| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Ten Those Teachers and Family Members Influenced Me Most 1. Min-Fu Primary School (民富國民小學), Bai Tai Road (北大路), Hsinchu (新竹市), Taiwan (台灣省), ROC (中華民國) 1.1 Teacher Lee (李老師): He did not have a very good health. His skin was yellowish and looked like a sick person. He was a tough and good teacher. I was a student with all flunking grades and 90% of absenting record in his class. He could never believe that I could pass the tough entrance exam and got into Chu Chung (竹中). I remembered he shook his head and said: “You are really in Provincial high school (省中), I could never believe it for a kid like you”. Teacher Wang (王老師) told him how good I was in his class during our visit, since he just came to see Lee. Wang was my fifth grade teacher. I am indebted to Lee to save me from drowning in those fun games 2. Prvincial Hsinchu High School (省立新竹中學), Tung-shan Ave.(東山街), Hsinchu (新竹市), Taiwan (台灣省), ROC (中華民國) 2.1 Principal Sin Chih-Ping (辛志平): Our beloved Principal, he earned respect from all the graduates of PHHS. We called him “Old stubborn” (老頑固). He knew it all the time and never minded it. He had a strong accent in Cantonese. His famous quote was: “簡直莫明奇妙的” in Cantonese Mandarin. Once he walked by our class room, one of us hit him by swing from inside of class room. I heard him saying: “小孩子! 簡直莫明奇妙的 (Little kid, you don’t know what the heck you are doing.)“, and then he walked away. My class mate was scared like hell by hitting the principal. No one ever criticized him. He insisted we had very short hair all the time and wore a short pan in junior high school except in winter season. He ran with us for our Marathon training. He jumped into swimming pool from high diving board in our swimming contest. He was a down to earth teacher. He supported the drawing and music class to be the same like Math or English. He would expel any cheaters in any test as long as the teacher reported them. During my second year, two seniors in the test cheated and reported by teacher. They were expelled right the way. Both entered very good Universities, since there were smart students. I could write several pages about 辛志平. I would like to conclude by saying he was one of the kind, an excellent educator. I could bet no one from Chu Chung (竹中) would dispute my characterization of him. I even used him as my excuse of being stubborn sometime. It was all his influence to me. (Ha! Ha!) 2.2 Teacher Lin (林老師): He was my second and third year teacher in junior high. He spent a lot of time to persuade me to go to high school and college. Without him, I would be a primary school teacher with life time pension now. I owed him a lot and he owed me a life time pension (Ha! Ha!) 2.3 Art Teacher Lee (李老師): He asked me to join the drawing contest to make up my flunking grade. I should ask him the question: “I flunked your exam, how could be good enough to join the contest?” Usually those talented art students joined the contest. I kept my big mouth shut; I just wanted to get a passing grade. He sold me art supplies at a discount price to help his son to buy expensive text book in med school. He was the best captain of La La team (啦啦隊隊長 (Cheer Leader)). His voice was in very high pitch. He knew how to motivate the crow. 2.4 Music teacher Su (蘇老師): He made the chorus team in PHHS wining the contest consecutively for many many years. He hit the key board of piano so hard if I did not sing the nod right. He had a pretty daughter practicing piano in PHHS. We all admired her long hairs. She married to my NTU CE classmate in Brazil. I have never met this couple yet. He had a bad stomach And was taking drug all the time. 2.5 Teacher Hsu (許老師): His major was in Chemistry and was teaching Allegra. He got stuck in solving question of probability and arrangement & combination. I helped him quite a few times. He almost sent me and the cheater over looking my answer paper in his exam to Principal Sin. I was a likable student to my teachers. But my classmates all liked me, since some of them copying my home work in math. 3. My family members: 3.1 Hsing-te Chuang (莊興德) (1906-1998): My dad is a shot person in Chinese standard. He was educated by Catholic fathers, but he never believed in any religion. A primary school principal, head of village and mediator. He was a landlord in China and became a small business man in Taiwan later. He and mom gave me my life. We were like friends. 3.2 Liang-yu Liu (劉良玉) (1909-1989): My mom was a classical Chinese woman. She liked sons much more than daughters, she spoiled me like crazy. She worked hard for her whole life and woke up around 5 am every morning to boil hot water for my dad’s tea. She helped my dad for his business too. I missed her. 3.3 Tien-mu Chuang (莊添木) (1932-2001): My eldest brother T.M. was a small business man. He could change my life when my dad asked his approval for me to be in junior high. He survived by his wife Yang Jyu (楊菊), one son and six daughters. I don’t know how many grand kids in his family. 