User:Yichiang

For reasons unknown, it seems that Chinese people keep very good family ancestry records. In my grandfather’s side, I could trace my family history back to the 15th century in the time of the Ming Dynasty. However, I was unsuccessful in gathering much information from my grandmother’s side. Our family comes from a descendent of the eastern coastal region of what is now known as Shang-Hai. The religion of choice was Confuciusiam is the beliefs of Confucius still are a big influence in our family’s modern lives. Because of the ancient version of the draft, all the men in the family had military experience. My decedents fought in the revival of the first true Chinese Emperor since the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. From that time, the family split into two different branches, one in the capital city, Beijing and Shang-Hai. According to our records, the family in Shang-Hai became less mentioned until it seemed that they were forgotten, (perhaps that branch of the family produced no good male heirs) and the branch in Beijing became more and more prominent in the political scene. Our family had a successful transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty in the 17th century. I was surprised to learn that one of our decedents had encountered a European silk trader on the infamous silk trading routes. Not much happened until the start of the Opium Wars in the 1840’s, where one of our decedents were sent with Lin Zexu’s regime to regulate the prohibition of opium in Guangzhou. He was killed in an attempt to locate a stash of British opium. Our family saw a peaceful transition into the democratic government after the Chinese nationalist movement. Allied with Chiang Kai-Shek, out family became a member of the nationalist political party in the new democratic China of the early 1900’s. However, in 1949 the communist revolution caused my great-grandfather to move into the Taiwan. From there, our families established ourselves in the area known as Tai-Zhong, and from this day still reside there. We still hold our properties in the mainland; waiting for the day that communism is overthrown.

There is significantly less information on my grandmother’s side. She is a quarter Japanese and is born in Taiwan. They moved from Japan during the 1920’s to Taiwan because of the oppression of the Emperor towards the outer realms of what is now known as Kagoshima. My grandparents met after his service for the nationalist army, settling down and starting a construction company. My grandparents would plan over 40% of the real estate expansion of Tai-Zhong.

I was born November 29 1986 in Taipei, Taiwan. I came to the United States, more specifically Miami, when I was six and attended elementary school here. I moved back for two years in Taiwan to train for the Taiwan National Junior Baseball Team during my 6th and 7th grade of school. I would return to the States in the 8th grade, the transition was actually not that hard at all, with me having already a good grasp of the English language before I left. I attended Coral Reef Senior High school and lettered in Basketball and Baseball sophomore through Senior Year. During Junior I embarked on an alternative path of education in which I dual-enrolled in college while in high school. This required me to take only three high school classes while also attending three college classes. During senior year, I tore my rotator cuff and any sports scholarships that would have come with that. I am a full Bright Futures Recipient and a National Merit Semi-Finalist. I am a Bio/Economics Double Major at the University of Florida with serious intentions to go to medical school. I am currently rehabbing my shoulder in hoping to once again play baseball at a competitive level again.