About Olivia Cox-Fill
Olivia Cox-Fill: writer, sinologist, entrepreneur, breeder of thoroughbred racehorses, studied Medicine at University College Dublin and subsequently studied Chinese Literature and Journalism at Columbia University. She later took a two year course in Mandarin at SOAS, University of London.
Born into a Catholic family in the West of Ireland, her mother was a farmer and father a mechanical engineer. In the Summer before going up to University, Olivia read Moment in Peking by Lin Yutang: a book which had a dramatic effect on her. Her ambitions to read medicine in Dublin and then London were thwarted, the latter by the inevitable demands of working to self-fund her courses while studying. She moved to America and, while studying Creative Writing as her major and Chinese Literature and History as minors at Columbia University, volunteered with the World Health Organisation at the United Nations. At that time Huang Hua, the first Communist Chinese Ambassador, was appointed to the UN.
Olivia had some knowledge of Mandarin and because of her interest in Chinese history and culture, was invited to accompany a close friend to a private function in honour of the Ambassador. She befriended the Ambassador’s wife, Mme. He Liliang (who was at the time participating at the UN in writing the Laws of the Sea), her husband Huang Hua (later Foreign Minister of China) and his chief Counsel, Zhou Nan (later PRC-designated Governor of Hong Kong and subsequently, Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China).
In 1974 Olivia moved to Hong Kong with their baby to join her partner and, unable to find a job that would pay a salary equal to male employees, decided to start a clothing business as the most likely route to gain an entrée to China. Spectacular results in business ensued, but it was her husband’s unfortunate experience at the hands of the healthcare system in China which eventually culminated in Olivia’s meeting Dr. Wu Jieping, President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Science.
On one of their trips to China, he became unwell with an infection and they were exposed to the quality of healthcare. Picture this: her husband, a former President of the pharmaceutical company, E. R. Squibb & Co. and accustomed to the best healthcare in the USA, was seen running from an Outpatients’ Clinic in Guangzhou, pulling his trousers up, hotly-pursued by a lady doctor wielding a hypodermic needle of a size one could use on a rhinoceros. At that moment, they both determined to do something to improve healthcare in China.
A couple of years later, their private China Trading company was purchased by Lazard Freres, as China had by then been assigned Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status by the U.S.A.. The granting of MFN status changed the trading relationship overnight and Olivia sensed they could lose their appeal when professional Dragon Ladies could out-manoeuvre them. It had been fun to be in at the beginning, but she really did not fancy tangling with the professionals. Olivia’s husband had been invited back to his former company as Chief Operating Officer and so the family returned to the USA. There, he set about assembling a delegation of the best medical brains available and they created a foundation to implement their ambition: to promote better healthcare in China.
In due course, they were invited to meet the leading medical lights of the Chinese Academy of Medical Science (CAMS), of which Dr. Wu Jieping was President. The Minister of Health hosted a banquet at the Great Hall of the People to which Olivia and her husband were invited; and the project was allocated land for a hospital site. Medical delegations from the US were matched by delegations of Chinese doctors to the US, some returning after more than 30 years behind China’s Bamboo Curtain, the equivalent of the Soviet Union’s ‘Iron Curtain.’ In the end, the hospital site was allocated as a housing site and the funds raised were used instead to upgrade the former Rockefeller-funded hospital, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, which had existed since the 1920’s.
Olivia was at that time working on the book, For Our Daughters and Dr. Wu Jieping introduced her to some of his colleagues in the Chinese People’s Consultative Congress. He was particularly keen that she should meet one of the most senior women, Mme. Chen Muhua, Minister of Trade and Minister of Finance. She was the only person responsible for the running of two Ministries. He chaperoned Olivia to meet these extremely accomplished women and became a good friend in the process.
One evening, with their friend, Chen I-wan present, Dr. Wu related stories of the difficult times he had trying to minister to the health needs of Zhou Enlai and being thwarted by Madame Mao, Jiang Qing. The next morning, Olivia said to Dr. Wu, “I think I should write your biography!” To her astonishment, he replied, “When would you like to start?” Olivia concluded that he had observed enough of her interview prowess by then to feel he could trust her, which was an extraordinary compliment.
Over the next few years, when Olivia was in the city, she accompanied Dr. Wu on his Beijing hospital visits. She travelled with him when he was head of Family Planning China, when he visited hospitals: Hunan province one year, Jiangxu province another time, then Shanghai and Tianjin. On another occasion, visiting hospitals in Chengde, they travelled in his private railway carriage. He, in turn, stayed with Olivia and her family in New York, Princeton and various parts of the UK. On most of their trips he was accompanied by his lovely, affectionate wife, Gao Rui.
In 1997, at the time of the Handover of Hong Kong to mainland China, his status had become so elevated that Dr. Wu was one of the dignitaries sent to Hong Kong to participate in and witness the return of Hong Kong to the motherland. On that occasion, Olivia gave him the prepared manuscript; but he was alarmed and asked her not to publish the book before he died. Dr. Wu Jieping died in 2011 and Olivia’s dear friend He Liliang consoled her, saying, “At least now you will be able to publish his story.”
Olivia’s latest book, Walking A Tightrope, reveals Dr. Wu Jieping’s extraordinary story as one of China’s most eminent physicians and reflects their long friendship. The book is not an attempt to discredit China, but to raise awareness and remind the young that the present “security measures” may have serious consequences for their personal freedom. In the case of Dr. Wu Jieping, he co-operated publicly and rebelled privately. Dr. Wu agreed with the need to change China between 1949 and 1999, but was shocked by some of the methods used to accomplish this.
Olivia Cox-Fill reveals the compelling story of Dr. Wu Jieping (1917 – 2011), selected as personal physician to China’s leaders by Premier Zhou Enlai and Madame Mao.
Walking A Tightrope takes us behind the rice-paper walls and the bamboo curtains to reveal the secret facts poisoning relationships between Mao Zedong and his Premier, Zhou Enlai, manoeuvred by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. It shows how she tried to seduce and entrap Dr. Wu in order to bring Zhou Enlai down. It is the only first-hand account by a trusted witness, who was their personal physician.
As one of China’s most prestigious Physicians, Dr. Wu developed from an intellectual into a national leader of New China and became a vice chairman of the (NPR), National People’s Congress Standing Committee. He established his global reputation in the field of urology with significant medical achievements. This book goes behind the scenes during China’s most destructive and turbulent period, the devastating Cultural Revolution, characterized by Dr Wu as cultural extinction.
Dr. Wu entrusted the inside story to his friend, Olivia Cox-Fill on condition that she not reveal it until he was dead. It illustrates the lavish lifestyle and demands of some of the hierarchy against a background of the appalling conditions experienced by the populace. The new edition, with illustrative maps and photographs, considers the repressions of the past decade and invites readers to consider what they can do now to revitalise the embers of hope and promise, kindled during the period of “reform and opening-up” of China.
It concludes with the author’s reflections on the experiences of Dr. Wu and considers parallels with life in China today.
For Our Daughters: How Outstanding Women Worldwide Have Balanced Home and Career, Praeger 1996. ISBN: 9780275951993 (hardback).
Chinese Edition: ‘Nan Ren Neng Zuo de, Nu Ren Neng Zuo de Geng Hao’, Tsinghua University Press, 2012.
The book provides another unique insight, this time through interviews with prominent women in ten different countries on three continents, in the 1990’s. It is a social history and, three decades since first publication, is now an invaluable resource for students of that period.
Olivia Cox-Fill was the Cultural Advisor for Zhuang Zi Tests His Wife by Su Liqun. [Experimental Theatre, Yadu Enterprise Group, 20 – 25 April 1995].