3.4 Tien-hsiu (莊添秀): My second brother was a Chemical Engineer and retired from Kao-Hsiung Refinery (高雄煉油廠). He and his wife Liang (梁惠惠) have two sons and three grand kids. He told me to fill in all the National Taiwan University (NTU) departments in my college entrance exam wish list. I might be a high tech engineer now if he did not remind me the situation of our financial situation. Rev. 8/17/10 |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Seven Concluding in National Taiwan University After twelve weeks military training in the summer of ’63, we were shaped up by the tough military training in Cheng Gong Ridge (成功嶺). The military training indeed changed our life. We became more disciplined and stronger. I stayed in National Taiwan University (NTU) Dormitory No. 6. It was close to the kitchen of cafeteria. They bought the fish was not very fresh. They had to boil it in oil pan to make it smell good. During the boiling process, the bad order reached our room. I did not think that I should eat it, but the price was right. I ate it and I am still here. It obviously did not cause me anything bad. The breakfast was the rice soup. They added alkaline to make it easier to cook. After they cooked, you could not get a single rich particle from the soup. I believed that I took a lot of alkaline. It was NT$ 6.00 per day meal, we could not ask too much. I made about NT$300 to 400 per month for my tutoring jobs. With my two scholarships, I was pretty much self-supported. One of our classmates was a full time tutor. He very seldom showed up in the class. He always came to me after 11 pm and borrowed my class note before the test date. He started to review my class note until dawn, he past the exam. I believed he was a genius who could pass the exam by reading my note in a few hours. His name was K.H. Lo (羅光雄). He became a wealthy contractor. Since my high school time, my classmates always borrowed my home work. I felt honored that my class note and home work was the best seller. In my senior year, there was a class titled “City Planning and Development”. The Professor (廬教授) probably only showed up once or twice. At NTU, there were too many incompetent professors. Professor Ting once offered “Vector and Tensor Analysis”. He came to class late with his eyes closed and faced the black board. He kept writing formulas, he would drop his chalk half way during his writing as soon as the class bell rang. The roomer said: “He played Mahjong game until dawn, he then came to teach. He needed to go back to sleep after the class”. What a teacher! His son won Nobel Physics Prize in US later. He graduated from University of Michigan with a Master of Science (M.S.) Degree; he was a student of legendary Professor Timoshenko. He and his son must be very bright. He did not teach “Tensor Analysis” at all, since he dropped so many chalks. In my junior year, we had an instructor from EED. He was Jiang Tai-Chi (姜泰祺) and offered “Electrical Engineering”. Jiang was not physiologically sound. I had six roommates (majoring EE) in NTU Dormitory No. 6. They told me a lot about him. His final had 25 true or false questions. The answer sheet had four blank rows with a heading of “True” “False” “True” ” False” across. The first row was the question number. I was totally surprised to see there were four answers to a true or false question. It should have only two, i.e., true or false. Your neighbor in the exam room did not have the same question like yours. He reshuffled the order of questions and made it impossible for cheaters, there too much cheating in NTU’s CE Department. I totally agreed with him on this count. We all had the same questions except the order. He then explained the four rows were for us to mark “true” on the first row or “false” on the second row with an ”X”. The first two rows were for practicing, he would not grade them. We should finish the entire questions by marking the first or second row on the first trial. He then told us to review one more time and then marked on the third or fourth row. We could not change the answer once it was marked. Any wrong answer would receive a negative score of four points. The final score could range from -100 to +100. I remembered someone had a pretty high negative, since he answered every question and did not do well. You could skip to answer any question. You would not get any score; nor would you lose any score. He warned us not to be greedy to answer every question. I think he was a weirdo. He offered “Introduction of Computer” in