Potpourri: 20th Party Congress, Oslo Freedom Forum, Pride, Bird Divination

Hello dear friends,

We’ve been so thankful for your kind and supportive messages responding to our life update. The past year has been overwhelming, and it means a lot to us that you read our little missives.

This week’s also the two year anniversary of Michelle’s grandma’s death. Re-reading our eulogy, we were awakened with emotions—among them, guilt that the memory of her has faded. If you have ideas of how to keep alive the memory of loved ones, we’d like to know.

We’ve also been mourning the tragic deaths in Itaewon and the unnecessary loss of life.

The big news here in Taiwan has been China’s 20th Party Congress. We reported in the summer that the Taiwanese were fairly blithe throughout the entire Pelosi visit. But the mood in the circles that we run in has definitely shifted. Although nobody was surprised that Xi Jinping was confirmed for his precedent-breaking third term, everyone was shocked and disturbed at the way Hu Jintao, Xi’s predecessor, was ushered out of the party cong…