1. Fang Chih or Fang Zhi, courtesy name: Xikong, was a politician, provincial governor, diplomat, author and a high-ranking Kuomintang official of the Republic of China.
54 Facts About Fang Chih
1. 2.
Fang Chih was born into the prominent Tongcheng Fang clan in Tongcheng, Anhui, Qing empire in November 1895.
3.
Fang Chih's father was Fang Rong, the middle son of Fang Lanfen, a Qing dynasty author.
4.
Fang Chih is a direct descendant of Fang Zhipu and Fang Zhenru, an early Qing scholar, author, magistrate and Governor of Guangxi Province.
5.
Fang Chih was a descendant of Fang Bao, a distinguished Qing author who founded the Tongcheng school of literary prose.
6.
Fang Chih graduated from Anhui Province Tongcheng Secondary School, known as a producer of many revolutionary Anhui leaders, which he attended alongside Zhang Bojun, Wu Zipei, and Yu Guanglang among other notable classmates.
7.
In 1919, with financial support from his uncle, Fang Chih Peiqing, Fang Chih Chi went to Tokyo, Japan where he learned Japanese and pursued his studies at the Tokyo Higher Normal School and the Tokyo Imperial University.
8.
On 14 July 1925, Fang Chih married Masue Ueki, a Japanese woman, fellow Kuomintang member and classmate at the Tokyo Imperial University studying dentistry.
9.
Whilst at school, Fang Chih was involved in the leadership structure of the KMT student groups active in Japan in the Chinese student community.
10.
Specifically, Fang Chih was involved in countering Communist propaganda and student groups run by Japanese educated Chinese Communists such as Shi Qian, Wang Buwen, Tong Changrong, Yu Dahua and Fang Chih Bin at the Hubei Railway School of Tokyo or the Tokyo Railway Specialized School, a school set up by Zhang Zhidong for Chinese international students whose graduates went on to serve in the railway industry at Hubei for 6 years.
11.
Fang Chih was made the Chairman of the Fujian Provincial Party Headquarters of the KMT at the suggestion of a fellow Japanese educated classmate Dai Chuanxian with Chiang's approval.
12.
Whilst in Anhui, Fang Chih Chi led a political purge of the local party together with Shao Hua on the orders of Chen Lifu, founder of the CC Clique or the Central Club Clique and head of the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the Central Committee.
13.
Fang Chih was transferred again, this time to Qingdao Municipality and served as the KMT Chairman of the region.
14.
Fang Chih asserted that any incursions into the Nanjing area by Japanese naval forces would be met with force.
15.
Fang Chih was assassinated in Shanghai on 25 December 1935 before assuming his new role.
16.
Fang Chih attended the Second National Motion-Picture Conference which was convened by the Central Party Publicity Committee in Shanghai.
17.
Fang Chih used the motion picture industry in Shanghai to promote KMT party ideals to the people.
18.
In October 1935, Fang Chih collaborated with Zhang Daofan, Lei Chen, and Yu Shangyuan to build the Nanjing National Theatre Academy where Yu was installed as president.
19.
In November 1935 at a meeting of the KMT Big Five, Fang Chih was elected to the Central Committee of the Kuomintang cementing his position as a prominent fixture of the administration.
20.
In July 1936, there was a shakeup of the propaganda department after Liu Luyin was arrested on spy charges by Dai Li who was carrying out a purge of the party and Fang Chih became the vice minister of the Board of Publicity.
21.
On 13 August 1937, Fang Chih was transferred to the Ministry of Education, a department run by Minister and KMT Party Chairman Wang Shijie.
22.
In October 1938, with the CC Clique's hold on the Ministry of Education in place, Fang Chih was appointed to the position of Education Commissioner of Anhui and Hubei Provinces.
23.
Fang Chih oversaw the completion of Anhui Number 4 Provincial Primary School in 1939.
24.
In early 1941, Fang Chih was named the Party Chief and Chairman of the KMT in Chongqing.
25.
Fang Chih was again elected to the Central Executive Committee at the 6th National Congress of Kuomintang in May 1945.
26.
In January 1946, Fang Chih was involved in an effort to disrupt Communist rally activities in Chongqing celebrating the legalization of the CCP the previous year.
27.
