Taiwan Today

Since late 1987, when Taiwan residents were first allowed to travel to the Mainland, more than 1.5 million people have visited their lao-chia or “old ancestral home.” Some examples:

Nicholas Fan (范毅舜), a 30-year-old photographer and the son of a retired soldier, went to the Mainland in 1988 and 1989.

FCR: Since you were born in Taiwan, why did you want to go to the Mainland?

Fan: There was a simple reason for my first trip. Both my parents came from the Mainland, and my father had already gone back many times. So in September 1988, I took my mother to see my maternal grandmother, who lives in a small village north of Tientsin, in Hopeh province in northern China. My mother’s family used to be large and rich, and because of that they were oppressed by the communists.

After we came back to Taiwan, I kept wondering how people could survive in circumstances so full of sadness and hardship. I thought there should be answers to my questions that I didn’t find during the first trip, so I went again in November 1989. I interviewed many people and took around three thousand pictures. I plan to have a photo exhibition this year and will also publish a book of the stories I heard while at my family’s old home.

FCR: What were your expectations before you went, and what really happened?

Fan: Before I left, a few friends asked me: “What does your old family home mean to you?” I really didn’t know how to answer.

During our stopover in Hong Kong, I told my mother that if our family asked for money or gifts as many other Taiwan visitors had experienced, we would pack up and go home immediately. But later I felt ashamed of having had such a snobbish thought. When we landed in Peking, I found that the airport staff members were very unhappy and unfriendly. At first, I told myself, “It isn’t our country.” But then I realized that their attitudes were understandable because their system had made them this way.

My mother’s old home was a ninety-minute drive away from Tientsin city. As soon as we got there, my grandmother gave me a gift of fifty renminbi [about US$10], an amount equal to around fifteen day’s wages. Mother’s family were very affectionate toward her, even though they hadn’t seen each other for forty years. They tried hard to make us feel at home.

Although I lost about ten pounds because of the food, I couldn’t bear to seem reluctant to eat what they offered because it would hurt their feelings.

It was striking to find out what traditional Chinese farmers were really like by talking with people at mother’s old home. Except for some educated people, they seldom complained about life because they thought it was already much better than before. Farmers simply get up early to work, and rest after the sunsets. It’s important to realize that over 90 percent of the Mainland is made up of such people.

Even though the graveyards had been plowed over and the ancestral halls were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, the deep-rooted Chinese tradition was still there. For instance, people still prefer sons over daughters so they can continue the family line.

I used to think that the ROC government was just propagandizing about the Mainland’s material backwardness. But I found out that it was true when I saw it myself. For instance, there was tap water only an hour a day, and there was no door for the public toilet.

Although people were sometimes keen to gain petty advantages from Taiwan visitors, these events shouldn’t be emphasized or exaggerated, as often happens here and elsewhere. Instead, the humanistic side rather than the materialistic side of Mainland people should be reported. Many professional photographers went to the Mainland before I did, but most of their pictures of people—on purpose or not—portrayed shabbiness. For me that’s immoral. In my book, I want to provide a different perspective of the Mainland.

FCR: Was the purpose of your second trip to be more of a journalist than a photographer?

Fan: Pictures alone can’t tell so many stories. Actually, I had no special plan. Unlike many Taiwan visitors, I spent most of my time in the village just listening and talking with people. My Mainland cousin took me to visit people almost every night, and I chatted with them until they felt I was well enough acquainted to take their pictures.

One memorable story I heard happened during the Cultural Revolution. When the man telling the story was still a small boy, his teacher took him and his classmates one night to shovel and destroy family grave sites. He and his fellow students thought it was a lot of fun, and they were all proud of what they were doing for Chairman Mao. But an older student dragged out a body from one grave and everyone was shocked. Now he realizes that he wasted much time during that period, and he swore not to let the same thing happen to his children.

Another story concerns how my cousin’s wife struggled to have another baby after she had given birth to three girls. The government caught her and was going to force an abortion. Fortunately, she ran away one day before the baby was born. It was a boy, and now he is the center of the family.

Chang Tsung-Iung (張從龍), a 73-year-old retired government official, went to Chekiang province in southeastern China in 1988 and 1990.

FCR: Could you tell us about your family in the Mainland and about your reasons for going back to visit?

