Chuan-Yen Tai's Obituary
Husband, Father, Grandfather, War Veteran, and Real Estate DeveloperChuan-Yen Tai (pronounced as Dai) was born on March 8, 1924 (the 13th year of the Republic of China) to a family with traditions of learned scholars and government officials in Lushi City, Pingshiang County of Jiangshi Province of China. He was the youngest of the six children of father Hua-Peng Dai, a renowned calligrapher, educator, and government official and mother from the family Wang. His childhood years were spent in the waning years of the civil war among the warlords and China’s resistance war against Japanese invasion (1937-1945). After finishing the First High School in the provincial capital city Nanchang, he went on to study in National Chung Cheng University in southern Jiangshi province. Before graduating from college, with the ending of the Sino-Japanese War and the great demand of manpower for the national recovery effort, he was appointed Superintendent of the School District of Pingshiang County. Soon after, the war between the Nationalists and the Communists broke out, and he joined the Army of the Republic of China, serving in the 92nd Division headed by General Yue-Nan Lee (who was married to his sister Chiung-Hua Dai) and rising to the rank of Major. In 1949, he followed the army’s retreat to Taiwan where he started the second chapter of his trilogy of life. In 1951 in Taiwan, he got reacquainted with his future wife, Chiung-Hua Liu from his hometown. Soon they got married and started a 65-year long relation building their lives together. After attending and graduating in the inaugural class of the Military Academy of Political Warfare and later on the University of Military Command and Staff, he was assigned to serve in the Airforce of the Republic of China. His duties as the chief political warfare officer of various units moved him around the island of Taiwan while Chiung-Hua taught in elementary schools. Eventually they settled in the city of Taipei where they reared their two sons Hai-Lung and Hai-Pin. In 1971 he retired from the Airforce at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Soon he started a construction company of his own, developing real estate properties in the Taichung County. For over a decade, his company built more than a thousand condos and apartments. After 1979 when the US broke formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan and caused a real estate crash, he gradually phased out his real estate business in the early 1980’s. After Chiung-Hua’s retirement from teaching, as both sons have settled down in the US, in 1989 he and his wife moved to Fremont, California where they have established residence till now. His retirement days were devoted mainly to his wife and the caring of his grandchildren Andrew, Megan, and Jimmy, children of Hai-Pin whose family lives nearby in Fremont. Chuan-Yen Tai is survived by his wife Chiung-Hua, sons Hai-Lung (Sophia) and Hai-Pin (Yalun) who are accomplished in higher education and semiconductor industry respectively, grandchildren Andrew (Maiko), Megan (Peter), Jimmy, and Amber and Franklin (of Hai-Lung), and great granddaughter Amelia (of Andrew).
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