Widow of Que-Moy by Jeff Chen

About the book

Widow of Que-Moy weaves the romance and tragedy of two young lovers from Shanghai to Que-Moy Island in China. Mary Wu, a beautiful girl with a a kind heart, came from a prominent Chinese family. Lieutenant Mike Brightman served in the U.S. Consulate Guard in Shanghai. Their love affair was entangled by the Chinese civil war (1946-1949) between President Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist regime and Communist party Chairman Mao Tze-Tung's revolutionaries. They were separated when a greedy nationalist general kidnapped Mary to board a ship bound for Taiwan. When communist agents onboard sank the ship, all passengers drowned except Mary. A fisherman from Que-Moy Island rescued her. She later married him when she could not reestablish contact with Mike.

In 1957, the communists captured her husband when his boat floundered in a storm. A-Deh, a communist frogman, sneaked into Que-Moy and persuaded Mary to spy for China in exchange for her husband's life. He too fell for Mary. She was coerced into providing seemingly harmless information that helped the communist to mount a devastating artillery attack in the summer of '58. The infamous "Que-Moy war of cannons" caught the world's attention for 44 days. With communists successfully blockaded all enforcement from Taiwan; Que-Moy was strangled to a slow death. Major Mike Brightman was on the island on an official mission and witnessed the massacre. He came up with the idea of providing the nationalists a large caliber gunship from the U.S. 7th Fleet. President Eisenhower signed off on this clever scheme. The counterattack proved to be too deadly. Mary's husband died when the big shell hit the train station where he slaved. Chairman Mao reluctantly called a truce when he realized the American's had intervened. He could not afford another war against the U.S. after the costly defeat in Korea. Thus communists had inadvertently helped the U.S. and Taiwan to forge a strong bond.

Mike returned to the U.S. not knowing his lost lover was also on the island. He went through more personal tragedies before revisiting Que-Moy in 1968. The widow Mary had embarked on a successful business. The two met and rekindled their love. Chiang Gin-Kuo, son and successor to President Chiang Kai-Shek, had befriended both Mike and Mary during the war of cannons. He agreed to attend their wedding in Que-Moy. Chairman Mao, whose son was killed by the Americans in the Korean War, found this to be a perfect opportunity to revenge on Chiang Kai-Shek. He ordered a commando team, lead by A-Deh to raid the wedding reception and kidnap Chiang's son. A-Deh felt betrayed when he learned that Mary was to marry an American officer. He planned to use the raid to punish Mary and Mike. At the reception, a group of American reporters and officers eager to capture the story, sneaked into the restaurant uninvited through the back entrance. They bumped into the commando and ruined Mao's devious plan. A-Deh, in a desperate last effort, snapped Mary as a hostage and tried to escape the island. In the pursuing flight, she was fatally wounded when she tried to save Mike's life from the hateful A-Deh. She died in Mike's arms. Her last wish was to marry him in the next life, a pledge made in Shanghai. Mike brought Mary's ashes to Shanghai after Presidents Nixon and Carter recognized the Red China. Chiang and Mao never settled their score. Today, US continued to protect Taiwan while maintaining a love-and-hate relationship with China.

About the author

Jeff Chen was born on Mainland China in 1946 and grew up in Taiwan amid military threats from the Communist China. He served in Que-Moy Island (now called Kin-Man) as an air force radar officer in 1968 after he graduated from the National Taiwan University with a bachelor degree in physics. He experienced firsthand the constant fear from the odd-day artillery shelling from the Communist China. He spent nearly a year in the dark and moldy underground bunker writing and translating short stories for Chinese magazines and newspapers in Taiwan. At Que-Moy he met a beautiful and intriguing widow who became the model for the protagonist Mary in his first novel "Widow of Que-Moy."

Jeff came to the U.S. on a Teaching Scholarship from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1969. He married his college sweetheart, Lily Chen in the same year. He received a Ph.D. degree in experimental nuclear physics in 1977. After working in the aerospace industry for three years, he and his wife founded General Sciences Corporation (GSC) specializing in satellite remote sensing, satellite flight dynamics, and Earth sciences.

They grew the company to over $20 million in annual sales and over 250 employees. Their commercial product, Meteorological Information Analysis System (METPRO) was sold to more than twenty countries around the world. Millions of people receive real-time weather forecast from Chen's product. Drs. Jeff and Lily Chen took the company public successfully in 1986. The Newsweek and The Washington Technology selected GSC as one of the top 100 fast growing companies in the mid-80's. In 1992 GSC was acquired by SAIC, an information technology giant. Jeff and Lily stayed on to manage GSC for another eight years before they retired in August 2000.

They dedicated their retirement life to charity and community services. Jeff had served as the President of the Rho-Psi Society and the Chairman of the Board of the Monte Jade Sciences and Technology Association in Washington D.C. He currently serves as a visiting board member to the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Maryland and College Park. Drs. Jeff and Lily Chen have created Chen's Scholarship Endowments at University of Wisconsin and University of Maryland to benefit promising science students.

Recently Jeff has published more than ten short stories in Chinese magazines (Crown, Washington Forum) and newspapers (Washington China Post, United Daily). His humorous story, entitled "My IPO" was incorporated in the book "The Silicon Valley."