A Spider in the Storm

Untitled Part 1

                  A Spider in the Storm

My world, my time, my life, my thoughts

By Albert Liang-Chung Chu

Foreword

Dear Reader:

Welcome to my life's journey.

Unless you are a member of my family or a personal friend, chances are you have never seen or heard my name before you picked up or downloaded this book. I'm not a celebrity of any stripe, nor can I claim any significant achievement in life except for my beautiful family. I'm not a popular entertainer, a star athlete, a crafty politician, a decorated general, or a bestselling author. Although I have a lifetime interest in writing and have done a lot of it during my business career, I'd never written a full-length book until now. I'm just a retired work-a-day man and a rather low-level one at that.

So where did I find the temerity to publish a book about my life? Who care to know about the life of an ordinary man? Surprise! I do have a life story that you will find interesting. In fact, I believe many "ordinary" men and women do have an interesting life story to tell if someone bother to discover into it. I was born into a turbulent time in a war-ravaged part of the world; I had a difficult but interesting time growing up and had to move through a few countries and dodged quite a few bullets, so to speak, while doing so. With some dumb luck and a few high-wire acts, I managed to piece together a good education, immigrate to the United States, build a career and grow a nice family. Now that I have just passed 80, comfortably retired with one lovely wife, three accomplished children and six beautiful grandchildren, I feel like a billionaire, if only in blessings. This book is an account of how I navigated my life's path and managed to survive.

Back in the 1990's, I decided to create a private manuscript about my life and the history of my family just for the benefit of my children and grandchildren. I'd always been a man of few words. I don't recall ever having a long talk with my wife or my children about my childhood or about my parents. This was mostly because that was the way my father related to me: with very few words, and partly because, for some reason, I had always been more comfortable expressing myself in written words than in speech. I regretted that failure on my part but I do want them to know me better. More than my own life story I want my children and grandchildren, nephews and nieces to know more about our family, which has a long and interesting history.

During my lifetime, in fact even before I was born, Asia in general, and China in particular, had suffered through a series of wars and undergone dramatic changes socially, politically, economically and even culturally. The social mores where I lived during my childhood are unrecognizable today. For my children and grandchildren who grew up in a much more stable and comfortable world than I did, to know me they need to know the very different world in which I grew up.

Autobiographies and memoirs of celebrities are very popular today. They are entertaining and they satisfy the curious mind. Life stories of ordinary people, while not as exciting or newsworthy, are more aligned with those of most people on earth and can be a good source of life's lessons. Reflecting on my young adulthood with my ignorance of the world and bewilderment about my future, I thought my story could help today's young people everywhere who are, or will soon be, facing the prospect of choosing a career and stepping onto their own independent life path. Although each individual has a different set of circumstances and everything changes with time, the need to make choices under uncertain or ambiguous situation is a constant reality. I have made many such choices in my life, some good ones and some bad ones as they are viewed today. I could only thank my lucky star for keeping me standing at the end. I would like to share my experience with today's young people.