The history of the Republic of China is very short, only thirty-eight years.Although the history of the Republic of China is short, it is very lively, and there have been many major events.Things are done by people, so there were many people in the period of the Republic of China.But no matter how great a person is, no matter how great a person is, he has to live a small life, just as Churchill said: There is no great man in the eyes of a servant. "Big people" live a small life, sometimes it is like writing a small article with a big hand, and the stories they leave behind often make people sing and sigh three times, with endless aftertaste.In fact, regardless of the size of the characters, their private life without masks is obviously more likely to arouse the curiosity of ordinary people than to appear in public.

This book is about private life, or some aspects, fragments, and details of private life.After all, the memorizer's brain is not equal to a tape recorder or a video camera, and no one can guarantee whether some of the details can withstand the scrutiny of the so-called historians who are obsessed with textual research.What we try our best to do is to let readers read a good book, know some interesting stories, and get a taste of the style of the past.But the background of the story is real, and the story is clear, it is not pretentious, let alone made up out of thin air. This is a book to be flipped at random - no beginning or end, no chapters, no order.There are only ten or twenty topics classified according to category, and it may not be very clear, because in the things in life, there is often me in you, and you in me.On one page, this paragraph is about the first year of the Republic of China, the next paragraph may be at the end of the 1940s, and the next paragraph may return to the early years of the Republic of China. Anyway, it is the people and events of the past thirty years.Readers can read from the first page, from the last page, from any page.In another sense, "flipping at will" means that the book is not heavy from the outside to the inside, and it is a book that relieves boredom, and can be read in fragments of time in most private or public places, such as bedside, bathroom, etc. , kitchens, balconies, such as various means of transportation, such as banks, parks, streets, riversides, hospitals, restaurants, cafes, teahouses, outdoor camping tents...

The history of the Republic of China has passed a hundred years, and the number of people who can still recall those events in the Republic of China is decreasing day by day.There are many monographs and textbooks on the history of the Republic of China, but most of them are preaching, and it is difficult to attract readers and bring them to the Republic of China.If we can change our perspective, put aside the so-called big events, and see how those "big people" and more small people lived back then, and what kind of life they lived, wouldn't it be equivalent to going to the Republic of China?

The author's knowledge and reading are limited, and omissions and shortcomings in the book are inevitable, which can be predicted before writing.Fortunately, this is not a "encyclopedia" kind of reader, and "Republic of China" is not a place where you have to wander around all the time.The remaining regrets can only be made up for by another opportunity. My friend Mr. Wang Hejie reviewed the manuscript word by word, corrected many mistakes and omissions, and put forward many insightful opinions and suggestions; my friend Mr. Ma Changhong gave the author many useful pointers, and put a lot of thought and energy into it; Pan Zhenping of Sanlian Bookstore The deputy editor-in-chief and editor Xu Guoqiang gave great support and assistance to the publication of the manuscript.I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to them.

Liu Yangdong August 2011