Wow! What a trip! And what a job it was to write everything down. Even though I journaled almost every day and took over 1000 photos, it was good to rehash and reflect on the trip. In very classic style, I have provided you with way too much information on this blog, but at least you can pick and choose at your leisure.
All the article titles can be found in the left column. Click on any one to go to it directly. If you want to read everything in the order it was written, scroll your way down to the bottom of the page and work your way up. I tried to write the articles so that collectively, they would be enlightening, educational and entertaining.
Here's a synopsis of each Article:
Basic Itinerary: Self explanatory.
The Family History: Attempts to tie a lot of stories about my family in the context of the history of modern China. By far, the longest article on this blog.
Top Eight Mystery Food Items: As seen on real menus and food packaging!
Top Seven Impressions of China: Through the eyes of yours truly.
By The Numbers: Interesting data about our trip and this mysterious country.
Why Here, Why Now?: The necessity of blogging.
Have fun!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Basic Itinerary
The trip went as follows:
We flew into Guangzhou (Southern). Spent four days visiting relatives on my mom's side of the family and visiting the my grandfather's birthplace, the house my great grandfather built, the medical school that my grandfather started, and the cemetery containing the graves of my great, great grandfather. We also did some sightseeing and some shopping.
Next, we flew into Beijing (Northern) and played tourist for three days and visited the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall, attended the Peking Opera, and, of course, did some shopping.
We then flew into Huangshan (One hour flight southwest of Shanghai) and visited the Yellow Mountains. Accessible by foot, you have to take a cable car, then hike for an hour to get to the hotel -- no roads! All food is hand carried through the use of porters, highly muscular Chinese men that carry hundreds of pounds of noodles, soft drinks and meat up on their back. It is an amazingly beautiful place.
Shanghai (East Coast) was our last stop, where we attended a showing of the famous Shanghai Acrobats before spending our remaining time with my dad's side of the family. Two days before we arrived one of my aunts passed away (my dad's oldest sister). We visited her home and paid our respects. Then we had a large family reunion atop one of Shanghai's many skyscrapers.
We flew into Guangzhou (Southern). Spent four days visiting relatives on my mom's side of the family and visiting the my grandfather's birthplace, the house my great grandfather built, the medical school that my grandfather started, and the cemetery containing the graves of my great, great grandfather. We also did some sightseeing and some shopping.
Next, we flew into Beijing (Northern) and played tourist for three days and visited the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Great Wall, attended the Peking Opera, and, of course, did some shopping.
We then flew into Huangshan (One hour flight southwest of Shanghai) and visited the Yellow Mountains. Accessible by foot, you have to take a cable car, then hike for an hour to get to the hotel -- no roads! All food is hand carried through the use of porters, highly muscular Chinese men that carry hundreds of pounds of noodles, soft drinks and meat up on their back. It is an amazingly beautiful place.
Shanghai (East Coast) was our last stop, where we attended a showing of the famous Shanghai Acrobats before spending our remaining time with my dad's side of the family. Two days before we arrived one of my aunts passed away (my dad's oldest sister). We visited her home and paid our respects. Then we had a large family reunion atop one of Shanghai's many skyscrapers.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The Family History
I remember hearing stories as a child. Stories about distant people in a faraway land in a time that had no meaning or relevance to me. The memories were always mysterious. Who were those people? I knew they were some how related to me, that I should some how care, but life was full of important things like football and baseball, Roy Rogers and Batman.
My mom and dad were some of the first Asians to arrive in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1955. Each arrived circuitously from vastly different parts of China. So different, that each one's dialect of Chinese was unintelligible by the other. Yet, it was naturally assumed when they met that of course they would get married. My brother, Walter, was born in 1956, my sister, Lily, in1958 and when I, as the baby of the family came along in 1960, our family was complete, just in time to march into the turbulent decade of race riots, assassinations, hippies and the war in Vietnam. So maybe as a child, when I did hear all those stories about a faraway land, it interested me, but life was so confusing already, that it didn't "stick". I simply was not ready to understand what life had handed down to me and my focus was simply to make sense out of the life surrounding me.
Well, now it all makes sense. I understand the significance of the stories. I know who all the people are. I stood in their homes, ate with their families and I heard the stories from their own lips. I am deeply grateful for what I have been handed.
Prior to the Communist Revolution, China's government was weak as the Imperialistic government (Emperor rule) began fading in power. The industrial revolution had left China behind and the country was ripe for exploitation. In the late 1800's, the British forced China into a series of lopsided trade agreements, including the open importation of Opium from other British Colonies, stiff tariffs and taxes, and claiming the rocky island that became Hong Kong as their sovereign territory. When the weak Chinese government tried to protest, the British attacked their port cities and pummeled the country into submission.
