1. Splitting the family

[This is a fictional Blog. It is temporarily published for comments. There will be further editing.]

Tow was very worried about his three children studying in China. Mao Zedong's communist Red Armies were already occupying most of China. Chiang Kai-Sek's armies could get aid and supplies from the US, but did not have much support of the general population. Some soldiers and officers were deserting.

Tow asked his children to come back to Hong Hong for safety. The second daughter Sie agreed but not the first and third even after much reasoning. The first son Fah was finishing his medical studies up there at a good university and still had to continue his internship there. The third daughter Teh wanted to stay on in China out of revolutionary patriotism. "Why run away? It is our duty to serve and build up the Motherland."

Tow had no choice but to return to Hong Kong with Sie and continued to work in a bank and to look after his family's properties.

Mao's Red Armies continued to advance south. But they stopped at the border with Hong Kong which was a strategic trading outpost ceded to Britain as a colony. The armies were strong enough to march on to take Hong Kong. For some reason they stopped. Thus Hong Kong could still continue as a British colony out in what they called the Far East.

Soon, Chiang had to retreat further. He refused to surrender. Instead he withdrew his administration and his armies to the nearby island of Taiwan considered a part of China. Mao was thus in control of nearly the whole mainland China. In 1949, he could declare in Beijing the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

"What's happening?" Tow said to his wife about their two children. "I wrote to them but there's no reply. The newspapers are reporting bad news of starvation, harsh treatments and imprisonments. I need to go up and visit them."

Unfortunately at the border with mainland China, Tow was not allowed to enter and had to turn back.

Life in Hong Kong for Tow was all right. But he and Hem were anxious for any news of Fah and Teh. Three years later, they were happy to receive a letter direct from Fah.

Fah had finished his medical studies. He got his degree as well as finished his internment to practice. He hinted he was badly treated and monitored. Subsequent Tow understood Fah's bad treatment was because he was an overseas Chinese from Hong Kong and the son of a landowner. But as Fah's medical knowledge was useful, he was sent far up north to Khang, one of the many cities short of doctors. Unfortunately his accommodation had nearly no heating and winter was below freezing there.