WHAT: George Hogg: Hero of China's WWII "Orphans Odyssey" by his biographer Mark Thomas (online)

WHEN: TUESDAY, June 3, 2025 from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM Beijing Time

MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: George Alwyn Hogg (1915-1945) is known for his work as a wartime journalist and educator in China during the 1930's and 1940's. After reporting on the Sino-Japanese conflict, and inspired by a vision of "New China", he taught war orphans in Baoji, Shaanxi Province. When China's Nationalist government began press-ganging male students into military service, Hogg opposed the forced conscription. Fearing for the students' safety, he led 60 war orphans on an arduous journey totalling 750 miles – including 450 miles by foot – to Gansu Province. There, in Shandan, he headed a school aimed at training youth vocational skills. A fictionalized vignette of Hogg's action-packed life was portrayed in a 2008 film,"The Children of Huang Shi", directed by Roger Spottiswoode. 2025 marks the 110th anniversary of Hogg's birth and the 80th anniversary of his untimely death in 1945. His legacy is the focus of a CGTN documentary slated for release this year.

MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Mark Aylwin Thomas is Hogg's nephew and biographer. Thomas published "Blades of Grass" in 2017 and this biography of his uncle was translated into Chinese and published in Beijing earlier this year, drawing attention from high-level Chinese officials. Recently Thomas and other members of the UK-based Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) followed in Hogg's footsteps through remote parts of Gansu and Shaanxi.

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