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"Evacuation under bombs"
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Jo tao, Lucille. Right out of the 'Joy/Luck Club', of course, just as were the experiences of so many other Chinese-Americans whose parents also barely survived the escape from Nanjing, Fuzhou and other areas encroached upon by the IJA back then. My own wife's mother similarly set out on a long, arduous and (fortunately successful) escaped from the Japanese savagery (unlike so many thousands who perished en route). Her mother was heavily pregnant at the time of their escape, but took my wife, her three sisters and two boys and left the home and family assets behind. Regrettably, she lost the infant prematurely through miscarriage and also the youngest boy, but my wife and her sisters reached safety with her mother. Her father, who had several other 'shiao tai-tai' (other wives), was not reunited with them until 10 years later in Hong Kong. The difficulties that my wife experienced as a child truly forged her character in the tradition of the 'iron fist in the velvet glove' that so typifies many women of Chinese extraction back then. She is today such a blend of the old culture and the new that I never know which half I'm dealing with each day, LoL! She's loads stronger than I and is the supreme pragmatist. I am, on the other hand, a Celtic dreamer and romantic who, if it weren't for her 'holding up half the sky', would probably float away on the next strong wind. As an undergrad, back in Berkeley of many years ago, I keenly studied East Asian culture and civilisation; the Chinese people for all their not insignificant less-than-perfect nuances, hold my most profound admiration. You should expand upon your own observations in this regard. I'm sure there are others out here in whom you have struck a spark with your words. Dzai jian!
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