I am going to do a more in-depth write-up this weekend, but here are some highlights:
- He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1924, making him somewhere between the 421st to 899th member.
- He got booted by the Party in 1927 for being "proud, arrogant, arbitrary, and took matters into his own hands." There has to be a good story here.
- He was the last KMT governor of Hebei Province before the Communist takeover.
- He was a member of the first National Assembly in Nanjing in 1948 and elected Chiang Kai-Shek president.
- Once he fled to Taiwan, he continued to serve in the National Assembly and was Deputy Transportation Minister.
I find it funny that when I lived with him, we got around almost exclusively by bus. Very proletarian.
Absolutely fascinating. My grandparents, living through Japanese occupation and the Korean War, had so many fascinating and tragic stories...but my lack of Korean proficiency has prevented me from knowing more than I'd like. So awesome that you're doing this - can't wait to hear more.
ReplyDelete@Ed: Try asking your folks.
ReplyDeleteAll my grandparents are long gone. I think I've gotten all the stories I possibly can out of my parents; it would have been awesome to go straight to the source though.
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