1945 - The village of Ts'ui-heng, and the surrounding farm land was quiet; the sound of exploding bombs had not been heard for long enough to cause the children and old ladies who lived there to harbor the hope that it was over - the violence was over; their lives could once again play out in the old, peaceful ways; their men, those still alive, would return; happiness was near.

Chang Fong-ying, now slightly taller than her tiny, toothless Nai Nai, who she remembers as kind, stood in a box-like, low ceilinged room, dim but for the light coming in through two small windows; she looked up at something she had never seen before: a giant. She saw a pale-skinned lady with a large nose and red wavy hair, the first non-Asian person she had ever seen. The lady stumbled through a series of phrases in the Hakka dialect intended to explain who she was and why she was here. Fong-ying did not understand the words, nor the explanations provided by her Nai Nai. "This lady is here to tell you that in two days, on October 22, 1945, you will be eight years-old; she knows this because she is your Mother. She has come to take you with her to Macao where you will begin a new life." 

Posted by maxblue3 at 10:37 AM EDT

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Mood:  celebratory

Celebrating the October 22, 1937 birth of Chang Fong-ying, christened Lydia Victoria Garcia by her Ecuadorian mother, Colombia Garcia, and ignored by her male-heir-seeking father, Chang Curio. Fong-ying, now answering to Nai Nai (Cantonese for grandmother) from the comfort of the South Jersey home she shares with the spacey Joe, unfolds her story in bits and pieces as the years go by, and Joe as best he can, trying not to embellish excessively, writes it down. Fong-ying remembers: feeding her toothless Nai Nai small bits of apple; collecting bull's urine to be used for fertilizer in the rice fields; carrying lunch to the rice field workers in buckets suspended from the ends of a pole spread across her neck and shoulders; crossing a river by hanging onto a cow's tail; eating sweet potatoes roasted by burying beneath an open fire; a half-sister, 10 years older than her. She has no recollection of either a mother or a father growing up.

About the same time that Nai Nai was born in South China, the Japanese army was rampaging through the north China area, in and around Peking and Shanghai, and 200 miles up the Yangtze at the capital Nanking. On December 13, 1937, the so-called "Rape of Nanking" occurred - 50,000 Japanese soldiers slaughtered some 45,000 unarmed Chinese civilians. Chiang Kai-shek was pursuing a policy of non-engagement with the Japanese, convinced that it was only a matter of time until the Japanese invaders would exhaust their supply lines and ultimately be assimilated into the Chinese culture. At the same time, the muscle of the Chinese coolie was on full display as they moved entire factories by barge and donkey cart thousands of miles west where the factories were reassembled. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang were pronounced "Man and Wife of the year 1937" by Time magazine.

In the summer of 1938, Japanese troops occupied Canton in South China, thus securing all the ports along the East coast of China. Nai Nai Liddy remembers seeing Japanese soldiers asking for coal and eggs. It is more than likely that her father was killed by the Japanese.     

Posted by maxblue3 at 8:14 AM EDT

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Mood:  blue

1934-35 - The World is in a mess, as usual; economic and spiritual Depression in the U.S.; Hitler raises his maniacal head in Germany; Franco sparks a Civil War in Spain; and in China, The Long March. Chiang Kai-shek is beside himself; no matter what he does he cannot get rid of these pesky Communists; how many will he have to kill? He thought they were finished when his troops bottled up the Red snakes in Kiangsi province, but now he learns that they have broken out and are moving west in an organized march, battling his troops all along the way. In the end, after 370 days and 3,700 miles, Mao Tse-tung arrives and settles in the mountainous and remote northwest province of Yunnan  with 7,000 survivors out of 100,000. These tough and stout-hearted few were still getting help from their Soviet comrades as they girded for a new beginning.

Timeout for more speculation about Nai Nai's father, Curio Chang (warning: we are about to sail onto Lake Possible, where evidence to support speculation is spotty and mostly based on hazy recollections).

