Remembering a Forgotten Statesman
History remembers some names and forgets others.
This website accompanies The Forgotten President: A Family Reckons with the Life and Legacy of Gao Lingwei, a work that combines historical research, family memory, and reflection on modern China.
Here readers will find articles, family records, archival materials, photographs, and historical reflections related to Gao Lingwei and his legacy.
About the Author
Gao Shan Wu (吳高山) is a maternal descendant of the Gao family and the author of The Forgotten President: A Family Reckons with the Life and Legacy of Gao Lingwei.
From early childhood, he grew up hearing stories about Gao Lingwei from his mother. As a great-grandson of Gao Lingwei’s elder brother, Gao Lingwen, he had the rare opportunity to live in the same building as many of Gao Lingwei’s surviving close relatives, including his great-grandmother and grandfather, both of whom had personally known Gao Lingwei and his immediate family. Through daily contact with them, he gained firsthand exposure to family traditions, developed an awareness of the differences between family memories and public narratives, and cultivated an enduring interest in the history of the Gao family and the turbulent era in which they lived.
With the arrival of the Internet, he began systematically searching for every available reference to Gao Lingwei, collecting archival materials, contemporary accounts, photographs, newspapers, and historical records over many years. Rather than relying solely on official narratives, he sought out a wide range of sources, including family recollections, overlooked publications, and rarely seen historical images, to better understand both the man and the era in which he lived. What began as a personal curiosity gradually evolved into a long-term historical research project.
This book is the result of that effort. It has undergone numerous revisions over the years, with the most recent revisions completed only days before its online publication on this website. Throughout the process, the author has sought to verify sources whenever possible and to present events with the greatest degree of historical accuracy available to him.
In addition to his historical research and writing, Gao Shan Wu is a certified translator accredited by STIBC and ATIO, and the founder and owner of Translation Wizard, a professional certified Chinese < > English translation service serving clients across Canada.