I'm a Major General
One-star General, Major General
I've been retired for 25 years
I'm now 86 years old
My wife is a Muslim too
for many generations
She's also from China?
Yes, she's from China
born in Shanghai
But her grandfather
my wife’s maternal grandfather
their ancestors came from Persia
Even me
my great great grandfather is mixed
my brother, has blue eyes
and hair like his
In total, of the people who originally came from the Mainland to Taiwan
there are now less than 300,000 Muslims
but there are also 190,000 Indonesian migrant workers
As well as other Muslims from the Middle East, North Africa and other places
who come to Taiwan to study, do business
there are several thousand of them
So perhaps in total there's 200,000 Muslims
I heard that when the KMT came to Taiwan
many Taiwanese Muslims went to the Middle East to study
starting in the 1940's and 1950's
Students you mean?
Yes, students going to Saudi Arabia for example
Yes to Saudi Arabia, some to Syria, Iraq
but most of them to Libya
My brother in law, my wife’s brother
she studied Arabic in Libya for ten years.
They were sponsored by the government?
Yes, MOFA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
I think in total there was around 200 of them
200 Taiwanese students who went to the Middle East to study Arabic
In the department of Arabic Literature in National Chengchi University
the founder is a Taiwanese Muslim.
He is a graduate of Al-Azhar University (in Cairo)
Right now the Imam of Taichung and the Imam of Taipei
are also graduates of Al-Azhar
And are your children and your friends’ children Muslims?
Yes
naturally!
I am Muslim, but I am also Chinese
Chinese people have Chinese traditions
we kept the Chinese traditions
Muslims have two festivals: Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.
These two festivals aside, in Taiwan and Mainland China there is Mid-Autumn Festival
also Dragon Boat Festival where people eat Zongzi (rice dumplings)
Well we also eat Zongzi!
Do you also celebrate the Tomb Sweeping festival?
Yes we do!
We also sweep the tombs, go and visit the tombs