Peng Yuan Zhen: The Man

One of the most important virtues to Peng is respect. He is similar to old Confucian ways in that sense for he believes that children should respect their parents, wives and husbands should respect with one another, a friend should respect a friend, and one should respect authority. Peng demonstrated this when we had lunch with him. The restaurant was served "family style"; therefore, bowls of food were placed for the entire table. Before Peng would serve himself, he made sure all the women had food first. Although in Chinese history, men were considered superior, he puts himself last in respect to women. Most importantly, Peng has a great emotional attachment to food. He doesn't ever want to lose it again so he always makes sure he has plenty. The feeling of ache filling out an empty stomach is almost unbearable for him anymore. Peng is also still very connected to China. He goes back every year to visit old friends and the area he once lived in. He thinks that it still hasn't changed too drastically, for the Communists are still in power and the people still have no personal freedom.

The picture to the top right is of Confucius, a famous Chinese philosopher. Many of Peng's virtues are similar to that of Confucius. To both of them, respect was one of the most important integrities someone could have. http://apimages.ap.org/Search.aspx?kw=chinese+scripture&intv=None&sh=14&st=k&remem=x