When I think of my 103 year-old mother, so many memories flash through my mind, from her winning the 50-meter sprint championship as a teenager, to a mother who lost her oldest son at a young age, to her raving beauty throughout her life, to a woman who had to pull up roots five times, including a move to a country with no friends and not speaking a word of the language, to a 100+ year-old great grandmother who no longer recognizes me, his youngest son.
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A Son Remembering His Mother
December 2014
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Some Testimonials on Health Benefits from Practicing Chen Style Hun Yuan Taijiquan
September 2014
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This summer I attended the “16th International Seminar on Taiji and Qigong” in Zibo, Shandong, China, July 29-August 3, 2014. It was organized by Master Wang Feng-Ming of the World Chen Style Hun Yuan Taiji Association. The first three days were on practicing collecting, cultivating, and circulation of Qi, and the last three days were on practicing the “Chen Style Hun Yuan Taiji 48 Form” with Master Wang demonstrating the martial applications of each form. More discussion on the contents of this seminar may be discussed in the future. In this article, I want to briefly report on several testimonials on health benefits from practicing Chen Style Hun Yuan Taijiquan [1].
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Reflections from 2014 Peace & Reconciliation Asia Study Tour
September 2014
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This summer I had the opportunity to participate in a weekly demonstration that has been going on since January 8, 1992, making it the world’s longest longevity demonstration in history. The official name of this demonstration, also called weekly meeting, is the “Wednesday Demonstration Demanding Japan to Redress the Comfort Women Problems,” and it takes place every Wednesday at 12:00 noon in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. [1] This event was one of many meaningful and educational events that took place during this year’s July 12-24 “2014 Peace and Reconciliation Asia Study Tour.”[2] Besides Seoul, the tour also visited Shanghai, Nanjing, and Harbin in China. This article provides a brief summary [3] of some reflections from this Asia Study Tour.
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U.S. Needs Another Anson Burlingame
It seems that recently we read in the news almost on a weekly basis that the U.S. seems to be involved in some sort of serious turmoil or unrest in some part of the world. It may be in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, East China Sea, South China Sea, Ukraine, Okinawa, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. It is true that some of these unrest were caused by other countries or parties who have very narrow partisan interest and treat others with extreme cruelty and without regard to the value of a human life. It is possible that some of these unrest were not caused by actions of the U.S., and the U.S. was just responding to try to protect the safety of her citizens and the interests of her country. At least that is the impression one gets from reading the U.S. press and listening to the words of our country’s political leaders.
However, if we probe deeper, the causes and effects are no longer so clear. For example, did the U.S.’s 2003 military ouster of President Saddam Hussein on the pretense of getting rid of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction help to trigger a lot of the upheavals in the greater Middle East region? Did the U.S.’s long-standing policy of containing/surrounding/weakening China and U.S.’s collusion with a revived-militaristic Japan that refuses to acknowledge WWII historical truths help to trigger the tensions in East Asia? Did the U.S.’s long, unequivocal, staunch support for Israel help to trigger almost 70 years of unrest in the Middle East? Even in Ukraine, didn’t the U.S. play an important role in overthrowing the legally elected former President Viktor Yanukovych and replaced him with the current pro-West President Petro Poroshenko have anything to do with Russia President Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine? In other words, is the foreign policy of the U.S. in the long-term best interest of the U.S.? [1]
Perhaps the U.S. needs to reassess her foreign policy with an objective analysis and a new perspective of how does the rest of the world look at the U.S. Perhaps she should look back at more than 150 years ago on how Ambassador Anson Burlingame helped to reshape American foreign policy, first as the U.S.’s Ambassador to China 1861-1867 and then as China’s “Ambassador to All the Treaty Powers (including the U.S.)” 1867-1870. [2]
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