our senior year. There was only one from our class CE64 took his course. We all talked him out of it. So I graduated without any computer training. |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Six Regaining myself in National Taiwan University The “Ah Q Spirit (阿Q精神)” was from a book titled “Story of Ah Q (阿Q正傳)” written by a genius author Lu Shiun (魯迅). It described the physiology of a weak man and how he cured his loss to a stronger man. If any one punched him and was stronger than him, he would not dare to fight back. He kept telling himself that the stronger one was punching his dad, i.e., him. He then got over with the hurt. We called it as “Ah Q Spirit”. My dad used this philosophy to let me feel better by losing the chance to be an electrical engineer, but he did not I did not believe it could help me. During the National Taiwan University (NTU) sophomore, there was a lot of cheating going on in the exams. In my final exam of “Surveying”, C.C. Chiou (邱) sat next to me in the exam room. He was cheating by opening his class note. Professor Chuang (莊教授) suddenly walked in. Chiou dropped his note to my side. Chuang (莊教授) marked me down as a cheater. Chiou told me he would go to Chuang to explain the whole incident, I told him to wait until the final grade came out. I got a passing score of 60/100. It brought down my average score to 80/100. I would lose my scholarship if it was under 80/100. I got a warning from the person in charge of scholarship in NTU. Chiou and I were graduated from Provincial Hsinchu High School (Chu Chung (竹中)). Principal Sin (辛志平) was very hard on cheating; he would expel any one who cheated. I was surprised that Chiou became a cheater so quick, since we did not have much experience in cheating. He later became “wanted” in Taiwan by accepting bribes. In sophomore, we had “Engineering (Applied) Mechanics” class. Professor Wu was the son-in-law of President of NTU, Chien (錢思亮). We all thought he got the job thru back door. He was not a good instructor, he told us: “As a Civil Engineer (CE), you didn’t have to learn “Dynamics”. I believed he was not good enough to teach the subject. He also told us we choosing the wrong major, CE which I totally agreed. I got into Civil Engineering Department by playing an insult to CE in transferring. We started the junior year in the fall of ’62. I was in the class of CE Department Chairman Yu (虞主任), he was an excellent teacher. He motivated me to be interest in the Theory of Structures. I got 100/100 scores several times. Professor Chao (趙教授) started to ruin our college life for the next two years. He carried any course which no one could teach. He was the first Department Head after World War II (WWII). He was very generous in contributing his design fee for NTU Gymnasium, but he was a horrible teacher. In our first class of Soil Mechanics, he threw the text book at us and said “You are all very good in English; you don’t need me to teach you. You could go home and read the book I picked for you”. He started to write a Chinese word of big power on black board. He B.S. for the whole hour until the class bell rang. Later he told us his class note got only six pages left, since he could not find his other two pages. He always criticized Professor Ting (丁教授) who taught “Theory of Elasticity”. He called Ting as an elasticity expert in humor. I did not feel humorous at all. We have him until we graduated. He was a teacher of “ruining people’s sons (誤人子弟)”, a Chinese old saying for a bad teacher. Luckily the “Highway Engineering” was taught by a Purdue University graduate who just came back from US. Otherwise it was also the class he would teach. In NTU, I really did not learn much from Professors. We were self motivated students. Nature took its own course; we all ended up in good graduate school or job. We were all high performers since a kid. |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Five Losing myself in National Taiwan University In ’60, I past the college entrance exam and was assigned to Agriculture Engineering Department (AED) of National Taiwan University (NTU or國立台灣大學) at Taipei (台北). All high school graduates took the same exam on the same dates. It was considered to be the fairest exam for us. The system had only one advantage, i.e., fairness, nothing else. Before one took the exam we had to fill in a wish list. I was so interested in the radio, so my top choice would be Electrical Engineering Department (EED) in all universities. I went by the score list of last year to fill in my wish list. National Taiwan University (NTU) was my top choice, then Cheng Gong (成功) University and so on. My second brother Tien-hsiu (T.H., 莊添秀) who was a senior at Tunghai (東海) University looked at my list and asked “How are you going