HARD ROAD TO SUCCESS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 737, 28 August 1953, Page 21

HARD ROAD TO SUCCESS

HE Chinese bass Yi-Kwei Sze, who begins his tour at Hamilton on September 3, has had a tough and sometimes dangerous career. At first he was lucky. As the youngest son (of a stonecutter) he was not expected to follow the family trade, nor to inherit propetty. He could follow whatever career he chose. But China was not the most congenial country for a rising young artist. In 1939, when the Japanese forced the great migration westward, Sze decided to go to Chungking. En routé he stopped at Hong Kong for some concerts, but was compelled to stay indefinitely, as the Japanese cut

all lines of communication. At dawn on the morning after Pearl Harbour, Hong Kong was bombed. Weeks of horror followed. The Japanese had blacklisted Sze, and it was only by virtue of assistance from a Chinese woman, a relative of the Manchurian puppet Emperor Pu-Yi, that be escaped. He travelled to Canton, under a_ false name and with Japanese papers. Later, in Shanghai, he was threatened with prison for refusing to sing for the Japanese. By sampan and on foot he again broke through the lines, eventually reaching China’s wartime capital of Chungking. Sze’s troubles did not end with the war. After months of trekking from. one government bureau to another he secured a travel permit for the

United States. That same day, the American west-coast shipping strike began, and it was four months before Sze stepped on a ship for San), Francisco. Yi-Kwei Sze’s New Zealand itinerary includes performances with the National Orchestra at Wellington (September 8), Christchurch (September 15), Dunedin (September 21), Auckland (September 29) and Wellington (October 6). He will’ give solo recitals at Hamilton, Hastings, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Wellington. Auckland, Christchurch, Palmerston North, Nelson and Blenheim, on September 3, 5, 10, 12, 16, 18, 22, 24, 26 and October 1 in that order.