After Mu Chen graduated from a teaching college, she married Tening Liu’s father, Ching Wu, who later became a powerful, yet kind, general of the Nationalist region’s military forces. They have lived through three wars: the First Civil War of China, the Second World War, and the Second Civil War of China. This means the book will be packed with war action, events of peace, and romance. All of these were caused by a transition from a historical culture burden to the new lifestyle of freedom in the Chinese tradition and the dramatic changes of historical landscape with the colorful background of the immigration process from China to Taiwan to the US. With such complex political, social, and economic changes, the living conditions were filled with constant danger and diversified unpredictability. Those changes caused tragic separations and happy reunions of families. It was often desperate and heart-wrenching conditions that challenged the Chinese generations of those days. It was during those man-made and natural disasters that my mother raised her five boys. Three of them came to the US, with two of them acquiring PhDs, and the third one becoming a law professor. The two oldest boys had successful careers in China; they worked as very high-ranking government officials during the prime time of their lives. They were left behind in China because they got separated from the family. This was caused by the conflicts and war between Nationalist and Communist regions of the country at that time.
The time span of the story will include two generations of the Liu family, nearly one hundred years of my family’s history. It will cover the hard work and the struggles of Tening Liu’s mother, who raised her sons successfully during the wars and while she was in prison. She also planned a big escape to take three of her boys (three, five, and thirteen years old) from China to Taiwan in a very hostile and unpredictable environment. Her grace, wisdom, courage, and strong will had not only made the family stronger, but she had reunited our family. Amid all that turmoil, she also became a high-achieving educator. She was one of the best school superintendents in the city of Taipei which had more than a million students in her time. She was tough, yet loving, and very fair. She was well loved. As her youngest son, Tening Liu still remembers many words and values that she taught him as he was growing up. And many nights she called him out from his bed and talked to him with tears running down her face to make him understand the importance of the values of knowledge, honor, and generosity.
About the Book
After Mu Chen graduated from a teaching college, she married Tening Liu’s father, Ching Wu, who later became a powerful, yet kind, general of the Nationalist region’s military forces. They have lived through three wars: the First Civil War of China, the Second World War, and the Second Civil War of China. This means the book will be packed with war action, events of peace, and romance. All of these were caused by a transition from a historical culture burden to the new lifestyle of freedom in the Chinese tradition and the dramatic changes of historical landscape with the colorful background of the immigration process from China to Taiwan to the US. With such complex political, social, and economic changes, the living conditions were filled with constant danger and diversified unpredictability. Those changes caused tragic separations and happy reunions of families. It was often desperate and heart-wrenching conditions that challenged the Chinese generations of those days. It was during those man-made and natural disasters that my mother raised her five boys. Three of them came to the US, with two of them acquiring PhDs, and the third one becoming a law professor. The two oldest boys had successful careers in China; they worked as very high-ranking government officials during the prime time of their lives. They were left behind in China because they got separated from the family. This was caused by the conflicts and war between Nationalist and Communist regions of the country at that time.
The time span of the story will include two generations of the Liu family, nearly one hundred years of my family’s history. It will cover the hard work and the struggles of Tening Liu’s mother, who raised her sons successfully during the wars and while she was in prison. She also planned a big escape to take three of her boys (three, five, and thirteen years old) from China to Taiwan in a very hostile and unpredictable environment. Her grace, wisdom, courage, and strong will had not only made the family stronger, but she had reunited our family. Amid all that turmoil, she also became a high-achieving educator. She was one of the best school superintendents in the city of Taipei which had more than a million students in her time. She was tough, yet loving, and very fair. She was well loved. As her youngest son, Tening Liu still remembers many words and values that she taught him as he was growing up. And many nights she called him out from his bed and talked to him with tears running down her face to make him understand the importance of the values of knowledge, honor, and generosity.