"What she said was so refreshing that we couldn't wait to show off this new knowledge. So in the class of another teacher (陳**) we told him that Communism was not as evil as he wanted us to believe -- he was a die hard Nationalist party loyalist. He went ballistic and asked us where did we get this infernal traitorous idea. We were scared, and told him that Zhang Laoshi told us so. We were scared for Zhang Laoshi too because Chen Laoshi looked like a maniac. But in spite of the scares, Zhang Laoshi fostered independent thinking in me. I am forever indebted to her."
L was my mother's student. She went to Taida with almost the highest score in Joint Entrance Exam. With a History degree she later went on to US and got a PhD in Engineering. She now owns her own engineering consulting firm. I'd never met L till last year when she came to visit my mother.