I have reasons to believe that these stories when written will make interesting readings, and that readers will like to hear more.  It was because each and every time I told and retold these stories to my children, I could plainly see the bewilderment and thrill in their wide-opened tell-tale eyes  – wishing earnestly to hear more.  The same kind of thrills were also clearly displayed in the much amazed eyes and delighted faces of my friends in church and at work, when  I happened to be telling some of these stories to them.

So here I am, putting pen to paper – hoping that, in reading them, readers will fall in love with my mom and dad too!

* The Scene of the stories *

They all took place in the Land of the Dragons, the land  where all the people living in it, believed that they were, ever since the world began, the sons and daughters of the peace-loving and spirited dragon.

This Land was also believed to be the Center of the Earth, surrounded by mountains and oceans on all sides.  And, over this good Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars and all the heavenly bodies revolved.

In this Center of the Earth  (???, through the 4000 years of written history, Empires were built  –  with good Emperors continued to rule, to maintain peace and to look after the welfare of the people, and with the bad Emperors quickly eliminated.

The only threat to peace in this Land was from the barbaric nomad tribes who in their search for food and shelter made attacks from over the mountains in the North. To keep them out, the `Emperor Qin` built the Great Wall, stretching over a thousand miles, on the mountain tops overlooking the wilderness of the North.  On this Great Wall, signal towers were built within sight of each other, to give smoke warnings to the garrison troops nearby. This formidable Wall did successfully keep all invaders away.

* The  Period of these stories *

These stories occurred at a time when this Great Wall was no longer able to keep off undreamed of enemies from the countries in the West  –  enemies with battleships, armed with modern weapons of guns and canons, capable of making attacks to the ‘Center of the Earth’ from across oceans and seas.

It was at a time when the ignorant ruling Empress was totally unaware of the rapid advances in war-weapons in the western countries.  She was still complacent in the defending power of her Imperial Armies, with heroes and masters of swords and arrows!   Her complacency led her to empty out all her Treasury Reserves to build an ‘Imperial Garden’ resembling the incredibly beautiful `Kun Ming Lake`,  and capturing all the attractions of the picturesque `Hang Chou` City. The vast expenditures involved, included the use of the budgeted fund for the ‘modernization’  of the Imperial Navy –  the replacement of old warships in wood with modern battleships in metal.  This resulted in the total annihilation of  the Imperial fleet by the modern Japanese Navy in a naval battle at the Yellow Sea, during the War with Japan in the early 19th century.

This national shame and disaster had awaken the Sleeping Dragon.  A revolution was underway.  Dr. Sun Yat-Sin was the leader. Under his leadership were gathered together all the sons and daughters of the dragon who were ready to dedicate their lives to overthrow the corrupted Imperial rule and to the building of a new democratic Republic with freedom and equality for all the people.  My dad was one of those revolution pioneers.

….more to come!