My Mom's Side of The Family
The Gold Rush (1840s) and the Transcontinental Railroad (1860s) drew hundreds of thousands of Chinese to America, mostly from the Guangdong Province, home of what is now called Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton). During this period, two of my maternal great, great grandfathers were born and became some of the first converts by Baptist missionaries in the Guangdong countryside. The gospel transformed both of their lives. Lee Wuen Juen had a son, and Senn Wai Tong, a daughter, and so the two new Christian converts arranged a marriage. The son, Lee Tsai Leong, my great grandfather, desired to be a Pastor in the US, and with his young wife and five children, they set sail to America in 1896. How unusual it was back then for an entire family to immigrate to the US.
The picture shown on the right was used as their passport photo. My grandmother, Edna Rachel Lee, is the little girl on the far left. By the way, in China, the surname is always put first. Lee Tsai Leong would be known as Tsai Leong Lee in America. This added a lot of confusion once immigrants from China arrived in America, depending on which immigration officer processed the paperwork! Some families ended up with entirely new names upon entry into the US. I switch between these two formats throughout this article almost at will, but you should intuitively know which is what.
After several years in Chicago, the Lee family, made their way back to the Bay Area where Reverend Lee Tsai Leong planted the first two autonomous Chinese Baptist Churches in San Francisco and Oakland in 1904 and 1906, respectively. Both churches still exist to this day!
By 1906, the Lee family consisted of nine children! The oldest daughter, Edna Rachel Lee (my grandmother) grew into a lovely young lady and began attracting suitors. An enterprising, young man named Holt Cheng began courting her. Holt, also born in the Guangdong Province, had stowed away as a 14 year old boy on a US bound steamer in 1892. He and his cousin were kicked off the ship in Hilo, Hawaii where he eventually started a grocery business that grew into one of the largest grocery stores in the city. Wanting to study medicine in the a US medical school, ambitious Holt sold his grocery store and moved to California in 1900, where he managed to enroll into the San Francisco College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1904, he became the first Chinese licensed medical doctor in the state of California.
Dr. Holt Cheng and Edna Rachel Lee married in 1910 and returned to Guangzhou. A ferry boat incident occurred in which a Chinese man was beaten to death by a foreigner. The British controlled medical establishment ruled that the man's death was accidental. A local uproar ensued and my grandfather and a handful of colleagues were moved to start the first Western medical school that was run by an all Chinese faculty and staff. It later became the Guang Hua (Beautiful China) Medical School. My grandfather served as the first Dean of the school for over 20 years and never took a paycheck for his work. He and Edna had six children, including my mother, Gilda Cheng (their youngest daughter).
Reverend Lee Tsai Leong returned back to China around 1920 and continued to pastor and teach seminary. His first wife died shortly after returning to Guangzhou and he remarried and had seven more children. He built a grand house for its time in the Guangzhou countryside with a magnificent rooftop terrace that overlooked the farmlands. The house still stands today and is now swallowed up on all sides by high rise apartment and office buildings!
China was struggling to find itself from around 1912 all the way through the official birth of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Sun Yat Sen, considered the Father of China, had limited success unifying the country and calling for the people to revolt against the Imperialists. His successor, Chiang Kai Shek was able to secure portions of the country, but became bitter rivals with the growing Communist party movement, headed by Mao Zedong. Both would struggle for years, even though they fought temporarily against a common enemy during the Japanese invasion that preceded World War II. Mao eventually gained control of most of the country and forced Chiang Kai Shek to flee to an outlying island off the coast of China where he formed the country of Taiwan.
My Dad's Side of the Family
In 1920, my father, Wen Han Li, was born in the outskirts of Shanghai. His father died when he was just five years old, leaving behind his 29 year old mother with four young daughters and my dad, the lone boy. They lived a difficult and destitute life and worked incredibly hard
with one goal in mind: to see my dad through the best schools. Every sister helped take care of my dad so that he could study. They all told stories of how motivated he was and how hard he worked in his studies. They collectively put my dad through one of one of the best colleges in Shanghai (St. Johns University).
The picture above is the one and only photo we have of my dad and sisters as children (circa 1925).
Upon graduation, my dad started a chemical company with three friends making matches. Discovering that he needed even more education, he studied extremely hard to receive a prestigious scholarship that allowed him to attend a university in the US. Though most of his expenses were paid, it still required that the entire family sacrifice to send him to America. In 1947, my dad arrived in the US with one suit and $500 in his pocket and initially began studying Petroleum Engineering, but switched to Chemical Engineering after discovering how expensive it was to drill for oil.
The Birth of the People's Republic of China
In 1949, as soon as my dad graduated from the University of Michigan with his Masters, Mao Zedong, declared the birth of the People's Republic. The entire country was in thrown into turmoil and my dad was cut off from his family. There were 5000 students from China enrolled in US universities at this time. The US government granted them all Permanent Resident status.
