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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-03-30, Page 21Serving over 25.000 homes in Listowel, Wngham Mount Forest, Milverton, Elmira; Palmerston, Harriston, Brussels, Atwood, Monkton, Millbank, Newton, Clifford, Wallenstein, Drayton, Moorefield and Arthur. Wednesday, March 30, 1 983 A Canada -•China connection for ocriljArthWr�n �r��� Palmerston g0 gin Nanking "It was at the Ryerson lecture hall that I met a veteran, experienced newspaper reporter, community weekly publisher, Mr. Arthur Carr." The voice on the tape is soft, distinct, sincere. The tone is modulated. And as Prof. Higgins of Shaw's "Pygmalion" could prove in a flash, the EnglisI is too perfect to be spoken by anyone claiming English as their mother tongue. The pronunciation of "Carr" comes out sounding like "Cahr", without the hard - edged North American r -sound and softer even than the rounded English sound. The voice is eastern, far eastern to be exact. It belongs to Chung -wen Huang, associate chairman of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Nanking University, Nanking, People's Republic of China. The time is 3:30 p.m. and it is Monday, Nov. 23, 1981, and Mr. Huang is beginning a two-hour class in mass communications to his 18 students in the English faculty of his department. His subject is Canadian weekly newspapers. He is taping his lecture for a purpose. The "sound recording cassette tape," as he oh - so -correctly describes it, will be carefully packaged, labelled and mailed with a letter from Nanking, the ancient southern capital of China, to Palmerston in Ontario, Canada, — to the man who not only made Mr Huang's lecture .possible, but who first kindled his interest in community weekly newspapers,.. It was nearing the end of his two-year study period as a special student and then as a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto, in December of .1979 that Mr. Huang heard Arthur Carr, former editor and publisher of The Palmerston Observer and now the "Country Editor" on CKCO-TV, Kitchener, give a lecture to journalism students at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. Mr. Carr's lecture was on the Canadian weekly press and as Mr. Huang put it, "I heard his lecture on small town journalism fascinati,ng,:me." Following the lecture the visiting Chinese professor .w,as ,introduced to Mr. 't arrvand'r much to his surprise and delight he was invited to spend a few days in Palmerston. Mr. Huang took Arthur Carr up on his "very kind invitation" and in February of 1980 spent a few days in Palmerston as the house guest of the veteran newspaperman and his wife Freda. That visit was a revelation to this in- telligent, curious and unbelievably ob- servant middle-aged Chinese teacher. It opened his eyes to not only the role of the community newspaper, but to small town Canadian life. The insights gained during those few days spent in Palmerston were to be invaluable to Mr. Huang. He put his knowledge to use not only in his classroom, but in a specific and difficult task he had taken on — the translation into Chinese of Stephen Leacock's "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town". Most important of all the visit put the Huang -Carr friendship on a firm footing. And like the nroverhinl nehhle dropped in the stream, the ripple effect of that friend- ship is endless. Over 1,000 Slides In the three years since Arthur Carr showed Chung -wen Huang everything he could fit in during his limited stay in Palmerston the two men have maintained a remarkable kind of contact. From Palmerston Mr Carr has put Mr. Huang in touch with the Canadian Depart- ment of External Affairs which sent the professor over 500 color slides of Canadian scenes and life to assist him in his teaching. He has also provided him with a number of individual contacts who have answered requests which the "Country Editor" has been unable to answer. From China Mr. Huang has, through a steady stream of letters, tapes, and photographs, introduced Arthur and Freda Carr to his family, to his students, to daily and school life in the People's Republic off China. In the beginning Mr. Huang was uneasy about the generous assistance he ' was get- ting from his Canadian friend. Over- whelmed by the flow of "tear -sheets, tapes and photographic slides," and knowing Mr. Carr had "pulled all the stops on the organ" to get him slides of Canada for his course on "CanLit", he felt guilty. Informed that his friend had contacted both his own Member of Parliament, Perrin Beatty (Wellington-Dufferin-Simcoe — PC), and the then secretary of state, Gerald Regan, Mr. Huang says, "I was very grateful to all those people, but I felt very uneasy because it was I who had caused all 4b ouble ,. - °1`I tl erefatti gave VIr: Carr some hint and- finally I wrote to him abruptly, `I don't think I should get any more.' Well, a few weeks afterwards I got his letter." Arthur .Carr was having none of Chung - wen Huang's guilt -ridden entreaties to put an end to this cultural exchange on an in- dividual level and he knew how to put his friend's mind at ease. "Please let me continue to send tear - sheets and tapes as they accumulate here," • he wrote. "This gives me a little