River and the Communists to the north was immediately rejected by both the Communist government and by Chiang Kai-Shek.
Three months later in April 1949, Mao’s army succeeded in breaking through the defensive line along the Yangtze River. Thus, the Nanjing Nationalist Government instantly lost its power on mainland China. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.
As the Communist army approached Guangzhou, Li Tsung-Jen had no choice but to flee the country. He flew to Chongqing on October 13, then left Chongqing for Hong Kong on November 20, after he was diagnosed with a bleeding gastroduodenal ulcer. On December 5, Li left Hong Kong for New York City to seek medical treatment, accompanied by his wife and two sons.8
Li’s interim government was dissolved thereafter. Chiang’s Nationalist Government eventually withdrew to Taipei on December 7 after several short stays in Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Chengdu. Mainland China and Taiwan have been separated by the Taiwan Strait ever since Chiang moved to his final base.
5
Having worked for the Guixi division for many years, Kan-Chun Lee failed to get himself and his family entrance tickets to Taiwan. Facing the reality that General Li Tsung-Jen was hardly able to protect himself, Hwa-Wei’s father had no other choice but to resign himself to his fate.
While the Lee family was still trapped in Guilin, the oldest son, Min Lee (whose former name was Hwa-Hsin Lee), had already withdrawn to Taiwan as an officer in the Nationalist Air Force. As an elite soldier in Chiang’s army, Min was allowed to bring his family members to Taiwan. At the end of September 1949, only a few days before the founding of the new China, Min arranged a military transport plane from Taiwan to Guilin, rushed the entire family aboard, and flew back to Taiwan. Thus, at a critical moment in history, all nine members of the Lee family dramatically departed China for Taiwan onboard a special plane, thanks to Min’s arrangement.
All the family members hurried onto the military transport plane. The inadequate safety devices and little radar guidance combined with the bad weather put the family at great risk during their escape. Because of Taiwan’s high mountains, the plane, in order to land safely in the dense low clouds, had to gradually descend over the ocean before proceeding to land at the military airport in Central Taiwan. Due to these circumstances, Min and his copilot asked everyone to look out the windows and let them know immediately upon sighting the ocean so that they could control the aircraft below the low and heavy clouds.
It was Hwa-Wei’s first flight in an air force aircraft, and he was very excited. Hwa-Wei and his other siblings did not feel scared at all. Instead, they all saw the endeavor as quite interesting. All started to yell as soon as they saw the dark blue sea through the windows. The plane started low-altitude flying above the ocean. Thanks to Min’s superb piloting skills, they made a safe landing at the Hsinchu Air Base in Taiwan.
Four days after the Lee family escaped from Guilin, the entire Guangxi Province was taken over by the People’s Liberation Army. Back then, Hwa-Wei did not realize that the next opportunity for him to return to mainland China would be thirty-three years later in 1982!
With only a few hours’ notice and given limited cargo space, the Lee family was not able to take many of their belongings with them on the flight. They had nothing to call their own upon arrival in Taiwan.
Owing to years of political infighting between Chiang and Li, and Li’s being away in the United States, Li’s former subordinates who had managed to leave the mainland and relocate in Taiwan were unable to escape being oppressed and squeezed out of government positions. Because of his close Guixi connection, it was obvious that Kan-Chun Lee would have no chance to continue his political career in Taiwan. In addition, he, himself, had lost interest in working as a government official after experiencing so many ups and downs in politics.
Having been enlightened by reality, Kan-Chun, now in his fifties, decided to return to teaching, his previous profession. Teaching was truly an easy job for Kan-Chun due to his fluency in English and his background as a former student of John L. Stuart at Yenching University. It did not take him long to land a job teaching the English language at Taichung College of Agriculture, which later changed its name to National Taiwan Chung-Hsing University. A popular lecturer among students, he soon was promoted to the rank of full professor. This teaching job did not make the family wealthy, but neither were they poor. Compared with many other families retreating from the mainland to Taiwan, the Lees were indeed blessed and, after a short time, settled in Taichung.
Kan-Chun was an exceedingly brilliant professor. He was highly regarded and well supported by his university president. He was visited frequently by junior faculty members looking for his guidance. The recognition and respect he earned from his teaching career brought Kan-Chun true happiness. Therefore, he often told his children not to pursue a political career, citing his own experience and the vain outcome of his previous involvement in politics. In his later years, Kan-Chun felt working in academia was a more worthwhile pursuit because it brought a noble and virtuous life.
The necessity of Hwa-Wei’s father returning to teaching worked out well for him; the latter half of his life became a more cheerful and comfortable time. Kan-Chun’s teaching career lasted until he was almost in his seventies.
After his retirement, Kan-Chun returned to a religious life, using his previously earned missionary credentials, and became a guest minister at a Methodist church in Taichung. Kan-Chun’s church service was volunteer-based, as churches in Taiwan were inadequately funded, unlike their American counterparts. Kan-Chun Lee lived a long life and passed away at the age of eighty-nine. He was buried in a graveyard in Taichung with his wife, Hsiao-Hui Wang, who died one year later, at age ninety.
6
Hwa-Wei’s father had a proficiency in English; after the family relocated to Taiwan, he was able to use that skill to make a living for his family. Later, Hwa-Wei was even more impressed with his father’s English when his father helped him edit and polish his application documents for American graduate schools.
Among the seven children in his family, Hwa-Wei’s personality most closely resembles that of his father; he is also the child most heavily influenced by him. Nevertheless, the hardships his father had suffered were probably greater than anything Hwa-Wei has had to experience. Kan-Chun continually endured wars and political turmoil during the first half of his life. He underwent changes in his life path from his original devotion to Christianity to his dedication to the Nationalist Revolution, as a follower of General Li Tsung-Jen. The perils of those decades of military service were like treading on thin ice. Fortunately, he was able to settle down with a stable teaching job and do missionary work in his later years.
Kan-Chun took the bad with the good and honored the code of brotherhood. His limited income could barely provide the essential expenses of his big family, even under his wife’s thrifty management. On many occasions when the family was unable to make ends meet at the end of the month, Hwa-Wei’s mother had to trade the jewelry from her dowry to feed the family, or his father had to borrow money from one of his eleven blood brothers whose financial situation was slightly better. He had no alternative but to seek help from his friends for the sake of his family. Hwa-Wei could feel the helplessness and agony of his father; this only increased Hwa-Wei’s respect for him.
The blood brothers of his father were primarily Fujianese, known for their strong ties with each other. Hwa-Wei met two or three of them, including I-Wu Ho, who had once served as the secretary general of the Taiwan Legislature, the vice chairman of the Commission of Overseas Chinese Affairs, and the president of the board of Cathay United Commercial Bank. Ho was a great help to the Lee family and provided kind support to Hwa-Wei and his siblings with their plans to study abroad.
Hwa-Wei’s