to find a tutor job, if you were not in Taipei?” I needed a job to support myself. He advised me to fill in all NTU departments of science and engineering. I could ask for a transfer in sophomore. I took his advice and got into AED of NTU. I got 84/100 in Chinese, but my score of “Three People Principles (三民主義)” had a very low score of 44/100. I probably did not believe in Dr. Sun Yat-Shian (孫逸仙)’s theory. If my score were two points higher, I would be in Math Department, and then I would stay. I was always interested in Math and Chinese Literature. I was pretty good in both subjects; left and right brain theory did work for me, since I had both brains. I could also do two different things at the same time. My gene was inherent to my daughter. I am surprised that I did not go to mental hospital. I spoke very fast, worked very fast and thought very fast. I even ate fast. Once my dad told me “I am very happy about what you are except eating too fast, it will get to you when you become old”. I just did not know how to slow down like some slow thinker, but I am a very patient man. I was assigned to the NTU 8th Dormitory at Gong Goan (公館) for freshman. This dorm was for Agriculture and Business Administration/Law College students. I stayed with a lot Provincial Hsinchu High School (PHHS or Chu Chung (竹中)) alumni. My roommate S.T. Kuo (郭松財) was my good friend. We went to a job interview for a radio announcer. Neither of us got the job. I thought he might be a Supreme Court Justice in Taiwan, since he was in Law Department. He was not due to a career change. Another law student C.Y. Chang (張健一) from Chu Chung (竹中) told me once that I should be in law department, since I was a good debater and quick responder. It was an era of medicine, science and engineering. Most top students tried to get in these fields. Medicine gave us a secure and wealthy career; Physics was the second choice due to two Chinese Nobel Prize winners, Yang and Lee’s influence. Civil Engineering was the third choice due to the Shih Man Earth Dam (石門水庫) Project hiring a lot of Civil Engineers (CE’s). CE could also pass a P.E. (Professional Engineer) license exam after junior year and earned a good income from the contractor who had very little education. They needed a P.E. license to get the building permit. My first year at NTU’s AED went by quickly, we played a lot of bridge games during the class break. I even cut some not interesting class to play bridge. My cutting class habit was hard to change. I was the top of the class in the second semester in AED, so I had a very good chance to be transferred to EED. In the summer of ’61, I should take the General Chemistry to get ready for EED, but I had an opportunity to be in NTU Forest Experimental Institute in Shi Tau (溪頭). It was the prettiest place for tourist to go. I could not pass that chance. Therefore I went to the Agriculture Training Class at Shi Tau. It was a one unit course, but it was a paid nice vacation. We drank Kao Liang Wine (高梁酒, 59% alcohol) to keep us warm in high altitude. We mixed it with 7 up like soft drink, it tasted very sweet. One guy never drank before, he drank a lot. That night he threw up like crazy. After the class was over, we stopped by Taichung (台中) to go home. One of us had parent were liquor merchant. His dad treated us with all we could drink. There were quite a few of us past out. I went back to hotel and hit the tatami (榻榻米) right the way. Some one had to drag me in. We all drank too much. It was a fun summer. Luckily I did not become an alcoholic. I tried to fill in the application form to be transferred in General Physics Class. I wrote down the EED as my first choice and left second choice blank. C.H Chuang (莊燦煌) who sat next to me in Physics class asked me to add Civil Engineering Department (CED) as second choice. I said “CED had a higher score than EED in college entrance exam. It would be an insult to CED”. I did it anyway. After I came back from Shi Tau (溪頭). I was told I got transferred to CED. I was very disappointed, since EED always accepted one transferee from AED. That year no one got into EED from AED. Chu Chung (竹中) alumnus T.C. Wang (王燦照) told me before the announcement. He got into EED from Department of Geology. I did not know how he found out the result. It still puzzled me now. Sophomore year started pretty soon. I cut class like I was in the second and third grade except I did not play rubber bands and glass balls. I was so upset that my life time dream to be in EED was broken. I could not afford to retake the college entrance exam again and delay two years to earn money. I did not go to General Chemistry class for almost the whole semester. My dad did not know, otherwise he would spank me the hell out of me. I was doing OK for my