“His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Having reached 90, my father-in-law died. Looking back, he glimpsed how the twentieth century’s big events had shaped his life. He knew he had faced challenges, risks, and privations — followed by many rewards. He had raised a family of four, practiced medicine for nearly five decades, and won the financial security that had eluded his own father’s family. He did all of this through war, revolution, and a bitter peace — only to find himself in a world he didn’t recognize. His, like so many others, is a tale of luck, perseverance and sacrifice, when added together with everyone else’s, built the resurgent Asia of today. His story is incomplete without a recent history of Taiwan and the ageless story of the immigrant in a foreign land.
Death Came in on Cat Feet
Dr Cheng Sau Tang found his wife lying on the 12th floor of their Kaohsiung apartment in April 2018. Though she was still breathing, he couldn’t revive her. He instinctively reacted like the doctor he was, checking for pulse, signs of life, and so on, but could not suppress a terrifying dread. After a blur of activity, a phone call, the doorman, the ambulance, the paramedics, the nurses, she was in intensive…