Revisited: the secret deportations of Chinese merchant sailors
Today in Focus
The Guardian
4.5 • 778 Ratings
🗓️ 31 December 2021
⏱️ 31 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Guardian. |
| 0:08.8 | This week, we're revisiting some of our favourite episodes from 2021. |
| 0:13.4 | And today, we return to a piece we ran on Remembrance Day, |
| 0:17.7 | the forgotten story of one of Britain's greatest wartime betrayals. |
| 0:33.2 | If Onfoli had a happy childhood, she grew up in Liverpool in the 1950s, |
| 0:38.7 | but she always had this sense that she was different somehow. |
| 0:42.7 | She had black hair and in summer, she were tan easily. |
| 0:46.0 | Her sister was blonde and always got sunburned. |
| 0:49.6 | If Onfoli was raised by her mum Grace and by her adopted dad Edward, |
| 0:54.9 | who Ivon's simply knew as dad, her parents were both white. |
| 0:59.1 | And Ivon didn't really question whether she was too. |
| 1:02.0 | Not at first. |
| 1:03.9 | It must have been about eight or nine when somebody else came to live in our street. |
| 1:10.3 | And I remember going in to my mum all with my friends. |
| 1:14.2 | And Mrs. John Eusladd, she said, |
| 1:17.9 | Oh, he's like you and I thought, pardon. |
| 1:21.1 | It just didn't register. |
| 1:23.5 | I thought, what are you talking about? |
| 1:25.1 | He was like me and then later she said, |
| 1:26.6 | Well, he's half Chinese and you are. |
| 1:29.2 | And I thought, I'm just lost the plot. |
| 1:32.0 | Little things happened throughout my life. |
... |
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