LAGUNA WOODS, California – Just before David Wenwei Chou glued and chained shut the doors of California's Geneva Presbyterian Church, then shot the elderly congregants inside, he mailed his handwritten diaries to a Taiwanese newspaper.
He titled his screed: "Diary of an Angel of Destroying Independence" — referring to Taiwanese independence from China.
The rampage this past May left one person dead and five injured. It also exposed how complex Taiwanese and Chinese identities are — and how a combustible mixture of political enmities imported by diaspora communities combined with American gun culture can prove deadly.