Recall Ts'ui-heng, the farming community in the Pearl River delta near Macao. Ten years earlier, after our man Chang finished his service to Chiang Kai-shek in dispatching the Canton Merchants Association, he returns to the ancestral village, and with the money he earned as an officer in the Kuomintang, takes a wife and becomes a gentleman farmer intent on raising a family in the Chinese tradition (see The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck). Problems ensue; Curio Chang cannot father a male heir, it must be the fault of his wife; he will acquire a concubine. He learns of a program, organized by Macao businessmen to bring fertile and fecund South American beauties to Macao for the purpose of providing Chinese gentlemen with what they need to perpetuate the male line of inheritance.

Curio Chang acquires Colombia Garcia, a red-headed beauty from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and takes her to Ts'ui-heng.

Stay tuned, the Long March from South China to South Jersey and Pennsylvania is about to begin.    

Posted by maxblue3 at 10:34 AM EDT

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Mood:  caffeinated

1931- Japanese Militarists, who had taken Korea in 1895, began their move into China with an invasion of Manchuria in the North. Chiang Kai-shek declined to engage the invaders urging his people to "maintain a quiet dignity." Chinese patriots had other ideas; rioters in Shanghai attacked Japanese businesses and demanded that war be declared; Chiang refused. It seems that during the 1927 Shanghai massacres he had struck a deal with Japan to support his takeover. In present day America everyone is familiar with the so-called Chinatowns in many large cities; in 1931 Shanghai there was what might be called a Japantown which now suffered the burden of the Manchurian invasion; not only were Japanese businesses boycotted, but Chinese rioters were violently engaged by the embattled Japanese resulting in death, destruction, and ultimately arrival of the Japanese Imperial Fleet bringing brigades of Japanese Marines. The Chinese 19th Army was in Shanghai at the time, helping "Major General" Big-eared Tu in this and that odd job, mostly related to drug-running, and to everyone's surprise they put up a spirited fight against the invading Japanese. A cease fire was arranged in March, 1932. The fighting had brought trade to a dead stop and resulted in 600,000 refugees and destruction of 900 factories and businesses.

China under Chiang was faced with a serious dilemma - which would it be? Fight the invading Japanese? Or fight the internal threat of Chinese Communists? T.V. Soong wanted to fight the Japanese. Chiang Kai-shek thought different.  

Posted by maxblue3 at 7:40 AM EDT

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Mood:  blue

2013 - MRIs all around - Nai Nai and Max - lower lumbars - the good news- the spine doctors have spotted the problem with Nai Nai"s back and see a way to fix it - what took them so long? Chase Utley - MRI on right side showed a slight strain in the oblique muscle - Disabled List.

1927 - The Communists were still part of the Kuomintang, and they thought Chiang Kai-shek was with them. It was a mark of Chiang's cleverness that they thought so; they couldn't have been more wrong. On February 19, 1927 Chiang publicly announced his intention of eliminating Communists from the KMT; over the next several months, with the help of Big-eared Tu and his Green Gang, Chiang directed the slaughter of thousands of Chinese peasants, students, intellectuals, even businessmen who resisted his rise to become Dictator of all things Chinese. History has called it "The Shanghai Massacre." Soong Ai-ling, in cahoots with her long-time pal, Big-eared Tu, and her husband, H.H. Kung, was in it up to her ears, small though they were. Three weeks after the massacre, Chiang Kai-shek proposed marriage to Soong May-ling. She accepted over the objections of her mother, Mammy Soong; in the end, Chiang overcame the objections by agreeing to become a Christian. The arrangement tells all one needs to know about the exotic and beautiful May-ling, and explains the description of Charlie Soong's daughters - one loved money (Ai-ling), one loved power (May-ling), and one loved China (Ching-ling).

President/Dictator Chiang Kai-shek was riding high, but not higher than Big-eared Tu, to whom he never stopped paying protection money. Soong Ching-ling, Madame Sun Yat-sen, in the face of threats to her life, refused to abandon the principles of the now legendary Dr. Sun, and escaped to Moscow. Also escaping the KMT terror were the dedicated Communists, Chou En-lai, and Mao Tse-tung.