Throughout the 1950's, Mao implemented his Great Leap Forward plan, which formed collectives throughout the countryside. Poor quality steel was produced in backyard smelters at all cost, leaving crops to rot in their fields. People starved. It was estimated that 30 million people died of famine and that much of the country was malnourished by the early 1960's. Birthrates plunged.
The Li Family Is Born
Back in America, because my dad could not return home, he completed his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech (my alma mater!). He then accepted his one and only job with the Dupont Corporation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he met a young Cantonese woman who had just graduated from Furman University named Gilda Cheng. Gilda was Holt and Edna's youngest daughter. Holt died in the 1940s and Edna passed away in the 1950s while living in Hong Kong. All of my mom's brothers and sisters made it out of China before the revolution and were already living throughout the US.
My dad was never able to see his mother again. There was an attempt to bring her to America, but the government wouldn't allow her to leave the country after discovering her failing health. He was able to get letters through and every once in a while was able to connect by phone. One sister told of the story that in the last phone conversation between my dad and his mom, that she simply heard the word, "Ma" (mother) on the other end of the phone and cried so hard that she could not speak a word during the entire conversation. His mother died in 1959, one year before I was born. All his sisters married and had lots of children.
The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s
Back in China, the dismal results of the Great Leap Forward greatly weakened Mao's power base. Out of desperation, he called on the common class to revolt and to purify China's culture from all liberal ideology. The Red Guard's mission was to purge the country of the Four Olds: Old Culture, Old Customs, Old Habits and Old Ideas. It threw the country into a virtual civil war. Children were encouraged to turn in their parents. Intellectuals were forced to the country side where they were "reeducated." Many of China's historical and cultural relics were burned to ashes. In 1966, Mao officially ordered the Red Guard to stop all police action.
Many family members on both sides of my family suffered harm during the Cultural Revolution. On my mom's side, Reverend Lee's oldest daughter, Lai Ying, (my great aunt) told how how her children were taken away for seven years and how two of her sons managed to escape to freedom by swimming across the river to Hong Kong. The Red Guard converged on their house and burned all writings of her father (the pastor!), all books and virtually all family artifacts.
Behind my dad's house in Shanghai, there stood a small building that was filled with scrolls containing family records going back many, many generations. Once a year, the family would unfurl the documents in the sun to allow them to air out. During the Cultural Revolution, everything was completely destroyed. Many of my relatives were sent to the work farms for re-education, and it did not help that my father had left Shanghai, was highly educated, and now living in the US.
The Guang Hua Medical school that Holt Cheng started was combined with two other medical schools in Guangzhou and renamed the Sun Yat Sen University of Medical Sciences. The statue that was erected in Holt's honor was torn down and destroyed. His picture, which hung in the main Administration building, was torn down. An anonymous person managed to salvage the picture and smuggle it to the US where it was given to Holt's youngest son, Dr. Homer Cheng (my uncle).
It took many years for the actions of the Cultural Revolution to die down. Some believe it did not officially end until the mid 1970's. Richard Nixon's visit in 1972 marked the beginning of the new era in China's openness. My dad, now a US citizen, was one of the first Chinese to return to his homeland in 1974. He had a joyous reunion with his four sisters. Mao died in 1976 and his main successor, Deng Xiaoping, is largely credited for beginning China's capitalist reforms and opening up the country even more. My dad brought the entire family back in 1978, when I was just 17 years old. He retired early and spent the rest of his life going back and forth to China as a textile consultant. In 1987 he received one of the country's highest honors, Foreign Expert, where we was received by the Premiere himself.
Modern Day
In 2002, the Dental College of the Sun Yat Sen University of Medical Sciences was renamed back to the Guang Hua school of Stomotology, in honor of my grandfather, Dr. Holt Cheng. A bronze bust was sculpted and placed in the school's library along with a wonderful display that chronicled the original school's history. One of the highlights of the trip was gathering my entire family around this bust for pictures and touring the state-of-the-art medical facilities, impressive by any standard.
Another highlight of the trip was when the 12 of us sat in the house my great grandfather built in the 1920's with my great aunt (see slide show). We encouraged all our daughters to ask questions about growing up with Rev. Lee Tsai Leong. We then went to the cemetery and saw the headstones of one my great, great grandfathers (Lee Wuen Juen) who was one of the first believers in our family. Since the Christian cemetery was located outside the city, and by God's grace, it escaped the destruction of the Red Guard.
When we got to Shanghai, we heard many of the stories about my dad for the first time. We shot video, took pictures and made notes of what was said. One of the reasons I am taking the time to write this blog is so that it will be recorded and disseminated. I had a very hard time maintaining my composure when I saw my two remaining aunts for the first time in 30 years. They reminded me so much of my dad. They kept telling us (my brother, sister and I) how much we reminded them of my dad. I went to the restroom and cried.
