Thursday, June 30, 2011

Su Beng's 2011 US Visit: early July dates

This weekend, Su Beng will be in San Diego, CA for the Taiwanese American Conference- West Coast from July 1-4.

Appearances are in the works for him in Boston, Washington D.C., New Jersey, New York City's Manhattan, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

I recently confirmed that on July 20th, 7pm-9pm he will be appearing at the New York Taiwan Center, which is located in Flushing, NY at: 137-44 Northern Blvd Flushing, New York 11354.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

About Su Beng's 2011 US Visit

Su Beng's U.S. Cross Country Trips

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.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Su Beng plans to visit the United States in late June!

I just learned that Su Beng will be making a trip to the United States from Taiwan in late June. He will be in the United States for about a month and as far as I know he is planning to visit Los Angeles, San Diego, Michigan, Buffalo, Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. This is certainly not a comprehensive list of all the places that he will visit on his month long visit. This is all very exciting! The last time he visited the United States was nearly 20 years ago.