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