ﹙David Hare﹚, a famous British playwright, adapted Turn Over into a script and put it on the stage, first in London, and then performed all over the world, which was warmly welcomed by the audience. Turning Over has become a classic, and it is a required book for students of China history, politics and structural anthropology in American universities. It is widely circulated in many countries in the world and has a great influence. 1990, Shanxi Satellite TV adapted "Turn Over" into a TV series and put it on the screen.
197 1 year, China and the United States started a dialogue, and William Hinton returned to China at the invitation of Zhou Enlai. During his seven-month visit, Zhou Enlai met with William Hinton five times, calling him "an old friend of the China people in trouble". After returning home, William Hinton participated in the establishment of the American-Chinese People's Friendship Association and served as the first chairman. Since then, William Hinton has traveled to China for many times, and has been employed as a project expert of FAO in China and a senior consultant of China Ministry of Agriculture.
1989, William Hinton resigned as the consultant of the United Nations China project and returned to the United States. A few years later, he still lives in China. His status changed from a diplomat to a diplomat's husband-after his wife Leizhou 'an died of illness, Hinton married Ms. Qiu, an American Chinese, on 1987. Ms. Qiu was stationed in China and went with her.
In 2000, William Hinton suffered a heart attack while giving a speech in Taiwan Province, and returned to the United States after the operation. Since then, he has been lying in a bed in a nursing home in Kangke, Massachusetts.
On May 65438+May 2004, William Hinton died of heart disease in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, at the age of 85.