Posted by maxblue3 at 8:58 AM EDT

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Mood:  down

1925 - On March 12 59 year-old Sun Yat-sen, whose dream of leading China to a glorious future was only beginning, died of liver cancer. Sun had accomplished much with the establishment of the Nationalist Kuomintang government behind the enthusiastic support of millions. In a farewell letter to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union he closed with a plea: "In bidding farewell to you, dear comrades, I wish to express the fervent hope that the day may soon dawn when the USSR will greet as a friend and ally, a strong and independent China, and the two allies may together advance to victory in the great struggle for the liberation of the oppressed peoples of the world".

Who would lead? Who would lead the Kuomintang after the death of Sun Yat-sen? With the presence of the crafty Russian advisers, it seemed the left would prevail. The leading leftist candidate, a man named Liao Chung-k'ai, believed that capitalism should be restrained and the peasant farmers should be allowed to own their land and have access to manufactured goods through consumer cooperatives; he was the one who had convinced Sun Yat-sen to seek aid from Russia. You can imagine how those views went over with the Green Gang whose thugs made quick work of eliminating the hapless Liao.

1926 - On July 7, Chiang Kai-shek was elected president of the Nationalist government. There was no looking back.

Posted by maxblue3 at 8:31 AM EDT

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Mood:  blue

October, 1923 - Charlie Song's eldest son, Tse-ven, T.V. Soong, the 1915 Harvard graduate and later Columbia Ph.D., was called to Canton by Sun Yat-sen at the suggestion of his sister, Soong Ching-ling, Yat-sen's wife; his mission: to solve KMT financial worries. After returning to China, T.V. had established a reputation as a financial genius by straightening out the books and financial operations of a Shanghai industrial complex of coal mines, iron mines, and steel mills. T.V. used a Russian loan of $10 million to set up the Central Bank of China with himself as manager and quickly built the bank's reputation for reliability to the point where money printed by the bank was accepted all over China.

1924 - The fiercely Capitalist Old Guard Canton Merchants Association, and their British Government supporters, were uneasy at the leftward tilt of Sun Yat-sen and the KMT government; they were more than uneasy, they were terrified of the Communists; they formed a well-paid militia of 50,000 men with the slogan, "Save Canton from the Bolsheviks". Sun Yat-sen, with urging from his Russian advisers declared martial law, but was surprised when Chiang Kai-shek moved boldly with his Whampoa cadets to put down the Canton merchants. One contingent of Chiang's force was the Workers' Militia and Peasants' Corps trained by Mao Tse-tung. Chiang's attack was a stupendous success, the Merchant's militia was routed and the KMT was established as the strongest force in the land.

Posted by maxblue3 at 11:07 AM EDT

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Mood:  not sure

1923- Chiang Kai-shek badgered Sun Yat-sen into sending him to Moscow to learn about security and discipline from the Soviets. Chiang stayed three months at a time when Lenin was dying. Trotsky, in a power battle with Stalin, found time for long conversations with Chiang (what language barrier?). Chiang returned to China convinced that the Communists were the number one enemy of the Kuomintang and not incidentally, the Green Gang, in the fight to rule China. Chiang, nominally answered to Sun Yat-sen, but there was never a doubt that his real loyalties were to Green Gang kingpins, Pock-marked Huang, Big-eared Tu, and the shadowy Curio Chang.

With the help of Russian military advisers, the KMT set up the Whampoa Military Academy on an island in the Pearl River some ten miles south of Canton where a real army could be trained and equipped with Soviet weapons. Chiang Kai-shek convinced Sun Yat-sen to appoint him military commandant of Whampoa in spite of strenuous objections from the Russians and the Chinese Communist members of the Kuomintang. Of some three thousand qualified applicants for the first class, only 500 could be admitted, all highly literate, and to be sure, members of the Shanghai Green Gang; classes began on May 5, 1924. Chiang Kai-shek, following the principles of Sun Tzu's Art of War, was allowing the Russian Bolsheviks and the Chinese Communists to build a modern army for him.

