90-year-old Shapiro celebrates his fruitful life in China

"I admired her even before I came to love her. Here she was, a girl from a genteel background, risking imprisonment, or worse, in a city of sharks. I wanted her to be my wife."

In late 1948, he had to dodge the Kuomintang in order to join his wife to work for the overthrowing of Old China. He tells his story in an amusing yet nail-biting manner as he also found himself in life-threatening situations throughout his own existence.

There were difficult times, especially during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), when he endured periods of loneliness and anxiety.

Phoenix was forced to "study" in her office day and night.For several years she was not allowed to return home.

His teenage daughter was given a job in a paper mill in the suburbs. He rarely saw his daughter and his wife not at all.

Despite the difficulties, Sha Lao, as his Chinese colleagues fondly named him, helped his younger Chinese colleagues improve their English during his hours-off.

"We gathered together to listen to broadcasts via his shortwave radio, such as Voice of America," Huang Youyi, deputy director-general of China Foreign Languages Publishing & Distribution Administration, recalled during a dinner party last week to celebrate Shapiro's 90th birthday.

He has stood by his adopted nationality as a Chinese citizen. He has promoted the good, but has also been honest in pointing out the wrongs in contemporary Chinese society. He has taken this task on as his duty, since he has served as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference China's highest national advisory body since 1983.

Although his decision to accept the US army's recommendation to learn Chinese was made in haste (he claims he had no time to think about it), he has become "more Chinese than the Chinese," in the words of several of his long-time colleagues and friends.

They envy Shapiro because he has managed to keep a simple but fruitful life in a traditional siheyuan in a part of uptown Beijing an area that maintains its traditional ambiance.

In Eric Lee's review of "Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholar," he comments that Shapiro knows more about modern China than any Westerner, including armchair Sinologists.

"He writes with wonderful scholarship plus intimate knowledge about the country he loves," Lee writes.

As Phoenix in her memoir "Recollection of Eighty Years Looking Forward to Our Golden Wedding Anniversary," 1993, quoted Shapiro as saying: "I've lived longer in China than I have in America!

"I'm more deeply attached to China than to the land where I was born and raised. Every three years, when I visit America on home leave, I come hurrying back before my leave is up. Why is it that I can't bear to be away from China? I don't understand it myself!"

He concludes his biography:

"Can my miniscule presence have had even a shade of impact? I would like to think it has. Certainly the influence of the Chinese revolution on China and the world is beyond question. It has brought a better life for the Chinese people, a better chance for peace and prosperity for people in other lands.

"I hope, in the time that remains, to continue doing my bit. I consider myself lucky to have had this opportunity."