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| Photo credit: https://law.yale.edu/faculty?type=faculty |
My Name is Chen Dongbi ,Thomas T.P. Chen. My life: first bitter and then sweet.
My grandfather's name is Chen Huan, he was loud and rough, and my grandmother came from a good family in Taiye Village, last name Su. As far as I can remember, they don't speak to each other!
The house they lived in Taiye Village back then was built with straw and mud! During World War II, Taiwan was a Japanese colony. The US military launched air raids on Taiwan; we also evacuated from Tainan City to Taiye Village for almost a year.
We don’t have an ancestral genealogy, but it is said that our ancestors crossed the sea from Quanzhou, Fujian to Taiwan hundreds of years ago in order to escape poverty in the mainland China and pursue a better life!
Although Taiwanese were second-class citizens during the Japanese era, public security was good and the Japanese were loyal. I still remember that my father’s boss was Japanese and treated him very well !
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| My father Chun Tian Chen and mother Zhuo Ban Chen |
My mother was the 16th child of my maternal grandparents ; it seems that by the time she was 4 or 5 years old, her parents were no longer around! My mom’s brother was a legal assistant!
My mother and father fell in love in Taipei and my grandmother traveled to Taipei to check my mother out knowing they were going to get married. The whole Taiya villagers went to see my mother on their wedding day as she came from Taipei to country side Taiya.
In a few years time my mother gave birth to eleven children , and three of them died shortly after birth! There were only eight left and I am the eldest.
My father was smart, capable, diplomatic, and a good person, but he loved to drink. He ran a steel factory successfully with 200 employees in Tainan City. In the end, he lost money because he was a surety for his teacher. He became ill from overwork and developed cirrhosis of the liver. He died after only 100 days of illness . He was 43 years old in 1945. Died young. My father's factory was also auctioned off by creditors! He left behind my mother and seven younger siblings. My second sister was only three years old at that time and could no longer remember what her father looked like! My little sister was born three months after my father passed away! My mother had worked hard all her life, I was implicated and bore the responsibility of supporting the family.
Therefore I don’t drink or vouch for others, and I exercise every day to stay healthy.
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| Outstanding Alumni of Tainan First High School Alumni Association Photo credit: http://alumni-ntfshs.org.tw/aboutAlumni01.php?CID=3&CID1=6&CID2=12&ID=143 |
I had good grades since elementary school. After graduating from Tainan First Middle School in 1955, I was recommended to National Taiwan University. The principal of Nan First Middle School thought I came from a good family and even invited my mother to meet him! My whole family also moved to Taipei with me.
When I was 18 years old, it was the beginning of hard times in my life. The hardest days were when my father passed away, leaving my mother, seven younger siblings and me behind! When I was a senior in high school, my family was penniless!
I have never given up since I was a child, and my father died young, so I have to fight! I could have been admitted to National Taiwan University Medical School, but I chose law because I had the ambition to rule the country and help the poor in the future !
When I was studying at National Taiwan University, I worked as a tutor and helped American military officers wash cars to support my family. I never expected that I would have a car to drive today.
When I was a sophomore in university, I was admitted to the judicial official examination, the fourth batch of judicial officials, special excellence level. In the previous judicial official entrance examination, allocation was based on provincial nationality . There were only two Taiwanese nationals among the quotas every year.
When my youngest brother was in the third grade of elementary school, I was elected president of the Parents' Association of Mingchuan Elementary School. I was in my third year of university. I was the youngest president of the Parents s’ Associations in the country.
The age of 28 was the beginning of my good life: a good university in the United States was very generous and gave me a five-year full scholarship to enter Yale University. Later, I married Zhang Meihe, and with Meihe's income from working in the Yale library, our family had a sufficient income to live on. There was enough leftover money for me to send back to Taiwan to support my mother and younger siblings !
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| Mei, my mother-in-law and me |
Meihe Zhang came from Tokyo in 1964 . I was teaching in Edmonton in 1967 before she entered the library department.