Chang: My father worked for the post office, and I was in the army before the communists took over the Mainland.

After I fled to Taiwan, my family was included in the “five categories of black elements,” [黑五類, groups of people under political attack]. Our old family home, which my father had purchased with his retirement pay, was confiscated. But later the communists rehabilitated my family and gave half of the house back to my son.

My son was only two when I left. He now works for a paper factory and has two children. My mother is ninety-seven and lives with my sister. My Mainland wife didn’t marry again. I took my Taiwan wife to visit them on my second trip in May 1990.

FCR: What were your expectations before you went, and what really happened?

Chang: Until our government permitted Mainland visits in 1987, I heard from the old home only through our relatives in West Germany. My old home in Wenchow city [in Chekiang province] has changed a lot since I left. If one looks on the surface only, it has made great progress in public construction. For example, the rural construction we saw in our second trip was better than what we saw during our first visit, and it was far better than forty years ago.

But generally speaking, people’s lives are still difficult, even though prices are low. Take my son as an example. He heads a paper factory but makes only about 250 renminbi monthly [roughly US$50], which is a medium level income. People said that a minister-level government official makes only one and a half times more.

It seems that people in my old home lead a better life than the average. Wenchow is near the sea and has a business tradition. Its population is about 800,000. Almost every household runs a small business, such as a food stand. I estimate each family’s property is worth at least US$5,000 to US$7,000. The city’s location is also a blessing in that it brings great profits from smuggling items to Taiwan. Some businessmen have four to eight times the income of government officials.

It looks very capitalist and even busier than where I live in Taiwan, and the traffic is even worse than in Taipei. I felt very unsafe when walking in the streets with eight thousand automobiles and countless bicycles rushing about without any order.

To sum up, people’s lives in the coastal provinces are already fairly good. If the authorities loosen their control over people a bit, it’s really not difficult for people there to have a better life.

FCR: Did you have any problems during your two trips? Do you plan to go again in the near future?

Chang: Actually, I encountered no serious problems. The communists give favored treatment to Taiwan visitors. For example, when we first went there, we didn’t have to line up for tickets. We could also buy soft-seat train tickets, while local Mainland residents couldn’t. But there was not as much similar treatment during our second trip.

In the Taiwan TV program “Eight Thousand Miles, Clouds and the Moon” [see FCR, February 1990], which provides audiences with a view of the Mainland, the food always looks quite appetizing. But we found out that things were not so good as they seemed through the camera. The food was all right in restaurants or hotels, but not outside these places. The service is poor even in big restaurants, most of which are publicly owned. The customers have to serve the meals themselves.

I am the only son of the family. As long as my mother is alive, I have to go back or I will feel regretful. But I live on my retirement pay and have a family here. Besides, I’d like to give my Mainland family some presents, even though they don’t ask for them. Therefore, I can’t afford to go back every year. However, I will go back again next year for my mother’s 100th birthday.

FCR: What do you think about the government’s policy concerning relatives visiting the Mainland?

Chang: Three years ago, my sister wrote me that my mother was sick and hoped to see my Taiwan wife. But my wife is a government employee, and wasn’t allowed to go at that time. I wrote to then Premier Lee Huan, suggesting that the government relax the ban. He promised to consider my suggestion. In fact, many people here, including public servants, found ways to go the Mainland before the government lifted the ban. They went, and nothing happened after they came back.

Now, except for the higher-level officials, government employees can go to the Mainland if they have a certificate issued in the Mainland saying that their Mainland relatives are sick. It’s easy to get such a certificate.

Lily Wei, 30, has gone to the Mainland five times as a student, a tourist, and a journalist.

FCR: Why have you gone to the Mainland so many times since 1987?

Wei: I was a student in the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University [in Taipei]. Although my school specialized in Mainland and Chinese communist issues, we mostly read theoretical material. After the government lifted its ban on Mainland visits, I decided to see for myself what the socialistic system was really like.

I first went there in 1987 and traveled in coastal southeastern China. The trip was mainly for sightseeing, but I also visited my mother’s old home in Kwangtung province. It was a short stay.

A few months after my first trip, I was told that the communist party would have its party history material open to Taiwan researchers. Since my doctoral dissertation is on Mao Tse-tung and the Cultural Revolution, I went there again. Later, I left the Mainland for a brief trip to Hong Kong, then went back again. That was my third trip.

