Fuxi Lin's animated autobiography talk part2

The wired telegraph is one of the most important innovations in the 19th century. It was invented by Samuel F. B. Morse in 1837 and quickly spread through the world within the next 60 years. The telegraph wire line followed the Yangtze River from Wuhan all the way westward until it reached Chongqing. At the end of my term in the year of 1911, there was about more than 60,000 kilometers of wire network built up with more than 700 telegraph bureaus and sub-bureaus on it all over the country. I was the very last head of the Chongqing Telegraph Bureau, as the 1911 revolution, also known as the Xi'an High Revolution, overthrew the 267-year-old Qing government within a couple of months. The Sichuan Province warlords joined many others by announcing their independence in November. The first place they targeted in Chongqing was my telegraph bureau, which could make their hangover process much smoother, and would help them spread their forces. I expected this, so when they came to my office at Baixiangjia, I was seated in my chair waiting for them. My grandson Lin Tenghua later wrote in his autobiography that they demanded to know if I were convinced to obey them or not. At the time I didn't know too much about politics but looked down on everything violent and responded back to them very unfriendly, so what if I don't? They didn't expect me to answer them like this, especially from a 61-year-old man, and they suddenly didn't know how to deal with me. My daughter-in-law, Mrs. Guo, immediately came forward to make peace. Fortunately, they didn't give me a hard time. While the Qing dynasty was corrupt, they didn't promote uneducated soldiers. By the way, it's worth mentioning here as I arrived in Chongqing in 1908, I got a very nice portrait at one of the best photography shops in the city. It happens to be the only picture that still remains today so my great-grandson Lin Bagong and great-great-grandson Brian Lin can make this video. I am so glad that I can talk to you guys at the Lin's reunion like this and meet each other as if we were alive at the same time period. If you are interested in this period of history, you may go to the Taiwan National Palace Museum, where there are four bundles of telegraph-related files saved from 1909 to 1911 when I was in charge of the Bureau. You might also want to visit the amazing mountain city Chongqing and have a tour of the old Qing dynasty telegraph bureau, which is right next to today's hottest tourist attractions by Xiangjia. Anyways, I resigned soon after and moved my entire family from Chongqing back to my hometown Fuzhou in 1912. In such turbulent times, nowhere is better than your home sweet home. In the first 16-year period of the Republic of China, the government changed almost every year. Warlords fought each other, and they all wanted to control the country alone. On the other hand, people were beginning to wake up and realized the importance of science, democracy, and freedom to their country and themselves. In this period, policies changed every day, and opportunities for education came and went in a blink. To catch the high tide for my Lin's descendants, in 1914, I decided to move our family from Fuzhou to the national capital Beijing permanently. Time has proven that my future generations all benefited from this decision and got their best possible education and good careers to enjoy their lives. When we first moved to Beijing, we lived at No. 32 of Xiangjia in Xianwu District, Beijing. The owner of the property rented it to us at a very reasonable price because my second son, Lin Dingzhang, was a lawyer and had just won a lawsuit for him. The property had three large courtyards. I planted five willow trees in front of the main gate of our residence and decided to pursue the Mr. Five Willow philosophy for the rest of my life. Five Willow is a pen name of one of the best-known ancient Chinese poets Tao Yuanming. Imitating him, I made up my mind to hide from the world. I rejected all invitations to serve as a public official and decided just to follow my own heart and do what I'd like to do. I had the luxury of not worrying too much about poverty or sorrow, and simply spent most of my time reading books and writing poems. Once in a while, I invited my dear friends to sip a few glasses of wine and discuss the events of our common concern. And, of course, one of my daily routines was to teach my grandkids the Chinese classics. While I had lost my wife 11 years before moving to Beijing and never remarried, I lived with my two sons and their families. You just cannot imagine what it looked like with almost 20 kids living under the same roof. They brought me endless happiness. I still remember vividly that occasionally, the younger ones would line up in my room, waiting for me to give them each a small piece of canned sugared peaches. I don't know whether my granddaughter Amy still remembers this or not. One thing we did quite differently compared to today is that we didn't rush our kids to so many outside schools and activities. We were able to provide their education at home and provide them with a lot of freedom, at least until they reached middle school. An old Chinese slang says, the smart birds will choose a better tree to make their nets. I am glad that our family members chose rightly and luckily three times at just the vital moment to bring prosperity to this family. The first migration happened at the end of Ming Dynasty, around 1644, when our 20th generation Lin Sui decided to move his family from the countryside Donghan village to the city of Fuzhou which is the capital of Fujian province. Then at the end of the Qing Dynasty, in 1914, I brought my family from Fuzhou to the national capital, Beijing. Finally, throughout the 1940s to 1990s, your parents and relatives made an even harder decision and brought you from China to this continent, chasing after a dream. More than 90% of our branch's descendants have settled here now, and this includes the remains of nine generations of ancestors starting from the 21st generation. Please don't forget the efforts that your ancestors made for you while enjoy your life. Dear descendants, let me finish here today and wish you all having a good night.