My mom's going to Taiwan with my grandmother to visit her (my mom's) brother and his family. Think it may be the first time she's travelling alone. Well not alone - she'll have my grandmother and my grandmother's maid and then my uncle's family (wife + 2 kids + innumerable dogs) and I think my aunt's mother too and possibly various other relatives - but without any of us. So I watched her pack for a bit tonight, in a strange role reversal, except that she knows exactly what she wants and where the bits go.
The point of all this was. She showed me a Taiwanese note with zhong hua min guo (you know what I mean, even if my pinyin is sadly askew) on it and said that her father named his first four sons for Taiwan: Zhen Zhong, Zhen Hua, Zhen Min, and Zhen Guo. Then came one more son, so he was named Zhen Xin. Was he Taiwanese? I ask in surprise. No, but he hated the Communists and was a strong supporter of the Kuomintang. He has a letter, a something, signed by someone then high up in the KMT thanking him for his help. And he never dared to return to China for fear of being arrested by the Communists.
I'm more or less happy with being rootless and Anglicised but once in a while one wishes - well, to be able to speak Chinese, for a start.