This is an amazing story of how many sinuous turns a life has got! Nevertheless, James C. Ma is strong enough to have seen it all through. Particularly, James, with his good administrative and leadership skills, shines as Department Head, Dean of Liberal Arts College, Provost and Dean of Students successfully at NCKU. As James'' College classmate, I''m proud of how he rises from foot soldier to both literary professor and poet in name and in reality, never shying away from challenges.”
──Fuhsiung Lin on October 4, 2020

“A remarkable personal account concerning one of the epochal periods in Chinese History.”
──Dr. Hsincheng Chuang

“The vivid epitome of the individual struggle for survival in the big era; the magnificent life challenges to be admired by the others.”
──Chair Professor, Weiming Lu, Institution of Education at NCKU

“Prof. Ma''s memoir shows his tremendous amount of guts and indomitable spirit in his personal odyssey in the late 1940s when retreating south in the Chinese Civil War. He fulfilled the essence of the quotes from Hemingway as saying: “Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” He was not defeated nor discouraged by the mistreatmeat of those vicious and illerate cadres on the Penghu Islands, and instead, he succeeded in earning his BA and advanced degrees MA and Ed.D. after he quit the army. This book is a tour deforce. And it inspires me with confidence to pursue my academic career.”
──Assistant Prof., Shuimei Chung, I-Shou University