taiwan

4 posts

Visiting My Childhood Home In Taiwan

taiwan_childhood_home-6From the ages of three to eight (1978-1983), I lived in that gray house in Taipei, Taiwan. It wasn’t until 2006 that I would see this house again. Join me for a tour of the house and my memories.

My maternal grandparents raised me in this house. My grandfather was a legislator, a scholar, and all around raconteur. Born to a well-to-do family, he graduated from Peking University, and was elected to China’s National Assembly in the 1940s. He, my grandmother, and their adopted one year old daughter (my mom) fled to Taiwan along with the rest of Chiang Kai-Shek’s government in 1949. Because the government no longer had control of Mainland China (where the electorate resided), National Assembly members got to hold onto their seats until the Communist rebellion was quashed. Because that quashing never happened, my grandfather became a legislator-for-life. Continue reading

Life Lessons from a Chinese Food Market

Bowrington Rd Market in Hong Kong

As some of you know, I spent the past summer in Hong Kong. I was there for an internship helping people apply to the UN for refugee status. This will be nothing at all about that experience, although I could write for days about the refugee status determination process and its many faults, especially in Hong Kong. Instead, as I walked through the many food markets, I was reminded of some life lessons that I would like to share. Continue reading