Statistician and activist Nancy Lo was born in southwestern China, but escaped to Taiwan at age six. (see post one.)
Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek moved his capital from China to Taiwan, and more than a million Chinese fled between 1945-49 with him to escape the Communist takeover. Nancy's family was part of that exodus. I’ve often heard of people fleeing to Taiwan, but I wondered of the mechanics of it. Do you take everything? Where do you stay? Are the locals welcoming?
Nancy said that a truck ferried all their family's belongings to and from the airfields. And, when they arrived in Taiwan, villages had been set up for the military and their dependents according to rank. A two-bedroom house was waiting for Nancy and her family in Lo Chung Village, Kangshan, a small town in Kaohsiung (高雄). It was a Japanese-style house, as Japan had occupied Taiwan for fifty years (1895-1945.)
Nancy said that a truck ferried all their family's belongings to and from the airfields. And, when they arrived in Taiwan, villages had been set up for the military and their dependents according to rank. A two-bedroom house was waiting for Nancy and her family in Lo Chung Village, Kangshan, a small town in Kaohsiung (高雄). It was a Japanese-style house, as Japan had occupied Taiwan for fifty years (1895-1945.)
Nancy admits that the influx of over a million Nationalists to this island of roughly 5 million created conflict. In fact, there was something called "228," which referred to a riot
between the Taiwanese and the incoming Nationalists on February 28 (Thus the name '228'),
1947. Thousands of people were killed, and today there is a memorial park
remembering the chaos.
But, at the time, Nancy knew nothing of this. She didn't arrive in Taiwan until 1949. And even when she did move there, she didn't mingle much with the locals. She attended Air Force Elementary School with other Air Force children.
“I had such a good memory of the time I was in Taiwan, and it
just sometimes makes me tears. The school was not that far. The short-cut to
get to school would be to cross the river. Sometimes we walked to school. Other
students rode their bike. It was just wonderful.”
It wasn’t until she entered middle school that she
encountered local Taiwanese students for the first time.
"While the incoming Nationalist government promoted Mandarin, some Taiwanese students still spoke dialect." So, it was difficult for Nancy to understand her classmates. Additionally, she was used to being insulated in a middle-class bubble. In her new school, the student who scored highest on the entrance exam was a local girl whose father was a butcher.
“It was kind of like entering another world.”
(To be continued. Next: Oregon's Warm Welcome.)
"While the incoming Nationalist government promoted Mandarin, some Taiwanese students still spoke dialect." So, it was difficult for Nancy to understand her classmates. Additionally, she was used to being insulated in a middle-class bubble. In her new school, the student who scored highest on the entrance exam was a local girl whose father was a butcher.
“It was kind of like entering another world.”
(To be continued. Next: Oregon's Warm Welcome.)
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