Friday, February 16, 2018

Chinese "Outsiders" in Taiwan

Retired UCSF Pharmacology Professor Nancy Ma and Internist Peter Lee retired from their posts and--against all odds-- began the foundation WuWei Harmony . Nancy Ma was born in Shanghai during the 1940s. Her father worked as Asian General Manager for Colgate-Palmolive, a wonderful position...until the Communists took over in 1949.  He fled first to Hong Kong, a British territory back then. The rest of the family , however, could not get exit visas. (See post one.) After seven years of waiting, they finally managed to get to Hong Kong. (See post two.) 
Husband Peter fled from China for different reasons. His parents were part of the Nationalist Army that fought against the Japanese from 1937-45 and then the Communists from 1945-49. (See post three.) 

When Peter got to Taiwan, he went through high school, then college, then the mandatory two-year army service required of all men. But, after that, he said that “especially for mainlanders” the only path was to leave Taiwan for other countries.

“The local Taiwanese want to keep their own people working there. There was not much of work that was available for us as outsiders.”  

He was given a scholarship to attend the University of Texas.

(To be continued. Next: UCSF Professor Never Finished High School.)

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