Claire Malcolm Lintilhac

My mother, Claire Lintilhac, was born in Hsinchen in North China in 1899. She worked as a travelling nurse on the North China coast and later in Shanghai, where she married my father, Francis “Lin” Lintilhac.

My mother and I were evacuated from Shanghai in 1941 after the Japanese bombing of Shanghai, leaving my father, who was interned in a Japanese prison camp for the duration of World War II. After the end of the war in 1945 we were reunited and returned as a family to our home in Shanghai. We lived there until 1950, escaping to Hongkong a year after the “Liberation” of Shanghai and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in May 1949.

After my father died suddenly in 1957, we moved to Stowe, Vermont, built a house, and have called Stowe our home ever since.

These stories were recorded over a period of four years on an inexpensive tape recorder with no professional assistance. Sound quality is variable depending on the condition of the recorder. I edited the recordings and divided them into two volumes. “Claire’s Chronicle” is a chronological history of her life in China until our final exit to the United States. “Claire’s Stories” comprises stories and reminiscences that were too interesting to omit but did not fit into the chronology of the memoir.

The stories recorded here were originally intended to be the basis of a written memoir of her life in China, now available as China in Another Time.