Confusion in Perspectives

I am 41 years old. All my life, one message has been drilled into me - one that I didn't question, one that I unblinkingly swallowed. This message was - Red China bad. Taiwan/Chiang Kai-Shek good.

This was the message my mother drilled into me. Strangely enough, my cousin got hers from her father and that was - Japan bad. Chinese good.

My father, on the other hand, never said much. I think the only message I got from him was work good. Stay at home bad.

Recently, I watched a movie about the three Soong sisters. In this movie, Chiang Kai Shek was portrayed as vain, corrupt and inept. And recently, I read Billmon's postabout Time magazine and Henry Luce in which again, Chiang is presented as corrupt and inept.

*BANG*

That was the sounds of two worlds colliding.

I don't trust China. I don't trust that the leaders will not turn on its citizenry the way it did during Tianamen Square. I grew up not trusting China and I don't think I ever will. But I can recognize that this distrust is different from the one my mother had. She doesn't trust that the government won't take away the material goods. But my world hasn't changed on this.

I asked my mother the other day about the Soong sisters. She was surprised to hear that I watched it. When will she realize that my curiousity will never be sated? Anyway, she said something about one of my relatives who worked closely with the third sister who married the banker who was truly corrupt and how that brought down our relative. I really should write this stuff down.

But am I to understand now, that Chiang wasn't supposed to be China's savior? That the fight for China's soul was rather, a fight for China's money? (okay okay! As I'm typing that, I'm realizing how stupidly naive I sounded) *sigh* Time to educate myself on what *really* happened in China during the 1900's to 1950's.

Filed under Politics & B.S., Bloodsport, err Relatives, and Reveries & Paranoias.