Little Rock, Arkansas
It's difficult to express how I feel as I comprehend the richness of my heritage, the sacrifices that many of my relatives made for their loved ones and how I am the direct beneficiary of it all. I cannot imagine how disappointing it must of have been for my dad's side of the family when he was not able to return home. It is even more difficult knowing the depth of family that I have there, yet possessing only a shallow knowledge about any of them. How different life would be if I had been born in China. I must ultimately leave it into the hands of our wonderfully sovereign God, who knew every event that was going to happen to my family before time began.
So that's it! If you've made it this far, you know a lot about my family. My Uncle Homer just completed a massive book about his father, Dr. Holt Cheng. It is being printed in China as we speak. Others in our family are working very hard at documenting and preserving this history. My hope is the one day these stories will become as much a part of my daughter's lives as they have become to mine. I know the stories. I sat in their homes and heard about the people in the stories. It is no longer a mystery to me. It is what has been handed down to me.
My mom and dad were some of the first Asians to arrive in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1955. Each arrived circuitously from vastly different parts of China. So different, that each one's dialect of Chinese was unintelligible by the other. Yet, it was naturally assumed when they met that of course they would get married. My brother, Walter, was born in 1956, my sister, Lily, in1958 and when I, as the baby of the family came along in 1960, our family was complete, just in time to march into the turbulent decade of race riots, assassinations, hippies and the war in Vietnam. So maybe as a child, when I did hear all those stories about a faraway land, it interested me, but life was so confusing already, that it didn't "stick". I simply was not ready to understand what life had handed down to me and my focus was simply to make sense out of the life surrounding me.
Well, now it all makes sense. I understand the significance of the stories. I know who all the people are. I stood in their homes, ate with their families and I heard the stories from their own lips. I am deeply grateful for what I have been handed.
Prior to the Communist Revolution, China's government was weak as the Imperialistic government (Emperor rule) began fading in power. The industrial revolution had left China behind and the country was ripe for exploitation. In the late 1800's, the British forced China into a series of lopsided trade agreements, including the open importation of Opium from other British Colonies, stiff tariffs and taxes, and claiming the rocky island that became Hong Kong as their sovereign territory. When the weak Chinese government tried to protest, the British attacked their port cities and pummeled the country into submission.
My Mom's Side of The Family
The Gold Rush (1840s) and the Transcontinental Railroad (1860s) drew hundreds of thousands of Chinese to America, mostly from the Guangdong Province, home of what is now called Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton). During this period, two of my maternal great, great grandfathers were born and became some of the first converts by Baptist missionaries in the Guangdong countryside. The gospel transformed both of their lives. Lee Wuen Juen had a son, and Senn Wai Tong, a daughter, and so the two new Christian converts arranged a marriage. The son, Lee Tsai Leong, my great grandfather, desired to be a Pastor in the US, and with his young wife and five children, they set sail to America in 1896. How unusual it was back then for an entire family to immigrate to the US.
The picture shown on the right was used as their passport photo. My grandmother, Edna Rachel Lee, is the little girl on the far left. By the way, in China, the surname is always put first. Lee Tsai Leong would be known as Tsai Leong Lee in America. This added a lot of confusion once immigrants from China arrived in America, depending on which immigration officer processed the paperwork! Some families ended up with entirely new names upon entry into the US. I switch between these two formats throughout this article almost at will, but you should intuitively know which is what.
After several years in Chicago, the Lee family, made their way back to the Bay Area where Reverend Lee Tsai Leong planted the first two autonomous Chinese Baptist Churches in San Francisco and Oakland in 1904 and 1906, respectively. Both churches still exist to this day!
By 1906, the Lee family consisted of nine children! The oldest daughter, Edna Rachel Lee (my grandmother) grew into a lovely young lady and began attracting suitors. An enterprising, young man named Holt Cheng began courting her. Holt, also born in the Guangdong Province, had stowed away as a 14 year old boy on a US bound steamer in 1892. He and his cousin were kicked off the ship in Hilo, Hawaii where he eventually started a grocery business that grew into one of the largest grocery stores in the city. Wanting to study medicine in the a US medical school, ambitious Holt sold his grocery store and moved to California in 1900, where he managed to enroll into the San Francisco College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1904, he became the first Chinese licensed medical doctor in the state of California.
Dr. Holt Cheng and Edna Rachel Lee married in 1910 and returned to Guangzhou. A ferry boat incident occurred in which a Chinese man was beaten to death by a foreigner. The British controlled medical establishment ruled that the man's death was accidental. A local uproar ensued and my grandfather and a handful of colleagues were moved to start the first Western medical school that was run by an all Chinese faculty and staff. It later became the Guang Hua (Beautiful China) Medical School. My grandfather served as the first Dean of the school for over 20 years and never took a paycheck for his work. He and Edna had six children, including my mother, Gilda Cheng (their youngest daughter).
Reverend Lee Tsai Leong returned back to China around 1920 and continued to pastor and teach seminary. His first wife died shortly after returning to Guangzhou and he remarried and had seven more children. He built a grand house for its time in the Guangzhou countryside with a magnificent rooftop terrace that overlooked the farmlands. The house still stands today and is now swallowed up on all sides by high rise apartment and office buildings!