In 1988, I was working as an editor in Taiwan for the Mainland focus pages of a local paper. It was necessary for my newspaper to report on the special economic zones in the Mainland, such as Chuhai and Hainan Island, so in May of that year I took a ten-day trip to those zones. Not long after I came back, I quit the newspaper and went to Peking again to do work on my dissertation. This was after the Tienanmen tragedy, so I was unable to meet with the people I needed to see.

FCR: What were your expectations before you went to the Mainland, and were they fulfilled?

Wei: Generally speaking, Mainland people consider all visitors from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan to be overseas Chinese. But they have more affection for us from Taiwan because we speak the same language. Thanks to my educational background, I could easily talk with them and follow their logic. People there thought I was like one of them.

I have finished my thesis. During my field survey in the Mainland, many people shared their personal experiences in the Cultural Revolution with me. I used to think that the ROC government had too much anti-communist propaganda and made people skeptical of it. Not until I talked with people in the Mainland did I find out that the reality was worse than the propaganda.

Some people there resent the communists and the socialist system, but others think it’s all right. They haven’t thought of going back to the times before the communists and don’t know about Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People.

Actually, the political influence from Taiwan is far less influential than our soap opera series on TV. When I was in Mukden in the northeast, a lady told me that Taiwan soap operas were her favorite programs. Everyday she rushed home from work to see these programs. If she missed them, she wouldn’t be able to discuss the plots with her colleagues the next day at work.

FCR: Some visitors complain that their relatives in the Mainland show more greed than family affection. What do you think?

Wei: It depends on their education. One of my relatives asked me for a color TV and refrigerator even though he already had the appliances at home. Also, some hotel staff and tourist guides asked for extra money from Taiwan visitors, but some others were simple and very honest. They either refused tips or gave them to their supervisors.

Some Mainland residents were discriminated against in the past because they had relatives in Taiwan. They were deprived of education or working opportunities. But times have changed. These people have been rehabilitated and they enjoy better treatment today. It’s understandable that they ask for compensation from their Taiwan relatives. But many people in Taiwan now say that they don’t dare go to the Mainland again because they can’t afford to give money to so many relatives.

Chao Shih-ming (趙世明), a 63-year-old veteran originally from Hupeh province, returned to his old home in 1988 and 1990.

FCR: Why did you go back to the Mainland, and what happened during your two trips there?

Chao: I joined the nationalist army in 1945 at the age of 18, and came here with the army in 1948. My three younger brothers and parents stayed in the Mainland. Now I have my own family with seven children. I stayed in the army until I retired as a sergeant in 1977.

I got in touch with my Mainland family through a friend in Hong Kong, who forwarded letters for us. Around Tomb-Sweeping Day in 1988, I went to Hupeh with my wife and a daughter to see my brothers and to repair my parents’ graves. I had never sent photos to my family there, and had never received any either. So when I got there, we couldn’t recognize each other.

My brothers used to be factory workers. I was told that some factory employees had not received their wages for four months, but they didn’t dare quit. They were afraid that they could never find another job if they left this one. Crime had also increased because of the high unemployment rate.

My brothers are married and retired, and they live on their retirement pay. The compensation is low, but still enough for their basic life because prices are low. On my first trip, I gave them US$10,000 and held a banquet for them. Two years later, I gave them about US$7,000 and some gold rings.

FCR: What were some of your impressions of the Mainland?

Chao: Sales personnel usually showed little interest in serving customers because most of the stores are publicly owned. No matter how good or bad their service is, they will receive the same salary, so they just don’t care about customers. Once, when I took out a stack of bills to buy a 70-renminbi sweater, the salesgirl said: “How can the communists ‘liberate’ Taiwan since its people are so rich?”

FCR: Some veterans plan to settle down in the Mainland. Will you?

Chao: My family here lives frugally in order to save money for my Mainland visits. Also, I’m waiting for the money the government promised to pay veterans for their contribution to the country. I plan to give the money to my Mainland family because they can’t even afford an electric fan. I’ll go to the Mainland every two years to visit relatives and tour the countryside. But that’s enough. Why should I settle down there when I have a family, my own house, and a comfortable life in Taiwan? But it would save much time and inconvenience if there were direct flights from here to the Mainland.