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“(General Stilwell) had spent many years in China and knew how to speak Chinese in
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several dialects, knew and admired the Chinese people and their fighting qualities”.
Like her father, Alison Stilwell demonstrated her true understanding of Chinese culture
and tradition in her painting, as the New York Times review of her painting exhibition
remarked, “…(Alison Stilwell) has been painting since childhood, started working with
Chinese artists at the age of 15, and her seven years of painting effort have been rewarded
by a remarkable degree of mastery, especially in the ink brush examples of the traditional
428
bamboo and flower pieces.” The message conveyed by this father-daughter team was
that if General Stilwell was the military and political leader who protected Chinese
people and their land, his daughter was their cultural guardian. As the New York Times
stated, “She has not only quite remarkably compassed the technique and outward forms
but has entered into the spirit as well, in this charming decorative works.” 429 Americans,
like the Stilwells, were capable not only of safeguarding the Chinese people and their
country through military intervention, but also of penetrating their spiritual essence in art
in a pleasing manner.
The much sensationalized feud between Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and General
Stilwell, and the political conflict between China and the United States added another
layer to this exhibition. While Stilwell portrayed Chiang Kai-shek as a “stubborn,
427
Ibid. Alison Stilwell mentioned that “The fact that I was born in Peking and spent
well over half of the first two decades of my life in China has given me a strong feeling
of kinship with the people and culture of that country.” (Stilwell 1968, 13) She studied
Chinese painting under Prince Pu Ru. She also noted that her father Joseph Stilwell was
an art lover (Stilwell 1968, 18).
428
“Stilwell Art Show: Work of General’s Daughter on Exhibition Here,” New York
Times, May 11, 1943.
429 Ibid.
