Proceedings On the Occasion of the Dedication of Memorial Hall, and the Unveiling of Valentine'S Bronze Bust of William Enston at the "Home," On the 22D February, 1889

Would Chen Lianshi still have become the Double-Gun Woman? Assuredly not. She might have become a teacher, a scholar, or a painter, fulfilling childhood ambitions that remained with her to the end of her life. I knew that Lin's daughters regretted how events had, in reality, turned out. But if things had turned out otherwise, there would have been no Double-Gun Woman, and no Lin as we now knew him. Months later, back in London, I learned that, after two years' building work, the Huaying Mountain Uprising Memorial Hall had formally opened on 24 October 2006. Inside was an exhibition about the Double-Gun Woman and 116 of her comrades-in-arms, together with displays of the guns and everyday objects they had used, of works of art and literature describing the history of the uprising, and of a few memorials and poems written by fallen heroes. I rejoiced that this tragic episode had become a part of public history in China. I also learned that Lin had now completed his autobiography and was looking for a publisher in the West ...»