China was struggling to find itself from around 1912 all the way through the official birth of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Sun Yat Sen, considered the Father of China, had limited success unifying the country and calling for the people to revolt against the Imperialists. His successor, Chiang Kai Shek was able to secure portions of the country, but became bitter rivals with the growing Communist party movement, headed by Mao Zedong. Both would struggle for years, even though they fought temporarily against a common enemy during the Japanese invasion that preceded World War II. Mao eventually gained control of most of the country and forced Chiang Kai Shek to flee to an outlying island off the coast of China where he formed the country of Taiwan.
My Dad's Side of the Family
In 1920, my father, Wen Han Li, was born in the outskirts of Shanghai. His father died when he was just five years old, leaving behind his 29 year old mother with four young daughters and my dad, the lone boy. They lived a difficult and destitute life and worked incredibly hard
with one goal in mind: to see my dad through the best schools. Every sister helped take care of my dad so that he could study. They all told stories of how motivated he was and how hard he worked in his studies. They collectively put my dad through one of one of the best colleges in Shanghai (St. Johns University).The picture above is the one and only photo we have of my dad and sisters as children (circa 1925).
Upon graduation, my dad started a chemical company with three friends making matches. Discovering that he needed even more education, he studied extremely hard to receive a prestigious scholarship that allowed him to attend a university in the US. Though most of his expenses were paid, it still required that the entire family sacrifice to send him to America. In 1947, my dad arrived in the US with one suit and $500 in his pocket and initially began studying Petroleum Engineering, but switched to Chemical Engineering after discovering how expensive it was to drill for oil.
The Birth of the People's Republic of China
In 1949, as soon as my dad graduated from the University of Michigan with his Masters, Mao Zedong, declared the birth of the People's Republic. The entire country was in thrown into turmoil and my dad was cut off from his family. There were 5000 students from China enrolled in US universities at this time. The US government granted them all Permanent Resident status.
Throughout the 1950's, Mao implemented his Great Leap Forward plan, which formed collectives throughout the countryside. Poor quality steel was produced in backyard smelters at all cost, leaving crops to rot in their fields. People starved. It was estimated that 30 million people died of famine and that much of the country was malnourished by the early 1960's. Birthrates plunged.
The Li Family Is Born
Back in America, because my dad could not return home, he completed his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech (my alma mater!). He then accepted his one and only job with the Dupont Corporation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he met a young Cantonese woman who had just graduated from Furman University named Gilda Cheng. Gilda was Holt and Edna's youngest daughter. Holt died in the 1940s and Edna passed away in the 1950s while living in Hong Kong. All of my mom's brothers and sisters made it out of China before the revolution and were already living throughout the US.
My dad was never able to see his mother again. There was an attempt to bring her to America, but the government wouldn't allow her to leave the country after discovering her failing health. He was able to get letters through and every once in a while was able to connect by phone. One sister told of the story that in the last phone conversation between my dad and his mom, that she simply heard the word, "Ma" (mother) on the other end of the phone and cried so hard that she could not speak a word during the entire conversation. His mother died in 1959, one year before I was born. All his sisters married and had lots of children.
The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s
Back in China, the dismal results of the Great Leap Forward greatly weakened Mao's power base. Out of desperation, he called on the common class to revolt and to purify China's culture from all liberal ideology. The Red Guard's mission was to purge the country of the Four Olds: Old Culture, Old Customs, Old Habits and Old Ideas. It threw the country into a virtual civil war. Children were encouraged to turn in their parents. Intellectuals were forced to the country side where they were "reeducated." Many of China's historical and cultural relics were burned to ashes. In 1966, Mao officially ordered the Red Guard to stop all police action.
Many family members on both sides of my family suffered harm during the Cultural Revolution. On my mom's side, Reverend Lee's oldest daughter, Lai Ying, (my great aunt) told how how her children were taken away for seven years and how two of her sons managed to escape to freedom by swimming across the river to Hong Kong. The Red Guard converged on their house and burned all writings of her father (the pastor!), all books and virtually all family artifacts.
Behind my dad's house in Shanghai, there stood a small building that was filled with scrolls containing family records going back many, many generations. Once a year, the family would unfurl the documents in the sun to allow them to air out. During the Cultural Revolution, everything was completely destroyed. Many of my relatives were sent to the work farms for re-education, and it did not help that my father had left Shanghai, was highly educated, and now living in the US.
The Guang Hua Medical school that Holt Cheng started was combined with two other medical schools in Guangzhou and renamed the Sun Yat Sen University of Medical Sciences. The statue that was erected in Holt's honor was torn down and destroyed. His picture, which hung in the main Administration building, was torn down. An anonymous person managed to salvage the picture and smuggle it to the US where it was given to Holt's youngest son, Dr. Homer Cheng (my uncle).
