Writer Kenneth Hsien-Yung Pai talks about his tumultuous childhood living in China during and after the Second Sino-Japanese war. He was diagnosed with Tuberculosis as a child and it affected his views on the world. He discusses his inspirations to become a writer and talks about writing the biography about his father Bai Chongxi, a Kuomintang general. His travels led him to the US at the age of 25 to pursue his studies and eventually becoming a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. He later returns to China and begins to promote Kun opera and putting together a revival of the play “Peony Pavilion” in 2004.