Two Swordmasters: Chiang Shiao-ho Lee Mo-bai

The two martial arts masters in this book are the teachers featured in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The first master, Chiang Shiao-ho, wrote and compiled the manual from which the hidden dragon learned martial arts. He and his sweetheart have to confront their conflicted feelings of love and the duty of revenge. The second master, Lee Mo-bai, struggles with his complicated feelings for Yu Ceo-lian. They are the older couple depicted in the movie. These two tragic love stories set in nineteenth-century China reflect the wishes of the Chinese people to eradicate two cruel traditions: an eye for eye vengeance and a living widow.

Shiao-shen Yu is a retired teacher-librarian who enjoys sharing her Chinese background through stories. She has written columns about Chinese customs and culture for The Pueblo Chieftain, a daily newspaper, and taught Chinese language and culture classes in Pueblo, Colorado and Boston, Massachusetts. She was born in Northern China in 1939 and educated in Taiwan, Canada, and the United States. She is bilingual and enjoys reading and writing in English and in Chinese. Ms. Yu currently lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and has two daughters, three grandchildren. Her first book - Chinese Chop Suey, a collection of essays, short stories and columns - was published in December 2010.