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| Thread ID: 119790 | 2011-08-10 05:55:00 | I Met Somebody Interesting Today ------ | SurferJoe46 (51) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1222206 | 2011-08-10 05:55:00 | She and her first husband were at a formal table several times with Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen and Colonel Claire Chennault . Her first husband was a pilot in the Flying Tigers . I talked with her for over two hours today and I learned a lot of very interesting things from her . I just think it's strange that an 86 year old woman has such clarity of memory to even tell me the color of the dress Madam Chiang Kai-shek wore at every occasion . It's a girl-thing I guess . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 1222207 | 2011-08-10 06:51:00 | A few years ago, we were invited to dinner with the family of one of my wife's adult ESOL students. I sat beside the student's mother, and we had a fractured but very interesting conversation. She and her family had moved in the same circles as General Chiang Kai Shek, and she and her family went to Taiwan with the Nationalists (who were led by the General) in 1948(?). She was a lot older than me. She had been raised in Shanghai, where she had studied to be a lawyer. She graduated at the end of her studies, so she was a qualified lawyer (either in Shanghai or Taiwan, I wasn't clear). I doubt there were very many women lawyers in NZ in the 1940s. Even in the 1960s when I did my law degree, there were hardly any women law students. I only remember a few at Canterbury and Victoria. I suppose that was why I was so surprised that a woman could become a lawyer in China in the 1940s - I guess I thought we would have been way ahead of China in terms of gender equality... From memory, she told me that the General, or Sun Yat Sen had three stunning daughters or sisters (I bet the old lady I was talking to would have put the men in a tizzy in those days too...). Joe - did the person you were talking to mention those three women? Maybe I have the story wrong - perhaps the sisters were married to Chiang Kai Shek and Sun Yat Sen and another influential man in China? |
John H (8) | ||
| 1222208 | 2011-08-10 09:31:00 | You two be careful talking about three women in China ... as quoted by someone recently ... "negative stereotypes about any minority group are unwelcome here" :xmouth: |
SP8's (9836) | ||
| 1222209 | 2011-08-10 11:08:00 | Well well, I found the three sisters on Wikipedia - the Soong sisters. One married Sun Yat-sen, another married Chiang Kai-shek, and the other was married to the richest man and finance minister of China, H.H. Kung. Crikey, Kung was a 75th-generation descendant of Confucius. You learn sumthink every day It says on the Wikipedia page that 'Their marriages and alleged motivations have been summarized in the Maoist saying "One loved money, one loved power, one loved her country". |
John H (8) | ||
| 1222210 | 2011-08-10 11:54:00 | Its a bugger the Nationalist Chinese lost to the communist chinese | prefect (6291) | ||
| 1222211 | 2011-08-10 14:40:00 | A few years ago, we were invited to dinner with the family of one of my wife's adult ESOL students . I sat beside the student's mother, and we had a fractured but very interesting conversation . She and her family had moved in the same circles as General Chiang Kai Shek, and she and her family went to Taiwan with the Nationalists (who were led by the General) in 1948(?) . She was a lot older than me . She had been raised in Shanghai, where she had studied to be a lawyer . She graduated at the end of her studies, so she was a qualified lawyer (either in Shanghai or Taiwan, I wasn't clear) . I doubt there were very many women lawyers in NZ in the 1940s . Even in the 1960s when I did my law degree, there were hardly any women law students . I only remember a few at Canterbury and Victoria . I suppose that was why I was so surprised that a woman could become a lawyer in China in the 1940s - I guess I thought we would have been way ahead of China in terms of gender equality . . . From memory, she told me that the General, or Sun Yat Sen had three stunning daughters or sisters (I bet the old lady I was talking to would have put the men in a tizzy in those days too . . . ) . Joe - did the person you were talking to mention those three women? Maybe I have the story wrong - perhaps the sisters were married to Chiang Kai Shek and Sun Yat Sen and another influential man in China? Not in the conversation we had yesterday - but today I will try to ask her . She studied medicine in Germany and Denmark and achieved her medical degree and practiced in Sweden for years and then upon moving to the US, she quit medicine and became a chiropractor and naturalist - not a homeopath though . She was watching me do some work on her electrical system in the garage (NZ= a building where one parks one's favorite sheep) and she TOLD me that I have a fractured pelvis (I do) and some pretty severe osteoporosis (I do) and that my neck and right shoulder was in considerable pain (it was), and then invited me into her office and gave my neck an adjustment . For an 86 year old woman, she had hands that could crush a granite gargoyle and after she manipulated my neck, the pain went away . I've not had such freedom of neck movement since I was an infant, I swear! I've never trusted what I always think of as a black-art before - especially a chiropractor - but I can say without advertising for the whole group of them that this was a wonderful relief . After my day rewiring her electrical distribution panel, she gave both the guy I was working with (not 'for' - as I am not working for a paycheck any more - just to keep busy) a couple of glasses of aquavit and Blue Moon beer . This I can tell you: aquavit goes for the eyes first and then it paralyses the tongue . The beer just washes the taste of the aquavit away --- thankfully . So - today I'll ask her about the Soong sisters and see what she says . |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 1222212 | 2011-08-10 21:05:00 | Well lets hope your neck stays that free | gary67 (56) | ||
| 1222213 | 2011-08-11 00:59:00 | Second day and I still feel pretty good! I'm amazed. |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
| 1222214 | 2011-08-11 01:07:00 | I just think it's strange that an 86 year old woman has such clarity of memory to even tell me the color of the dress Madam Chiang Kai-shek wore at every occasion. Did you ask her what she had for dinner the previous night.:rolleyes: |
mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 1222215 | 2011-08-11 01:12:00 | Did you ask her what she had for dinner the previous night . :rolleyes: That's how it goes I think - the older, long term stuff is the sharpest in recollection while the newer stuff gets forgotten . Now where are my keys and my wallet? |
SurferJoe46 (51) | ||
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