From One Root Many Flowers: China

"My father would listen as I read the entire verse by myself. I liked being at my father's side, hearing the sound and rhythm of Tang poems and feeling the poet's sentiments in my heart. My father was a high government official in China's Nationalist party, a general, a leader of tens of thousands of soldiers, and dedicated patriot and servant of the mainland. But on those occasions when he taught my poetry, all his attention was on me, and I wished he would continue forever."

Li's father was a proud soldier and a soldier-poet whose talent for leading men and deeply rooted sense of loyalty to his country and goverment took him rapidly to the highest echelons of the Nationalist government under Chiang Kaishek. Li's mother directed rescue operations for thousands of children orphaned by years of fighting the Japanese occupation of China. As the nation descended into the chaos of the Sino-Japanese war, and then the succeeding Communist revolution, Li's father found himself entangled in arcane political machinations that marked him as a target of Chiang's ire.

Fearing for their safety, Li and his family landed in New York, where they thought to make a temporary stay. Instead, with the fall of the Nationalist government in China, they found themselves permanent emigrés, forced to make a new life for themselves in America.





						"When I was a little girl, my happiest moments were learning Tang poetry from my father, and I used to stand before him, listening as he explained the poet's intent, the meaning of the words, and the rhythm of the poem. Sitting in his soldier's uniform, my father would select a page from the Book of Three Hundred Tang Poems, glance at the title, and recite the poem from memory. I would repeat each sentence after him, Before my bed a pool of light. Is it frost on the ground? Eyes raised, I see the moon so bright; head bent, in homesickness I drown. "My father would listen as I read the entire verse by myself. I liked being at my father's side, hearing the sound and rhythm of Tang poems and feeling the poet's sentiments in my heart. My father was a high government official in China's Nationalist party, a general, a leader of tens of thousands of soldiers, and dedicated patriot and servant of the mainland. But on those occasions when he taught my poetry, all his attention was on me, and I wished he would continue forever." —From the Author's Preface reprinted with permission Li's father was a proud soldier and a soldier-poet whose talent for leading men and deeply rooted sense of loyalty to his country and goverment took him rapidly to the highest echelons of the Nationalist government under Chiang Kaishek. Li's mother directed rescue operations for thousands of children orphaned by years of fighting the Japanese occupation of China. As the nation descended into the chaos of the Sino-Japanese war, and then the succeeding Communist revolution, Li's father found himself entangled in arcane political machinations that marked him as a target of Chiang's ire. Fearing for their safety, Li and his family landed in New York, where they thought to make a temporary stay. Instead, with the fall of the Nationalist government in China, they found themselves permanent emigrés, forced to make a new life for themselves in America.




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