Mao Zedong is comparable to Hitler and Stalin in the devastation he caused and the people he killed. If you want to know more just look him up (preferably outside of the Great Firewall of China.) But I must thank him anyways, as both my existence and my name came forth from him. See, my great-grandfather on my dad's dad's side was a wealthy landowner in China before WWII. And you know what communists do to wealthy landowners. My dad's dad's family moved with Chang Kai Shek's army to Taiwan, where my father was born, and then from Taiwan to America, where I was born.
On a side note my parents met at Harvard in Boston. But that's another story.
So the basic idea is that, without Chairman Mao to cause a mass migration, I probably wouldn't have been born, as my Chinese side would have remained in China, probably under the rule of Kai Shek. But that's just speculation.
My grandfather told me a story. When he was fourteen, he was almost drafted into the Nationalist Chinese army as a child soldier. However, one of the admirals of Kai Shek's navy, who controlled a large fleet of ships, said he would not cooperate with the Nationalist leader unless he agreed not to use child soldiers. So my grandfather was saved from military service.
My name is "Ze-ping" which translates to "River of Peace" (I think). The "Ze" in my name came from the "Ze" of Mao Zedong, while the "ping" came from Deng Xiao Ping (another prominent Chinese political figure, who was also the one to open China back up to the west in the 80's.) I don't know the actual characters for my name (which is a shame) but I've been told this story about my name several times.
So there you have it.
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