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| photo credit: https://law.yale.edu/ |
I studied in the United States in 1962, entered Yale in 1964, completed my doctoral thesis in the summer of 1967, and received my JS degree in January 1968 . After graduation, I came to Canada to teach!
I was at Columbia University the first year and the second year at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I entered the top eight elite schools in the Eastern United States (Ivy League) with a full scholarship. During the summer, I worked in restaurants in New York because I also had to send money back to Taiwan to support my mother and younger siblings.
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| front row:My 1st sister, Mum, sis-in-law, niece , my 2nd brother & nephew Back row: my 4th brother, 2nd sister & 3rd brother |
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| Me, Mei and my 2nd Sister Kim |
I went abroad when I was 26 years old. In 1965 , I wrote my master's thesis at Yale, "Taiwan's international legal status has not yet been determined and should be decided by the people of Taiwan through a vote." A professor at Yale published it. It was the era of the two Chiangs, and I was on the blacklist until Lee Teng-hui took office became the President of the country and cancelled the blacklist. I was able to returned to Taiwan for the first time .
I was 26 years old when I left the country and was 53 when I returned home !
I worked as Professor of Law at Queen’s University, Kingston since July 1971 to June 1998 and worked as Barrister & Solicitor since July 1975 and retired a year ago.
Unexpectedly, I, who was previously on the blacklist, was actually appointed as the representative from Taiwan, ROC to Canada by Chen Shui-bian in 2001 and stayed in Ottawa for 6 years!
Mr. Peng Mingmin is my mentor: I am his favorite student, and it was he who encouraged me to study abroad! Unfortunately, due to the pandemic in the past few years, I was unable to go back to visit him until he passed away!
Mr. Peng Mingmin is an idealist; but the truly great and powerful one is Mr. Lee Teng-hui!
In the old days of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Jinguo, Shi Mingde did not hesitate to fight against violence despite being imprisoned. He was a great idealist; even his older brother was tortured and imprisoned! I helped his brother apply to immigrate to Canada as a refugee.
It’s strange that after all these years, there are still a few people in Taiwan who identify with China! They should immigrate to China!
The Kuomintang (KMT Party) has no talents and has lost its direction. Taiwan does not have a good opposition party, which is not a good thing!
I never expected to live to be twice as old as my father! I have my father's head and my mother's heart! I’m glad I can now live a healthy and worry-free life!
We are lucky enough to be born as humans, so we must have love for vulnerable animals!
There are many flowers and trees in my front and back yards, and my living room is filled with potted plants in winter. Since I don’t know how to cook, I only plant flowers and trees that can be enjoyed.
I have always gone to bed around twelve o'clock since high school.
Now I pay attention to diet, exercise and do housework every day to stay healthy, and the two dogs I raise make me very happy! I mainly watch various programs on the computer, and in the morning I go to the senior citizen center to do some exercise. I drive my own car to go to two churches for worship on Sundays and my life is very fulfilling!
Life is short: I can still remember not long ago when I was going to kindergarten! I was born on January the 15th day of the lunar calendar, which was February 8th of the Western calendar. Then my father came back from Shanghai in July and didn’t register me for residence until the 15th day. So I have three birthdays! I can choose any one to celebrate! But I want to forget my age as much as possible, hence I don’t celebrate birthdays!
There is a motto hanging in my office: "There is no better way to cultivate one's self than to have few desires, and there is no better way to cultivate one's character than to study!"
Life will be in vain in the end, but now you should live a healthy and happy life! Especially without health, there can be no happiness!
Now I am content as long as I am healthy and happy.
Inevitable legal issues in life: marriage and inheritance (Episode 2)
Regular meeting of the Taiwan Ivy League in Toronto - A brief discussion on family legal issues - Ambassador Chen Dongbi, former representative of Taiwan to Canada, lectured Episode 1
https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/2/11/14/n245405.htm
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