Chinese History

My eldest sister is a Chinese History grads in Taiwan. In my childhood days, there were rows and rows of books regarding chinese history in the study room and living hall book shelves. So besides 儿童乐园， the other books that I read are those i curiously took out from the selfves. Starting from the simple 西游记，to the slightly more interesting 东周列国志，隋唐演义，岳飞传，to the very long winded 三国演义，水浒传，红楼梦 etc. These are the actual books that i read when I was in my late primary school days.



So not surprisingly I grew up very much interested in Chinese history. When coming for course selection in secondary 3...I actually wanted to study Arts and specialise in Chinese history. This idea, however, is rejected by the 3 sisters,

"you dun earn much by studying history!!"

"dun mix your interest with your study...in that way you will always get to enjoy your interst life long!!"

"Boys better study science subjects!! Girls then study Arts de..."



So how can a poor boy argue with 3 working sisters with working experience?? So in Sec 3, I chose Pure Science + Geograghy instead....not even chinese litreture.



Well maybe they are right afterall...I am now earning a comfortable living as an engineer (of course now converted to a teacher). I still enjoy reading chinese books especially history books. I figure of all books that I read...40% of them are history based. The rest...are then leisure based.



In my book shelfs now, the are rows of history books which I bought and finished reading through the years. Only use of them maybe...is for me to read them through 1 more time when I retire....I have no real application of the knowledge gained seriously...but all the stories, historical events, characters, politics moves, revolutions etc...somehow make 1 a richer person in whole.



When observing a current situation, discussing a case study, leisurely chatting with friends etc, all these useful stories can come in handy and at times they are really the most appropriate to say out rather than to re-invent the wheel.

Too bad my son are into music and cars and daughter are into arts and dance...I guess 1 day I will have to sell them or gave them away...anyone interested??