Li Flora - Journey across the four seas: a Chinese womans search for home

Praise for Journey Across the Four Seas

"I love this book. It is the true story of one unusual woman who faces all of lifes adversities and overcomes them through sheer determination, grit and a bit of luck. While it is the story of one woman, it is also a story that millions of people will identify with. It has the makings of a bestseller."

Frank Ching , senior columnist, The South China Morning Post

"Lovingly interpreted by a devoted daughter, Flora Lis story is a unique piece of oral history, a family saga of fluctuating fortunes told against the backdrop of British-held Hong Kong and wartime China . It also takes us to Bangkok and Taipei , destinations of recent Chinese diasporas. Fast-paced and absorbing, Floras journey through turbulent times is at one level an intensely personal tale of loss, disappointment, and a fraught marriage that ends with a new beginning in 1960s California. At another, her story mirrors the experience of an entire generation of migrating Chinese like Floraresourceful, resilient, and engaged in a determined search for home, a sure place where the family might survive and thrive."

Paula Harrell , Visiting Professor, University of Maryland ; author of Sowing the Seeds of Change: Chinese Students, Japanese Teachers, 1895-1905

"A gutsy Chinese woman remembers with unsparing wit and candor growing up poor in British-ruled Hong Kong, surviving the perils and privations of Japanese-occupied China and the joys and pains of raising a family with a Kuomintang officials privileged son she married. This is history as biography that can bring nostalgia attacks to old Asia hands. Its also an odyssey through life in the Chinese diaspora peopled with funny and outrageous real-life personalities Amy Tan couldnt have imagined."

Eduardo Lachica , independent analyst of Southeast Asian security and military affairs; former reporter of The Wall Street Journal and Washington bureau chief of The Asian Wall Street Journal

"This book is an amazing read. When I finished it, I felt as if I understood Hong Kong , China , the heroine Flora, and myself better. Its the Asian Grapes of Wrath. "

Adair Lara , award-winning columnist, The San Francisco Chronicle ; author of five books including Hold Me Close, Let Me Go, and Hanging Out the Wash

"Aside from being well done and written this book should also be very helpful in dispelling notions that some Americans might have about the role of women in China and Hong Kong in the early and mid-twentieth century. This is an incredible story about a remarkable Chinese woman; once started it is virtually impossible to put down for long. To me the principal message was the importance of initiative and hard work regardless of the adversity. Networking was important (extensive Swatow relations, Hong Kong University alumni, connection with the Nationalist Finance Minister, and so on) but only up to a point. Then initiative and hard work was required to carry her through."

Morris Morkre , Economist, the Federal Trade Commission; former Senior Lecturer in Economics, Hong Kong University

"This book contributes to broadening the record of womens experiences, much of which is being lost because individually we keep inadequate notes, and as a group we often do not collect and share our records. Many younger women are uninformed about how their improved status came about. For many who grew up in the West there is a lot to learn from this book. It is a story about hardships, survival strategies, networks, and above all, family."

Gloria Scott , advisor on Women in Development, World Bank, 1977-86.

"This story of one extraordinary woman, caught up in the wars and conflicts of East Asia , is part family, part adventure story. As daughter of the Chinese diaspora, as refugee, as heiress to rising and falling family fortunes, Flora cultivates in herself the strength and wisdom to constantly reconstruct life for her family. Her life exemplifies the pioneering spirit of millions of refugees and migrs strewn across the four seas in the past and present century. You wont be able to put the Journey by Li down, and its lessons will stay with you."

Vilma Seeberg , China scholar; Associate Professor, Kent State University

"This compelling story is vivid testimony to the recent turbulent Chinese history and the prevalence of traditional values seen through the eyes of a remarkable Chinese woman, Flora, and written by her daughter, Veronica Li. It provides a rare window into the inner world of a woman of that era."

Marie Luise Wagner , Visiting Assistant Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

"This story brings out a centerpiece of Chinese cultureeducation of the young. To attain that end, a Chinese woman would sacrifice anything and overcome any adversity. Like the mother of Mencius, she is willing to uproot herself in search of the best education for her children."

Mi Chu Wiens , Had of Scholarly Services, Asian Division, Library of Congress

"Veronica Li has captured vividly the image of a woman who has lived through the turmoil of war and political upheavals in Hong Kong and China from the 1920s to the 1960s. In a particularly authentic way, she has given us many snapshots of life in those decades, in the language of a chronicler rich in colorful expressions coined from the Chinese social fabric"chasing the dragon," "bitter squash," and "tear bag." Her mothers epic is at once unique yet universal. It is amazing how many Chinese women of that era share her experiences. These stories, embodying her life-long memories across the four seas, will, as Veronica says in her Epilogue, take on a life of their own."

Diana Yue ,Honorary Associate Professor, Hong Kong University ; translator of literature

Journey across the Four Seas

A Chinese Womans Search for Home

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

Copyright 2007 by Veronica Li

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Li, Veronica, 1951-

Journey across the four seas : a Chinese womans search for home / Veronica Li. 1st American ed.

p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-1-931907-43-9 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 1-931907-43-9 (pbk.)

1. Li, Flora. 2. Chinese AmericansBiography. 3. Immigrants United States Biography. 4. China Biography. I. Title. E184.C5L57 2006

304.873051092dc22

[B]

2006020414

Homa & Sekey Books

3rd Floor, North Tower

Mack-Cali Center III

140 E. Ridgewood Ave.

Paramus , NJ 07652

Tel: 800-870-HOMA, 201-261-8810

Fax: 201-261-8890, 201-384-6055

Email: info@homabooks.com

Website: www.homabooks.com

Edited by Larry Matthews

Printed in U.S.A.

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

For my mother, who has dedicated her life to the family,

For my father, who has lived his life to the best of his ability, and

For Sverrir, who has made it possible for me to write and take care of my parents.

Contents

Authors Note and Acknowledgements

Prologue

1. Eating Bitter Squash

2. Dreaming in the Red Chamber

3. Shooting an Arrow at the Sun

4. Burning in the Theater

5. Making a Bad Peace

6. Going Home

7. Still Searching for Home

8. Living in a Prison

9. Laying Foundation for the Future

10. Journeying across the Four Seas

Epilogue

Glossary of Chinese Names and Places

Authors Note and Acknowledgements