I am ready to publish my book “The Yin and Yang of the Dragon and the Eagle: Tale of Two Cultures and Two Countries.” The book will be published in English and Chinese. The book has 38 chapters, It also has a preface which summarizes the book in two pages. Here is the preface.
This is a book based on real life history of people who have lived part of their lives in China (as dragons) and part of their lives in the U.S. (as eagles). It is about the dynamic transformation and integration of one culture with another culture. Having lived as a dragon and as an eagle may provide the experience that may be helpful to guide us in the current complex multi-dimensional world.
It is based on the lives and experiences of the author, his parents, as well as their ancestors, and his brothers and sisters, with all of them who have all lived as dragons and eagles. The cultures of China and the U.S. are very much intertwined in the lives of the Tow family because five generations of the greater Tow family have lived part of their lives in China and part of their lives in the U.S.
It discusses about their history of needing to pull up roots multiple times to escape from wars, often losing everything and needing to start from the beginning. It talks about the tragedy of losing his oldest brother and the impact it affected his mother emotionally, and their experiences living through two decades of wars: the Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945), World War II (1939-1945), China’s Civil War (1927-1949).
It talks about their immigration from Hong Kong in 1955 to a small town in Placerville (also known as Hangtown), California. It also recollects the friendship between his father and his college freshman dormitory roommate Mr. Harold S. Prescott, a friendship that lasted more than half a century, across thousands of miles of separation across the U.S. and across oceans.
It also recollects the author’s experiences living through the Free Speech Movement of 1963 at the University of California at Berkeley, the Civil Rights Movement, the Third World Movement, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement in the decade of the 1960s. This decade resulted in many changes in the psyche of Americans, especially among students on American college campuses, as well as in the American society, as well as in other societies worldwide. It expanded their horizon and focus, paying much more attention to the social and economic conditions of their society, as well as the world as a whole.
This seismic change also affected our contemporaries. For example, a friend from the University of California at Berkeley after finishing his master degree in engineering in 1970 returned to Hong Kong and initiated a project to start teaching high school courses in a remote part of Hong Kong which at that time did not offer high schools. His effort resulted in several other students joining that effort. This project lasted several years until a public high school was established in that remote part of Hong Kong.
The worldwide Diaoyu Islands Student Movement was also triggered in 1970 and 1971. The impact of this movement is still going on, and is just as important now as it was 50 years ago, because it is tied to the territorial sovereignty and involvement of the U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty with Japan, which is still to be seen how it would be fulfilled.
This book discusses the many extracurricular activities that the author was involved in his life. Most of these activities have centered on injustices and atrocities, especially those injustices and atrocities that were experienced by the Chinese that occurred during WWII. It describes extracurricular activities that involve organization like “The New Jersey Alliance for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia (NJ-ALPHA)” and “Ten Thousand Cries for Justice (10,000 CFJ).” It discusses about the American Dream and whether it can be continued. One of these activities involves two people: Tong Zeng (童增) of China and Tamaki Matsuoka of Japan who have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
It also discussed the South China Sea Dispute and a most unique 19-th century American diplomat Anson Burlingame. It discusses the American dream and whether it can be continued.
It discusses U.S.-China relationship, and how China and the U. S., being the world’s two most powerful countries, with their different backgrounds and orientatations, may need to work together to help solve some of the world’s major problems.
The book is more than about one family’s memoir. It is about the dynamic transformation and integration of one culture with another culture, which all immigrants undergo to one degree or another. It sheds light on how we can all learn together to live harmoniously in the current multi-dimensional world.
