Never Give Up

The first day of Year of Dragon falls upon the World Freedom Day in Taiwan. On January 23rd, 1954, 22,000 ex-communist war prisoners of the Korean War (1950–1953) arrived at Keelung harbor. The Republic of China (ROC) government honored these soldiers to fight communist expansion worldwide by declaring January 23 the World Freedom Day.

After the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), the Red Scare (1947-1957) targeted at thousands of Chinese in the US. In 1949, anti–communist fear, and fear of American traitors, was aggravated by the Chinese Communists winning the Chinese Civil War against the Western-sponsored Kuomintang, their founding of the People's Republic of China, and later Chinese intervention in the Korean War against U.S. ally South Korea.

The Red Scare in the US turned into the White Scare in Taiwan. During that anti-communist period of time, thousands of Taiwanese and Mainlander elites were interrogated, sentenced to death secretly, or kept in prison on Green Island for decades. The White Scare breaks the hearts of people in Taiwan till now.

Being a woman, I feel lucky to be born in modern Taiwan. I can vote, I can be voted, I I can shoulder responsibilities in Toastmasters and in societies, I can realize my dream without any gender obstacles. I have every reason to exert my effort to live to the fullest of my life.

I lost one of my mini faux orange flowers on my dark Crocs while collecting the pumpkins and corns in the family farm along Po-tzu River. I thought it would take me forever to find it in the vast land, but to my surprise, I found it at my footstep before I reached the pumpkins farm. I was glad that I didn't give up looking for it. Now I have a story to tell whenever I see the orange flower on my Crocs.

With six big pumpkins I collected, I developed many exciting pumpkin recipes, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, macaroni pumpkin cheese, pumpkin fries for the Chinese new year holidays. It is auspicious to start the prosperous year of dragon with golden pumpkins and a lost and found Jibbitz orange flower on the trail.