| Dream of a Bridge |
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By Hepingdao Victoria, British Columbia Suppose you can reach another side of a dream by a rope with one end attached to a rail and another swinging in the wind You never meant to break a promise to your wife and kids you are the breadwinner but barely make both ends meet Suppose you have wings the ground is becoming soft, liquefied, with ripples of blood and the bridge is drifting like a boat without an anchor line free- dom like a b- ir- d or a lea- f You tried to fly back suppose the land is not too far to reach Suppose another side is as solid as a bridge in a dream you never meant to remember Note: As a new immigrant, Dr. Jiang GuoBing was unable to find a job in his fields: a PHD graduate in Nuclear Physics from Purdue University, and a second PHD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. Dr. Jiang committed suicide on July 21, 2006, by jumping off the bridge at the intersection of Don Mills Road and Highway 401, leaving behind his wife, a 14 year old son and a 2 year old daughter... Background InformationA former professor and senior geologist, he traveled across continents from Asia to Canada, then to Africa, where he managed projects in Mali and Niger. He shifted his career to study Computer Science when his last project in Congo was terminated by both a civil war and a gold depression at the turn of the Millennium. A graduate from the prestigious Peking University, and after 23 years as a full-time student, he earned many degrees, and is fluent in Chinese, English, and French. He divides his time between his job as a software developer, his family as a father of an 18 year old son and a 9 year old daughter, and still makes time for his hobby as a poet. He has published more than 100 poems in Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China. He is the founding president of a non-profit organization, the Chinese Literature Society of North America, which publishes a leading bilingual (Chinese and English) literary magazine, North American Maple. Among his many accomplishments as editor-in-chief, he organized the "HuaHe Cup" 2007 Chinese Mainland and Oversea Poetry Competition, having successfully invited 32 Chinese literary magazines and newspapers from Canada, USA, Australia, and Mainland China to join this international non-governmental effort. He created one of the most influential Chinese literary websites outside of mainland China, http://maplereview.org, where he has built the largest Chinese poetry database, an innovative Chinese Character analyzing tool, and Chinese-English-French dictionaries, by combining web and search engine technologies with Chinese Literature, English and French languages. His devotion to Chinese immigrant literature has been well-recognized by congratulatory letters from the Honorable Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, the Premier of BC, Gordon Campbell, and Victoria Mayor, Alan Lowe. |
