In the 1980s and 90s Su Beng began making annual trips to North America, Europe and Brazil in an effort to reach out to the overseas Taiwanese community worldwide.
During his trips to the U.S., he initially traveled across country by air, and then by bus. Later he decided that driving across country would be more convenient, and at around the age of seventy-something, he got himself a driver's license, bought a used car and drove himself across the country!
Just as he had done when he fled from China back to Taiwan in 1949, Su Beng prepared a large bag of manto (a type of Chinese bread), for his cross country trip. When he escaped from the Chinese Communists and out of China at the end of World War II, he subsisted on a big bag of dehydrated manto which he had prepared for his journey.
One time the used car that Su Beng was driving across country broke down and he ended up living out of it as he waited for an auto repair shop to order the broken engine part.
Stories like this inspired a young Taiwanese American girl to write an amateur screenplay in high school about this legendary man that her father had told her about.
And there are more stories out there from the Taiwanese individuals families that befriended Su Beng and opened up their homes to him. I do hope that Su Beng has a chance to reconnect with many of these old friends during his current visit.
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