I was born in Zhumadian Village in Henan Province in the center of China on Chinese New Year’s in 1964, the year of the Dragon. That’s why everybody has to try to be better and understand and help others. Yes, it’s sad but it’s like the weather: you can’t change it. This is when everybody said “everything is great, there is lot’s of food” but it wasn’t true. Before I was born two of my older brothers and one older sister died of starvation in Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” in the late 1950’s. They worked underground as telex operators. My parents eventually got jobs for the Chinese government under Mao Zedong. She also had her feet bound, as was the common practice of the time. She, like most other girls in China at the time, was not educated and raised solely to be a mother and housewife. My mother’s family was better off, but not much. He had to sleep under a wood burning stove or burrow a hole in a stack of wheat to keep warm.ĭespite the hardship he was self-taught he was extremely literate and a great writer and excellent calligrapher. They were basically homeless they had to go door to door and beg for food and he never went to school. My father grew up in an extremely poor family. “Before there are branches, there are roots. Therefore, to tell the story of my life I must start by talking about my parents. If you would like a short or modern day biography for press, please click here. This is an edited version of an interview Shifu gave to the press in the 1993 which provides a detailed background story on Shifu’s life and youth.
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