Author Archives: W. S. Lien

To lament about the ravage of humanity by the Covid-19 sees only one side of the pandemic. Between the pages of stories of human tragedies, images of the healing of Nature leap out. Early reports showed us the disappearance of … Continue reading →

Sunday, 18 August 2018 Hazy start followed by a bright, sunny day I woke up to the first hazy morning since last Wednesday. Back in the UK, I moan about sunless days, but the coolness in LA this morning was … Continue reading →

Green Island As a child born and brought up in a Veteran’s Village in Taiwan in the 60s and 70s, my early childhood was overshadowed by the constant warning – from my ex-Nationalist army officer father – of the Communist … Continue reading →

When my father passed away, I inherited his memoirs. They were drafts of varying stages of readiness. Some were neater copies of earlier attempts; some rewrites of disjointed threads; all enthralling, an alien world in his familiar hand. My father … Continue reading →

The teacher who believed in me Pride and a profound sense of trepidatious pride was how I felt. When the rest of the class had to complete their writing in our double Composition class, I was allowed to continue to … Continue reading →

New Challenges – My Study Weekend Coming to terms with a real possibility of defeat is a challenge to everyone. My study weekend during school half term is a case in point. It has also been a sharp reminder of … Continue reading →

Inevitably, the only way out of this Taiwanese v Chinese binary was by adopting a new identity of a faraway culture. Whilst most of my contemporaries were drawn to the new democracy of the United States Of America, I found … Continue reading →

In Search of an Authentic Identity Mandarin Chinese is my first language, Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese are my “mother tongues” as my mother was native Taiwanese born and my father Chinese. Even though my maternal grandparents could speak some Japanese … Continue reading →

The outrage this week that has been expressed by some educators on Twitter against David Didau’s What causes behaviour? has prompted many to inspect their own thinking on race and intelligence. I am not a geneticist so I am not … Continue reading →