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#1 My grandfather, Chen Shouchun, was the first member of the Chen family to break away from a long tradition of scholar-officials. He went to the Baoding Military Academy, where he took a new name: Chen Daodi, meaning Chen Who Smashes the Enemy. He briefly served in the Nationalist Army, and then returned home to marry and have children.

#2 The family was at the Confucian apex, and Grandfather's mother, a commanding person with bound feet, was the strongest example for Jun and Hong, her granddaughters. Grandfather, who had been given little education, was a strong and well-respected man.

#3 The family compound known as the Flower Fragrant Garden was where the extended Chen family lived. It was there that Jun and Hong were raised, surrounded by a large family, and exposed to the family's values.

#4 The Chen family, which originated in Luozhou, a small island in the fertile estuary at the mouth of the Min River, had moved upriver to Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, by the time another ancestor, Chen Ruolin, won the clan's second jinshi in 1787. They were all top degree holders in the bureaucratic system.