was invited to a pot-luck dinner last night. being a visitor left home alone, i was exempted from having to prepare any dish.
there were 16 of us, age ranging from 30 to 70, all originally from Taiwan or Mainland. an interesting bunch.
there's one moment tho' when i felt some tension in the air...when the 70 year old gentleman from Taiwan told the 30 year old university research fellow from Mainland how more evil Communists and Mao had been than Japanese, in that they'd killed more Chinese after '48 than Japanese during the war.
while everything he said was true, it certainly wasn't the best topic to touch on over dinner on New Year's Day.
anyway, looking and talking to them, all friendly and having some small accomplishments, i felt slightly relieved...i knew i'd be one of them if i'd stayed back in US in the last 25 years. i'm happy being who and where i am.