It took many years for the actions of the Cultural Revolution to die down. Some believe it did not officially end until the mid 1970's. Richard Nixon's visit in 1972 marked the beginning of the new era in China's openness. My dad, now a US citizen, was one of the first Chinese to return to his homeland in 1974. He had a joyous reunion with his four sisters. Mao died in 1976 and his main successor, Deng Xiaoping, is largely credited for beginning China's capitalist reforms and opening up the country even more. My dad brought the entire family back in 1978, when I was just 17 years old. He retired early and spent the rest of his life going back and forth to China as a textile consultant. In 1987 he received one of the country's highest honors, Foreign Expert, where we was received by the Premiere himself.
Modern Day
In 2002, the Dental College of the Sun Yat Sen University of Medical Sciences was renamed back to the Guang Hua school of Stomotology, in honor of my grandfather, Dr. Holt Cheng. A bronze bust was sculpted and placed in the school's library along with a wonderful display that chronicled the original school's history. One of the highlights of the trip was gathering my entire family around this bust for pictures and touring the state-of-the-art medical facilities, impressive by any standard.
Another highlight of the trip was when the 12 of us sat in the house my great grandfather built in the 1920's with my great aunt (see slide show). We encouraged all our daughters to ask questions about growing up with Rev. Lee Tsai Leong. We then went to the cemetery and saw the headstones of one my great, great grandfathers (Lee Wuen Juen) who was one of the first believers in our family. Since the Christian cemetery was located outside the city, and by God's grace, it escaped the destruction of the Red Guard.
When we got to Shanghai, we heard many of the stories about my dad for the first time. We shot video, took pictures and made notes of what was said. One of the reasons I am taking the time to write this blog is so that it will be recorded and disseminated. I had a very hard time maintaining my composure when I saw my two remaining aunts for the first time in 30 years. They reminded me so much of my dad. They kept telling us (my brother, sister and I) how much we reminded them of my dad. I went to the restroom and cried.
Little Rock, Arkansas
It's difficult to express how I feel as I comprehend the richness of my heritage, the sacrifices that many of my relatives made for their loved ones and how I am the direct beneficiary of it all. I cannot imagine how disappointing it must of have been for my dad's side of the family when he was not able to return home. It is even more difficult knowing the depth of family that I have there, yet possessing only a shallow knowledge about any of them. How different life would be if I had been born in China. I must ultimately leave it into the hands of our wonderfully sovereign God, who knew every event that was going to happen to my family before time began.
So that's it! If you've made it this far, you know a lot about my family. My Uncle Homer just completed a massive book about his father, Dr. Holt Cheng. It is being printed in China as we speak. Others in our family are working very hard at documenting and preserving this history. My hope is the one day these stories will become as much a part of my daughter's lives as they have become to mine. I know the stories. I sat in their homes and heard about the people in the stories. It is no longer a mystery to me. It is what has been handed down to me.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Top Eight Mystery Food Items
Real food items found in print, but not necessarily eaten!
8. "Piquancy Flavor" Potato Chips (We think this meant pepper flavor)
7. Lrritable Scalloped Kidney (Your kidney would be Lrritable, too, if it was scalloped)
6. Explodes Fried Beef Bean (Watch out for that first bite!)
5. The Licken Cooks Egg (It's why the licken crossed the road)
4. Fries The Chicken Intentnal Organs (Most parts are intentnally edible, aren't they?)
3. Explodes The Dried Bean (If you survive the first bite, watch out for the second!)
2. Jixified Powder (CAUTION: Do not under any circumstances, mix with item #3!)
1. The Daily Family Activity (Use your own imagination to figure out this one)
8. "Piquancy Flavor" Potato Chips (We think this meant pepper flavor)
7. Lrritable Scalloped Kidney (Your kidney would be Lrritable, too, if it was scalloped)
6. Explodes Fried Beef Bean (Watch out for that first bite!)
5. The Licken Cooks Egg (It's why the licken crossed the road)
4. Fries The Chicken Intentnal Organs (Most parts are intentnally edible, aren't they?)
3. Explodes The Dried Bean (If you survive the first bite, watch out for the second!)
2. Jixified Powder (CAUTION: Do not under any circumstances, mix with item #3!)
1. The Daily Family Activity (Use your own imagination to figure out this one)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Top Seven Impressions of China
7. China is a land of contradictions. How is it possible for communism to coexist with capitalism? Just look on the streets where you'll find BMWs sharing the road with rickshaws, high rises towering over slums and massive modernization juxtaposed with primitive simplicity. Both rampant materialism and extreme poverty are covered by an invisible lid of limited speech. You can pursue virtually any vice known to man, but you are not free to pursue God without restriction.