additional• purpose in life and makes me feel that in my very own little way I am treading lightly, very, very lightly, in the footprints of my fellow countryman Norman Bethune. It is to me most satisfying that I can do something to cement international goodwill and possibly, again in a very small way, prevent another horrible war from descending upon us." Dr. Norman Bethune, the Canadian medical doctor who worked among the Chinese in the 1930s, is a heroin the People's Republic. While he was in Canada, besides a "must" visit to Leacock's Mariposa (Orillia) Mr. Huang visited the home of Bethune in Gravenhurst. Some maple leaves picked up off the property grounds were among "precious jewels" which he hand -carried aboard his flight back to China. After his reference to Dr. Bethune, Mr. Carr has had no problem with Chung -wen Huang's uneasiness. by Marion Duke "To date over 1,000 color slides have been sent and are being used as teaching aids at Nanking University," Arthur Carr says, not without a touch of pride. However if Mr. Huang thinks the ex- change of letters and materials is too one- sided, he might be a little surprised to learn his friend, "the town philosopher" feels the same. Only Arthur Carr believes he's the winner. He could be right. Small Town It must be immensely satisfying to the retired publisher and editor of The Palmerston Observer to know that on the ujther side of the globe there are classes of university students to whom that publication is synonymous with the term "Canadian community weekly". It must be equally satisfying to know these same students not only know a great deal about the Town of Palmerston and its people, but identify with Palmerston as being the typical Canadian small town. And Arthur Carr must also know these Nanking University students also think of the Town of Palmerston as being something special because it is the home of "Mr. Arthur Carr ... a wise man, an elder worth ;respect, a town philosopher, and truly an experienced publisher and editor". Because of Arthur Carr and the sponge- like brain` of their professor, Nanking `R : p`•t•ti.` • pry University students taking the mass com- munications course in the faculty of English not only can picture the Town of Palmer- ston, they know a number of its citizens — high school teachers, the fire chief, police chief, even the paper boy. On the other hand, because of the keenly observant Mr. Huang, Arthur Carr can tell you he now has the best description he's ever had, or is ever likely to get of the one thing outside his family that is nearest and dearest to his heart — the community newspaper; "Chung -wen Huang has described our own product better than we ever could," he says. "As far as I'm concerned what he has to say about the community press should be put on a plaque and hung in every weekly newspaper building in the country." And what does Mr. Huang have to say about the weekly press? "It seems to me," he wrote in one of his letters to Mr. Carr, "that the small town newspaper is not merely a survival but a continuing process of response to achieve human values. "Its contents are representative of a wide range of activities, ideas, beliefs and aspirations that are not given expression in the big city daily press. "It supplies a flow of specific news and interprets events in a meaningful and af- l'ectual context. It helps the reader orient himself -herself in time and space in the local community by building and main- taining local traditions and identifications. "It reports the weather, the crops, town council meetings, public gatherings, weddings, illness, births, deaths, joys, sorrows, church activities. "In a sense, it is a serial story, a poem, a pastorale, a history, a guide to politics, a plan to the future of the community as well as an extension or development, or con- tinuation of the town crier, the coffee house, the bulletin board and the news letters." Granduncle On a more personal level, Arthur and Freda Carr continue to enjoy the letters they receive from not only Mr. Huang, but from his wife, a teacher of English in the Nanking Aeronautical Institute, and his teenage daugher, Shiao-wen. Sometimes the letters are typewritten, sometimes recorded on tape and sometimes both. From Huang's wife they learn that she leaves by bus for school each morning and returns home at 6 p.m. It takes her over an hour to reach the institute and she listens to Continued on Page 2 In front of his mass communications class in Nanking University, Prof. Huang uses "teaching aids" sent to him from Canada: (Photo courtesy of Arthur Carr) • ay syr F' 1'Of's. .es • e,• • < e > 5 e . b k •r »q 4 4S.I During his few days in Palmerston in February, 1980, Chung -wen Huang (second from left) visited the automotive class at Norwell District Secondary School. With him are, from left, Kevin Church, teacher Robert McEachern and Andrew Katerberg. (Palmerston Observer Photo) This delightful split bamb•o wall hanging was given to Freda Carr by Mr. Huang when he visited the Carrs in Palmerston in 1980. 1' Arthur Carr, former publisher and editor of The Palmerston Observer and presently CKCO-TV's `Country Editor", looks over the Chinese translation of "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town".