An elderly Chinese man has written to US President George W. Bush asking for help to pass on a special gift to an American friend.
Huang yicheng, 82, said he had also mailed a rare book copy of the "Art of War," signed by himself, the creator and of the publishing representative, to the American Embassy in Beijing.
"I hope with the help of President Bush, Thomas Longcope will get the precious book he has long desired to possess," Huang said in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang Province.
The "Art of War" was written by ancient Chinese strategist Sun Wu, who wrote about the combat experience up to the latter part of the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC). The book has been translated into a dozen languages, including English, French, Japanese and Spanish. It is known as a "classic of strategies."
The chinese-English gift book is a pure silk brocade tome made of 155,000 silk threads, the first of its kind in the world.
Sixty years ago, Huang suspended his college education and worked as an interpreter to a garrison of the American army which came to East China during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Huang developed a deep friendship with Longcope, then a captain in the American army.
Before longcope left for his home when the war ended in late 1945, Huang presented him with a traditional Chinese brocade handicraft featuring an eagle as a gift.
While expressing his gratitude to Huang, Longcope told his Chinese friend that as an American soldier, he liked the "Art of War" very much and said, "it would be very amazing to have the Chinese classical literature of war on a brocade."
Huang remembered his friend's words but they lost touch with each other after Longcope left.
Longcope's wish came to fruition thanks to a team led by Li Jialin, a top-notch silk handicraft master, and Huang Heqing, Huang's son, a noted handicraft research expert, who confided in Li about his father's long-time aspiration.
Over a period of three years, Li and his team developed a technology known as laser heat sensitivity, with which, the softness of the silk is retained and the silk yarns don't fall out in the process of page cutting.
In the end, 3,000 copies of the book have been published by the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing, and each copy is attached with a special serial number and a certificate for collection.
"The year of 2005 will be the 60th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, so I picked up a copy with the serial number 1945 as a gift for my friend Thomas Longcope," said Huang.