6. The size of the population is overwhelming. There is a limitless supply of people willing to work for low wages. Day or night, no matter where we were, there were people. Those that have repetitive, tedious factory jobs know that 1. they make orders of magnitude more money than working out in the rice fields and 2. that if they quit, that there will be a thousand people standing in line to take their place.
5. There are forgotten generations. Those who were between 18 and 26 during the Cultural Revolution of the 60's now live a hard life. Their college years were spent rejecting all forms of higher education with many sent to the countryside to work with their hands and to be "re-educated". They are now struggling to find jobs that can support their families and are sacrificing in unbelievable ways to send their only child to the best schools and universities.
4. The Chinese are a superstitious lot. Everywhere we went, there were signs that the Chinese were somewhat spiritual in nature. Tons of money thrown at various spots in temples, tombs, and fountains marked their desperation. Thousands of padlocks were secured on chains on a mountain (see slideshow) to bring good fortune. The cell phone numbers deemed "unlucky" sold for almost 20% less than the phone numbers that could bring about prosperity.
3. China is undergoing a tidal wave of change. The culture is changing at breakneck speed. Smog is present 24/7 in and around Beijing. Skyscrapers under construction span the horizon in every direction. Almost all Western brands are now featured in China's stores from M&Ms, Starbucks, shampoo, clothing, McDonalds and even Harley Davidson. Internet connections are found even in the most remote locations.
2. We live in a global economy. The Chinese umbrellas that we bought at a local Trustmart (China's version of Walmart) for $2.50 US each were found at the Dollar Tree next to Mosaic for $1.00. Some electronics made in China and shipped to America are cheaper to purchase here than there. A recent report on the Discover Channel showed cotton being picked in North Carolina, shipped to China, weaved into extravagant fabric, shipped back to the US, upholstered on high end furniture and then exported back to China for sale in the Ethan Allen stores that are now operating there.
1. My family understands me better. Most fast food restaurants (McDonalds, KFC, etc.) sell corn! I absolutely love corn! The streets are highly crowded, with pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles (economy and luxury), trucks and buses all somehow managing to avoid hitting each other. Nobody runs or makes sudden movements. Everybody anticipates everybody else. It is like an orchestra of movement with nobody conducting. There are surprisingly few accidents of any kind and little, if any, road rage! There are so many homes that look like my desk (cluttered!). The people are gentle and peaceful.
6. The size of the population is overwhelming. There is a limitless supply of people willing to work for low wages. Day or night, no matter where we were, there were people. Those that have repetitive, tedious factory jobs know that 1. they make orders of magnitude more money than working out in the rice fields and 2. that if they quit, that there will be a thousand people standing in line to take their place.
5. There are forgotten generations. Those who were between 18 and 26 during the Cultural Revolution of the 60's now live a hard life. Their college years were spent rejecting all forms of higher education with many sent to the countryside to work with their hands and to be "re-educated". They are now struggling to find jobs that can support their families and are sacrificing in unbelievable ways to send their only child to the best schools and universities.
4. The Chinese are a superstitious lot. Everywhere we went, there were signs that the Chinese were somewhat spiritual in nature. Tons of money thrown at various spots in temples, tombs, and fountains marked their desperation. Thousands of padlocks were secured on chains on a mountain (see slideshow) to bring good fortune. The cell phone numbers deemed "unlucky" sold for almost 20% less than the phone numbers that could bring about prosperity.
3. China is undergoing a tidal wave of change. The culture is changing at breakneck speed. Smog is present 24/7 in and around Beijing. Skyscrapers under construction span the horizon in every direction. Almost all Western brands are now featured in China's stores from M&Ms, Starbucks, shampoo, clothing, McDonalds and even Harley Davidson. Internet connections are found even in the most remote locations.
2. We live in a global economy. The Chinese umbrellas that we bought at a local Trustmart (China's version of Walmart) for $2.50 US each were found at the Dollar Tree next to Mosaic for $1.00. Some electronics made in China and shipped to America are cheaper to purchase here than there. A recent report on the Discover Channel showed cotton being picked in North Carolina, shipped to China, weaved into extravagant fabric, shipped back to the US, upholstered on high end furniture and then exported back to China for sale in the Ethan Allen stores that are now operating there.
1. My family understands me better. Most fast food restaurants (McDonalds, KFC, etc.) sell corn! I absolutely love corn! The streets are highly crowded, with pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles (economy and luxury), trucks and buses all somehow managing to avoid hitting each other. Nobody runs or makes sudden movements. Everybody anticipates everybody else. It is like an orchestra of movement with nobody conducting. There are surprisingly few accidents of any kind and little, if any, road rage! There are so many homes that look like my desk (cluttered!). The people are gentle and peaceful.
By The Numbers
1.3 Billion: China's population.
1.2 Billion: The number of Chinese that stared at us where ever we went.
500+: The number of vendors that offered us fake Rolex watches, American DVDs and everything else you can imagine.
80+: Number of family members on both my mom's and dad's side visited.
