Chongs’ Little Red Book

An icon of China and communism (and also of propaganda) was Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book.  About 2 billion copies published, it's one of the most widely produced of all time. During China's "Cultural Revolution," it was mandatory to own one.

The Little Red Book (or Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong) contains 267 aphorisms on class struggle, correcting mistaken ideas, etc.  Included is his famous remark that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” 

Now comes another Little Red Book with two copies published and read repeatedly by about two people—Tony and me, co-authors of the book.    

This is our first and only collaborative work since those ancient days in Chicago when we published Ang Balita (Filipino-American newspaper), with Tony as the Editor-in-Chief and I, one of his staff writers.

What prompted us to co-author a book?  

A letter from Son #2 JB, his wife Gianina, and son Adrian, who reside in the US. 

Perhaps concerned that the pandemic would get on our nerves or bore us to death, they gifted us with this project from Storyworth, publisher. The concept? Record stories about and for the family for one year. Then it will be published! 

Every Monday, we were emailed questions as prompts. Tony and I would alternate writing one and email back our stories with accompanying photos.

At the end of one year, we received a beautifully-bound-keepsake book—in red (the color we chose to signify the Chongs’ ancestry).  This 230-page book has 53 stories and tons of photos. 

Tony and I decided to dedicate the book to our one and only grandson, Adrian, whose painting is on the cover (circa 2015, when he was eight years old and was with us for a short vist. Bahas is a character he created—half baboy [pig] and half ahas [snake]).

One day, when Tony and I are both gone, Adrian will get to know his Angkong (Chinese honorific for father of my father) and Amah (honorific for mother of my father) a little better, and learn that we lived not by "power growing out of the barrel of a gun," but on nothing but God’s grace. 

Whenever Tony and I read our chef-d'oeuvre, we spot a typo error. Unlike Mao’s Red Book, with a battery of editors, we were each other’s editor. So there.  

Ah, but that whole year, our minds were kept busy, trying to relish again what had long been forgotten, and laughing at funny anecdotes that suddenly tickled our memory. 

"Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me." (Psalm 71:18 NLT)