Chiang Kai-shek’s house demolished

“It will be a bad example for the whole country,” said the Beijing
News, “if this heritage is bulldozed under the pretence of ‘protective
demolition’ and no one takes legal responsibility.”

Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway’s third wife, described a meeting there in
her book: Travels with Myself and Another. “Their house was modest.
Madame Chiang, still a beauty and a famous vamp, was charming to [Hemingway]
and civil to me.”

She added: “[The Generalissimo] was thin, straight-backed, impeccable in
a plain grey uniform and looked embalmed. I didn’t take to him but felt
rather sorry for him; he had no teeth. Reporting this later to an American
Embassy wallah, he exclaimed over the honour showered on us; it was the
highest compliment to be received by the Generalissimo with his teeth out.”

Few people at the site had any idea of its significance. “I heard it was
a cultural site, but I do not know exactly what it is,” said the
receptionist at the Seven Days Inn, a hotel overlooking the house.

“No one thinks this house is important, no one cares about it,” said
a Chinese journalist who asked not to be named, for fear of repercussions.

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