Fang Chih's agents spied heavily on the rallies in efforts to document the Communist opposition forces who were operating in the open following the Double Tenth Agreement.
28.
In October 1946, Fang Chih was made the party boss and chairman of the Shanghai KMT Municipal Government, replacing Wu Shao-hsu, one of his longtime rivals within the CC Clique.
29.
Fang Chih was made General Secretary of the Beijing-Hangzhou Government Garrison Headquarters Standing Committee.
30.
In 1947, Fang Chih was elected to the political council of the Kuomintang.
31.
Fang Chih made attempts to turn the selected dance halls that were actually closed into cafeterias employing the former taxi dancers.
32.
On 6 January 1949, Fang Chih made a proposal to send a delegation of Shanghai's citizens to speak with Communist officials, following a convening of Kuomintang policy makers which resulted in an agreement to attempt to sue for peace.
33.
At 11:00 am on 24 May 1949, Fang Chih gathered the foreign press at the Broadway Mansions where he announced the Nationalist plans to hold the city:.
34.
On 25 May 1949, Fang Chih Chi was forced to flee the city with the retreating Nationalist army together with Lei Chen, Ku Chen-kang, Chou Tse-jou and probably Tang Enbo, the last officials out of the city.
35.
Later in 1949, Fang Chih was made Secretary-General of the newly founded Free China Relief Association, an organization that outwardly aimed to assist Chinese diaspora refugees displaced by the war and those still on the Mainland through relief aid.
36.
In 1954, Fang Chih was involved in relief and publicity activities during the islands campaign in the final stages of the Chinese Civil War.
37.
Fang Chih was in charge of an operation which saw the repatriation of Chinese "Volunteer" POWs to Taiwan as opposed to returning them to Mainland China.
38.
From around 1949, Fang Chih became heavily involved in anti-communist activities in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Burma and throughout Southeast Asia.
39.
In late July and early August 1959, Fang Chih was involved in FCRA operations in Laos, officially to help a group of around 8,000 displaced Chinese who had entered Laos as a result of political persecution in the mainland.
40.
On 4 August 1959, Fang Chih reported that the group was drastically in need of supplies and had come from Yunnan Province.
41.
On 27 August 1959, Fang Chih Chi attended the foundation of the Sino-Laotian Friendship Society of which he was a trustee together with Ku Cheng-kang.
42.
Fang Chih accepted responsibility for the mission on behalf of the FCRA stating the private association's actions were completely separate from those of the Republic of China.
43.
Fang Chih was involved in refugee relief actions via the FCRA and the Chinese National Committee for World Refugee Year of which he was Secretary-General.
44.
Fang Chih represented the Republic of China together with Li Ten-ping, the Assistant Secretary-General of the International Labor Bureau, before the UNHCR in Geneva, Switzerland.
45.
At the conference, Fang Chih outlined his objectives to deliver aid to refugees from Tibet together with John McCarthy, Director of the Department of Immigration at the National Catholic Welfare Council.
46.
Fang Chih outlined goals of assisting Chinese refugees in Hong Kong.
47.
In 1958, Fang Chih founded and became the president of the Sino-Ryukyuan Cultural and Economic Association, an organization dedicated to maintaining cultural and economic dialogue between the people of Taiwan and Ryukyu-Okinawa.
48.
In October 1985, Fang Chih convened the first Taipei-Naha Symposium which occurs annually alternating between Tokyo and Naha.
49.
From March 29 to April 9,1969, Fang Chih attended the Kuomintang's 10th National Congress in Taipei.
50.
In 1984, Fang Chih wrote a column for Hong Kong magazine Cheng Ming where he attacked Mainland Chinese media censorship.
51.
In 1988, Fang Chih was appointed the vice-president of the Free China Relief Association.
52.
Fang Chih married Masue Ueki, a Japanese woman, fellow Kuomintang member and classmate at the Tokyo Imperial University studying dentistry on 14 July 1925.
53.
Fang Chih is the maternal grandfather of American Fashion designer Anna Sui, a descendant of his first wife, Masue Ueki via the couple's first daughter, Fang Guangqi and her husband Paul Sui.
54.
Fang Chih died of natural causes on 28 March 1989 in Taipei, Taiwan Province, Republic of China at the age of 93.