Cracks in the Parchment Curtain and Other Essays in Philippin... by William Henry Scott

Marcos' outward commitment to legal formalities resulted in Scott being put on trial for subversion. As an American citizen Scott could have easily left the Philippines, but he declined, and so faced deportation proceedings. Several of the boys Scott had taught and sponsored over the years he had lived in Sagada belonged to the anti-Marcos opposition, and Scott was alleged to be a communist sympathiser. Soon after Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, Scott was arrested as a subversive and placed in military detention. Known to his friends as 'Scotty', he became a focus for pilgrimage by numerous foreign and Filipino academics, entertaining them in his book-lined study while he puffed away on his trademark cigar. He spent much of the remainder of his life in the Kankana-ey town of Sagada. The Episcopal Church became well established in the Cordillera mountain region of Northern Luzon during the US colonial period, and it was here that Scott settled. After preparatory studies in the United States, he reached Sagada in January 1954.

Although he wanted to teach in Japan until he could return to China, he accepted an available post as teacher of English and history in the Philippines, and was assigned to St Mary’s School in Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines. Immediately upon graduation he was recalled to active duty and served in the navy for eighteen months during the Korean War.In 1953 he was appointed lay missionary in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the general expulsion of foreigners from China in 1949, he followed some of his teachers to Yale University where he enrolled, graduating in 1951 with a BA in Chinese language and literature. He taught and studied in Shanghai, Yangchow and Beijing until 1949. In 1946, Scott joined the Episcopal Church mission in China. In 1942, Scott joined the US Navy, serving throughout World War II until 1946. In 1939, after graduating, he changed his name to William Henry Scott. In 1936, Scott won a three-year scholarship to the Episcopalian-affiliated Cranbrook School in Michigan USA, where he excelled academically and became interested in pursuing a career as an archeologist. His family, of Dutch-Lutheran descent, soon returned to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where Scott spent his boyhood. William Henry Scott was born on 10 July 1921, in Detroit, Michigan, where he was christened Henry King Ahrens.

Cracks in the Parchment Curtain and Other Essays in Philippin... by William Henry Scott