Bat out of China

About the Book

This book started about ten years ago as a very short document to record all my recollections about my mother, Mu Chen Liu. Her love, courage, and grace have influenced my life and the lives of many people around her during her time on this earth. Many good friends had encouraged me to write something about her. With limited recollections, I wrote as much as I could, but hoped that it would just be the beginning of the work that I wanted to finish later. Recently, I added recollections about my father, Ching Wu Liu, with the hope that these stories might be an encouragement to others. Some of the stories are similar, but are told from the two different perspectives of each of my parents.

The book introduces a Chinese family, the relationships among the members, and the upbringing of the children. Because of the loving and inspiring family relationships that I experienced, I offer my observations and interpretation of how my mother, Mu Chen, elevated her children’s abilities to have successful educational accomplishments and professional achievements, and how my father, Ching Wu, guided his family’s survival. The details of my family members’ interactions and human behaviors inspired me to share my discoveries of the source of their inner strength and potential, as seen at various levels of contribution to their society and country, China. Those observations led me to speculate that the source of the energy, grace, and courage to accomplish great things did not come from depending on personal efforts, but from a certain mysterious inner strength and drive. This source can be traced in almost all the families who have played important roles in governing their local areas and the country of China at large for generations. I hope my views may remind readers to look at the progress of the country that was built and is still being built with peace and love in the minds of the leaders.

About the Author

I am a Chinese American who immigrated to the United States in 1970 from Taiwan. During this more than a half century living in this country, I completed my MS, PhD (my adviser was Dr. Maurice Ogur of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois), and two and a half years postdoctoral research work on the subject of biochemistry at the University of Texas under Dr. David Gibson. I have worked as a professional scientist and collaborated with a professor from the University of California at Berkeley, with whom I have obtained several patents as a co-inventor. I came from a family with strong scholastic standards and demands for my upbringing. I was introduced to writing through my teaching job as a public high school science teacher for eighteen years. Because of the intense demand for a teacher to be able to speak and write the English language well, I became an avid reader as well as a learner. I wrote the first half of this book ten years ago and received many compliments. Until I retired from my job as an educator, I did not have the time to revisit my writing, and in the meantime, the world began to change. China became a story of interest. Members of my family happened to play some important roles in the changes in China. I could not resist the temptation to give it another try to finish the book. My hope is that the complex background to my bilingual education and the strong family values that I experienced during those changing times offer more ideas and views on family values and disciplines. Those points of view may have a serious impact on people’s understanding of China as a country and as a society.