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Silke Endress: Tell me about your background to your present career. I was born in China, in a city called, Tien-Jing, from there my parents moved to Shanghai when the communist get too close for comfort, again, we moved from Shanghai to Taiwan. My family was very very rich, not just ordinarily rich, but filthy rich, really more rich than old money. Overnight after they left Shanghai, they left all of their wealth in China and went to Taiwan to live as refugees. Until I was three, I lived in an extremely privileged environment, had maids taking of me, and do nothing but chase me around. And from there we became ordinary poor people. Because the whole country was very poor, everybody was poor. I grew up in Taiwan. In those days, Taiwan was very unstable, at any given time China could take over Taiwan. So we have air raid rehearsals at nighttime you would go and hide in the air shelter. I really think that was a great thing and a very valuable experience. You grow up in the environment that being very aware that life is very precious; you don't take things for granted. I remember my mother had a box of white cubic sugar, she would hide it really, really tall above the cabinet and I was about five years old and I secretly climbed to get just one, just once, I wanted to suck on that white sugar cube… and I think it is a wonderful thing because we ate tofu, vegetables, beans and rice, it really give you a good health to start your life. |
Silke Endress: When you look at women today who are starting their own business, and are in executive situation, often we have the challenge to be feminine and have a sense of equality and then have a high level of performance that is comparable to the style of a man, how do you handle it and what advise do you give to women and to be competitive in their marketplace and still be a woman. I don't see myself as a woman or a man. I see myself an entity. An entity that doesn't try to pretend to be a man, I don't try to compete with any man; I only try to compete with me. I don't envy being a man, and I don't feel inferior being a woman, for what I know I am the best. It's very competitive trying to be the man; I just have to be myself because there is only one of me. |