78: The number of peanut butter crackers on which my daughter Meredith survived during the trip.
70: The going price in Yuan for a Chinese made, knock-off designer handbag (about $10 US).
16: Number of days of our trip from start to finish (June 23 - July 7).
14: The number of dishes served to us with the head still on it (fish, chicken & duck).
13: Number of hours ahead that China is to Little Rock time.
12: Number of family members that went (my mom, my brother, my sister, her husband and three daughters, and my family).
11: The number of family members who were dying to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen in Shanghai (my mom did not accompany us that night).
10: Number of legs of flights: three to get there, three within China and four to get home!
6.8: Number of Chinese Yuan per US Dollar.
4: Number of cities visited (Guangzhou, Beijing, Huangshan and Shanghai).
0: Number of pieces of luggage that got lost at some point along the trip (a miracle!).
1.2 Billion: The number of Chinese that stared at us where ever we went.
500+: The number of vendors that offered us fake Rolex watches, American DVDs and everything else you can imagine.
80+: Number of family members on both my mom's and dad's side visited.
78: The number of peanut butter crackers on which my daughter Meredith survived during the trip.
70: The going price in Yuan for a Chinese made, knock-off designer handbag (about $10 US).
16: Number of days of our trip from start to finish (June 23 - July 7).
14: The number of dishes served to us with the head still on it (fish, chicken & duck).
13: Number of hours ahead that China is to Little Rock time.
12: Number of family members that went (my mom, my brother, my sister, her husband and three daughters, and my family).
11: The number of family members who were dying to eat at the California Pizza Kitchen in Shanghai (my mom did not accompany us that night).
10: Number of legs of flights: three to get there, three within China and four to get home!
6.8: Number of Chinese Yuan per US Dollar.
4: Number of cities visited (Guangzhou, Beijing, Huangshan and Shanghai).
0: Number of pieces of luggage that got lost at some point along the trip (a miracle!).
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Why Here? Why Now?
Okay, I've come to the conclusion that resistance is futile! I have ignored every "friend request" on Facebook, am very poor at returning text messages and have refused to setup an IM account. For the longest time, I have not had any interest in blogging, though I love to write, journal, reflect my thoughts on paper. On average, when I look at my cell phone, regardless of the time, there are four to six voicemails waiting. Emails come in so quickly that if I don't respond immediately, it gets pushed down the page until I completely forget about it. So, I ask myself, why become even more accessible? It is a question I have wrestled with for years, and today I am dipping my big toe into the water of this self-exposed, self-imposed public arena.
Why? One Sunday morning, I announced to the 400 or so adults in the congregation that my family and I were leaving the next day for a 16 day trip to the People's Republic of China. My mother invited all her children and grandchildren to accompany her to visit family on both sides and to expose our children to the rich heritage that makes up one-half of their DNA. Both my sister and I married Caucasians and we both have three daughters. Since returning, we've been deluged with questions about the trip. I thought about mass emailing out a lengthy reflection on the trip, but that seemed way too inefficient. (Nobody would finish reading it before it got pushed down the page and out of sight.) We've already setup a bunch of dinners, coffees, get togethers with some, but more are sure to come.
So, out of necessity and efficiency (you feel the engineer in me, don't you?). I created my first blog account so that I could reflect thoughts on the trip and anyone could choose to read or not to read. I am a pastor, after all, and if I'm going to publicly announce things that pique the interest of hundreds, I should be willing to supply some kind of medium for which that piqued interest can be satisfied.
There are probably a few other thoughts that will find there way onto these pages not necessarily related to our trip to China, but definitively related to being a pastor. The thoughts are already stacking up in my head. I am a little concerned about where this blog experience is going to take me. I kind of like it, already. Anyway, here goes!
Why? One Sunday morning, I announced to the 400 or so adults in the congregation that my family and I were leaving the next day for a 16 day trip to the People's Republic of China. My mother invited all her children and grandchildren to accompany her to visit family on both sides and to expose our children to the rich heritage that makes up one-half of their DNA. Both my sister and I married Caucasians and we both have three daughters. Since returning, we've been deluged with questions about the trip. I thought about mass emailing out a lengthy reflection on the trip, but that seemed way too inefficient. (Nobody would finish reading it before it got pushed down the page and out of sight.) We've already setup a bunch of dinners, coffees, get togethers with some, but more are sure to come.
So, out of necessity and efficiency (you feel the engineer in me, don't you?). I created my first blog account so that I could reflect thoughts on the trip and anyone could choose to read or not to read. I am a pastor, after all, and if I'm going to publicly announce things that pique the interest of hundreds, I should be willing to supply some kind of medium for which that piqued interest can be satisfied.
There are probably a few other thoughts that will find there way onto these pages not necessarily related to our trip to China, but definitively related to being a pastor. The thoughts are already stacking up in my head. I am a little concerned about where this blog experience is going to take me. I kind of like it, already. Anyway, here goes!
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