Time out for some speculations. It's about Nai Nai Liddy's father, the grandfather of Katie, Keri, Konrad, and Kurt, the great-grandfather of Aleks, Andrew, Andrei, Christina, and Julianne. Nai Nai never knew her father and was never told much about him growing up in that part of China not too far, it would seem, from the Pearl River island where the future of China was being shaped in 1924. When Nai Nai read the paragraph about the Whampoa Military Academy, she made a red-inked commentary in the margin :My father may have been killed by Chiang Kai-shek's secret police.  You children and grandchildren of the lady I call 'the Luminous Liddy' should know that in quiet moments she often thinks about the father she never knew, who wouldn't? What was he like? You may think of him as a hero of the Chinese revolution, there is no evidence to prove otherwise. You may even give him a name - Curio Chang?

Posted by maxblue3 at 10:58 AM EDT

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Mood:  on fire

On fire with Phillies' Kratz and Galvis back-to-back 9th inning homers to beat Reds 3-2.

1921 - Speaking of Reds - the first Congress of the Chinese Communist party, 13 men, including a near-sighted library clerk named Mao Tse-tung, met in Shanghai at a house on Joyful Undertaking Street; they were on fire by the success of the 1917 Russian revolution, convinced that the doctrines of Marx and Lenin were just what was needed in China. But guess what? They were observed by the most militant anti-communist organization in China, Big-eared Tu's Green Gang. Tu got where he was through the patronage of the great detective, "Pockmarked" Huang. Big-eared Tu, though ugly as a fence post from childhood beatings, was a man of quick wit, energy, and resourcefulness. He was well-liked by everyone because of his easy manner, generosity, and genuine willingness to help even a downtrodden street vendor. He became a legend for his support of widows, orphans, and men who had lost everything; much of his power came through control of the opium market; he was ruthless in treatment of his rivals - the Blue Gang and the Red Gang; he used assassinaton like a broom sweeping away dust.

1922 - Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling were in the south China city of Canton where to say things were in a chaotic mess would be to greatly understate the situation. Sun, trying to get his arms around this business of governing China, had a poorly organized Kuomintang army that was up against two powerful Warlords, to say nothing of 50,000 men organized by the Canton merchants. Sun needed help and got it from a most unlikely source: Soviet Russia. The Soviet Bolsheviks were hell-bent on spreading their revolution and saw an opportunity in China. Czarist Russia had exploited the Chinese for years and the Bolsheviks made a grand impression by renouncing all Czarist concessions in China, including all treaties and agreements between Imperial Russia and Imperial China. Sun Yat-sen was pleased to accept Soviet promises to finance and support his Kuomintang in exchange for an agreement to admit China's fledgling Communist party to the Kuomintang.

Posted by maxblue3 at 9:56 AM EDT

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Mood:  sad

It's a gloomy day in South Jersey, not helped thinking of the death of Charlie Soong, never mind it was almost 100 years ago; too young to die -only 52, stomach cancer it was announced, but who knows what evil forces were afoot in the great Middle Kingdom in those clamorous days? Sure, Charlie's children were well prepared to get on with their lives, and their mother, the accomplished Ni Kwei-tseng, now known as Mammy Soong, was there to be sure they did the right thing, but without Charlie, the Soong family, to say nothing of the Chinese Ship of State, took a while to regain their footing.

 In 1917, third daughter, May-ling returned to Shanghai after graduating from Wellesley with a major in English Literature.  She was a dazzling beauty and entered easily into the active Shanghai social life. A year before her father's death, she pressed him to buy a larger house with a modern bathroom; this was a lady with big things on her mind - the future belonged to her.

1919 - At the Paris Peace Conference following World War I, the head of the Chinese delegation was the gloriously named, Wellington Koo, a diplomat trained in the U.S. at Columbia University. Some guy, this Koo, he kept 26 concubines. Koo refused to sign the Versailles Treaty for China because U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, in exchange for Japan's vote to establish the League of Nations, agreed to honor a secret agreement between Britain, France, and Italy that allowed Japan to keep the Chinese Shantung Province. Koo told one of Wilson's aides, "If I sign, I would not have, what you in New York would call, a Chinaman's chance," 

Posted by maxblue3 at 7:34 AM EDT

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