Mulan Chao's Obituary
Mulan Chao was born on August 9th, 1935 into a family of medicine in the city Hangzhou, China. She was the eldest daughter with four sisters. Situated on the bank of the West Lake, Hangzhou has a beautiful scenery and mild climate, and is often regarded as a paradise on earth. Mulan Chao had an easy childhood in this well-to-do family. However, before long, the war between China and Japan broke out in 1937, and the family left Hangzhou to move to Sichuan, a province in central China and temporarily settled down in Fengjie, an old city. In Mulan Chao’s memories, the life in Fengjie was simple and often had to hide from the Japanese bombing; yet in general it was pleasant and amusing. Under the tutelage of her father, she started to learn how to read and write. After the war, the whole family returned to her grandparents’ home, Tonglu, a small town in Zhejiang Province. Later they moved to Shanghai. However, at this time the civil war broke out and Shanghai could not escape it. Life there was getting harder and harder. Eventually the whole family took a military ship and left Mainland China from the Port of Shanghai for Taiwan, and started a new life there.Taiwan in the 1940s and 1950s was poor, and totally different from Shanghai. However, far from the flames of war in Mainland, Taiwan finally gave the family a peaceful and stable life. Life in the military residential area in Zuoying was simple, but happy and full of hopes. However her father’s death in 1955 gave the family a big blow, which somehow also determined Mulan Chao’s future. In order to reduce her mother’s burden and help with the family, Mulan Chao, an outstanding student, went to Tainan Normal College, and started a teaching career in Kaohsiung after graduation. The year of 1957 was an important turning point in Mulan Chao’s life. She came to know Wen Chao, who served in the army at the time. Wen Chao often gave her a ride back home, and gradually they fell in love. They got married in 1959 and in the same year their son was born, which gave them a tremendous joy. From then on they never separated from each other for the next fifty five years.Mulan Chao was a very conscientious and outstanding school teacher. She was strict but also warm to her students. In order for the students to learn well, she often spent extra time and efforts helping them with their study. At that time, life was not easy for a young working mother. As her husband served in the army and was often away from home, Mulan Chao had to take care of the child on her own without any help. Meanwhile, part of her meager salary was used to support her mother’s family. Due to her poor health, she left the students and the school she loved and devoted to and moved to Taiping in 1984. Later she and her husband immigrated to the States to join her son’s family and had been living in Fremont of California since then. Nevertheless, living in the States, the life she spent in Hangzhou, Sichuan, Shanghai, Zuoying, and Taipei was rooted deeply in her memory. Her memory fragments were filled with profound emotional attachments to those days.Mulan Chao was strict with herself but generous to others. She was a devoted wife and mother. Although physically weak, Mulan Chao had a strong will. Inflicted with illness for years, she always tenaciously dealt with each medical problem. Meanwhile she maintained the curiosity and interest in new things, and loved reading and raising flowers. At the age of over seventy, she learnt to use the Ipad, write emails, browse the internet, play games, and use the computer to write a memoir. The style of her memory fragments is simple but elegant, revealing her literary mind and temperament.Mulan Chao passed away in the morning of October 4th, 2016, but her figure will always remain in the hearts of her loved ones.
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