Going to College in Taiwan

Written on June 20, 2021.
After a week riding on Taipoolai ship, we arrived at Keelung Port of Taiwan on September 21, 1966. We were picked up by the Overseas Compatriot Council, a government agency of Taiwan, and transferred to individual universities in Taipei. We were well taken care of because we were considered the oversea compatriot students.

This privilege was originated in mainland China when oversea Chinese helped, largely in donations, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who founded KMT party overseas, to overthrow the Qing dynasty and form the Republic of China. I just realized that there is no official entry stamp on my passport. We had visited Sun Yat-sen memorial in Singapore in 2019 (see below).

We didn’t have problems adjusted to the life and studies in Taipei and we could speak much better Mandarin than Hong Kong students. At that time, we were financially better than most local students, and in second year I gave up the free dormitory room and board for better living outside the campus.
Actually, it was quite fun to stay in the dormitory because just outside was a street with many food vendors that we could eat until mid-night. But the dormitory already closed and we had to climb the walls back to our room. They called it Night Market of Shida (Taiwan Normal University). However, each dormitory room, which was very small, had to squeeze 8 students inside and in winter time there was hardly any hot water for taking showers.

As compatriot students, we had the priority to join the summer camps, mostly military kinds, organized by the government to strengthen our fighting spirit. We had the opportunities to travel around the island to learn some skills and knowledges.

I owned a camera at that time and could take pictures though I barely remember when and where I were (see above and left pictures). My most impressive trip was visiting Orchid Island, about 50 miles southeast off the main island, where some indigenous people lived, and the war boat ride was very rough.

We called them Yami people (now they are called Tao people) who speak Austronesian language which sounded like Malay to me. Based on studies, ancestors of the Tao people were the first Austronesian Expansion (~4000 BP) from the mainland of Taiwan. They lived in primitive dwellings but made beautiful ipanitika fishing boats. The girls were good at hair throwing dance. (See above pictures)
There was a requirement for all male students, except those people with unfit bodies, to attend a military training in a summer. It was trained at a military base called Success Hill with real weapons (see left pictures). When we marched past in front of then President Chiang Kai-shek, I remember I kicked the wrong foot.

The training was quite rough to most students and it was quite an experience to me. As citizens of Republic of China, the local students needed to join compulsory military service after graduation and this was a provision for them to enter as military officers directly.

There was a problem for Malaysian students. The Malaysian embassy objected this training after they found out and worried about the trained students might overthrow the government when they went back to Malaysia. In 2 years, Malaysian students were no longer required to take the training.
When Dr. Sun Yat-sen tried to overthrow the Qing dynasty, numerous uprisings and fundraising activities were planned in Singapore by forming a branch of Chinese United League to absorb many revolutionaries.

A villa, originally owned by Lim Ah Siang as mentioned in my previous write-ups (revolutionaries were illegal in JB because only Ngee Heng was allowed), was offered to Sun as his headquarter in Southeast Asia. This villa was gazetted by the Singapore government as a National Monument called Sun Yat-sen Nanyang Memorial Hall (see left picture).

My father was targeted to be sent back to Republic of China (at mainland China that time) when he was detained by British Government. After the Malayan Independence in 1957, we all became the citizens (my father and brother had some issues not clear to me).
When KMT party led by Chiang moved to Taiwan, we were still treated as citizens of China in Taiwan and therefore we were required to attend military training. All these summer camps were designed for the purpose of recovering mainland China by fighting back. It was a lot of fun to me. Now Taiwan government still calls itself China and Sun’s portraits were hung in all government buildings.

In my fourth year of college, I met my wife when she attended the same university majoring in history. We knew each other when we both sang in the university chorus (below picture). The chorus picture’s banner labeled year of 1970. I only found two black and white pictures (below right) with my wife at this time of writing. Today is father’s day and I will continue to look for pictures and write more in future (delayed).



In Taiwan, the biggest goal for science students was to go to USA, not that common in Malaysia, for further study and I was influenced by it. Below the left picture is our graduating class in Physics shot in front of our main campus in 1970. There was another Class B. The right picture shows the front gate of the university in old time, however, the physics department had since moved away to other location.



When I went back to Taipei after I took a vacation back to Malaysia in 1970, I taught in a high school at Keelung, a port 15 miles northeast of Taipei. Teaching for one year was required for me to obtain the bachelor degree of my university. The local students were required to teach 5 years, because they were paid during school years, before they could be free to pursue higher education.

Continued writing on 2021 October 16: It has been almost 4 months that I have not done any writing and the pandemic is still far from over. I found a very early color picture taken with my wife at Bitan Creek, which is not too far from the university, probably in 1970. Below two portraits were taken before and after my coming to USA.