sophomore in CED. I got two scholarships to support myself. I had tutor jobs on and off. My life was ruined by not getting what I deserved. My dad told me “Horse racer might not be unlucky by losing their horse game (賽翁失馬奄知非福)”, a Chinese old saying to make loser feeling good. I think it is “Ah Q Spirit (阿Q精神)”. |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Four Chu Chung (竹中) here I Come Again In ’57, I had past the entrance exam to Provincial Hsinchu Senior High School (PHSHS or Chu Chung (竹中)). It was the same school with the junior high. Teachers and staff were all the same group of people. I did not feel any thing change drastically. We had a class of oversea Chinese students. Most of them were from Korea and south Asia. School had extra fund to build a gymnasium by admitting oversea students. I also past the entrance exam to Provincial Taipei Industrial Specialized School (PTISS or 省立台北工業專科學校). It was five years specialized school. You would have to take one more entrance exam, you would graduate like a college grad. You would receive a degree. It was tougher than entering Chu Chung. I did not go there due to I have to leave home to stay either in dorm or my uncle Liu (劉)’ s home in Taoyuan (桃園). My dad did not think it was a good idea either to increase expense or I would owe my uncle for the rest of my life. My side interest was the radio with silicone. I helped Tien-mu (T.M., 莊添木), my eldest brother to send his product to the store and collect fund for him. He was married with his coworker Ms. Yang Jyu (楊菊) and started his own business by making beef jerky. My mom was also in business. We sold clothing and fruits. I also helped to move stuff for my dad’s business. I learned how to sew to help my mom. I loved the Chinese writing class. We called the “Composition (作文)” Class. It had two hours for us to write an article assigned by teacher Chen (陳老師). I always finished my writing in less than an hour. I got the second hour to watch my classmates scratching their head to fill the blank page. Chen once complimented my composition and told me it was an excellent piece of work. It was about the nature of different seasons. The classes of art and music were my short comings. I just did not know how to draw a nice drawing. I did not even get a passing grade from teacher Lee (李老師). He had a son was in medical school and needed a lot of money to buy expensive books. He sold us the material to draw at a discounted price and made a profit. I bought the material and turned in extra work to make up my poor grade. He asked me to join the drawing contest; he would give us extra credit. So I had past the class. I was always wondered if I was so bad in drawing, I should not qualify to be in the contest. I thought it was a conflict of interest to sell the drawing stuff for us to past his class, but no one seemed to care. I could not sing at all, but I was very good in theory of music. So I past music class under tough teacher Su (蘇老師). We had none of these two classes in the last year of high school. I was so happy that I finally did not have to join drawing contest nor studying musical theory to survive the art and music class. I was in the heaven. The torture from these two teachers was finally gone. Some one would flunk the grade if he flunked these two with another major class like math in two consecutive years. He would have to stay one more year in high school. Chu Chung (竹中) chorus team won the high school contest every year for quite a long time. All my friends immediately assumed I was a good singer, since I graduated from Chu Chung (竹中). I could not even sing one octave. If I sang, you would run for your life. I had a lot of problem with my math teacher Sheu (許老師) in the fifth year of Chu Chung (竹中). His major was Chemistry; high school Algebra was too tough for him, especially the probability and arrangement & combination. He was stuck to finish the problem solution quite often. We said that he was “hung on the black board”, i.e., he could not solve the problem. I had a brain could do two things at the same time. Since his class was not interesting enough to catch my attention, so I was working on my English home work in his class. He knew what I was doing, so he called me to solve the problem he could not. I solved for him right the way. It embarrassed him. He thought I was not paying any attention on he was teaching. I should not be able to follow or solve it, but I did. One of my classmates C.Y. Sheu (許) overlooked my answer to pass his exam and got caught by Sheu (許老師). He told me that I teamed up with C.Y. He was going to report to Principal Sin Chih-Ping (辛志平). I and C.Y. would be expelled. I thought he used this occasion to get even with me for embarrassing him to “hang on the black board (吊黑板)”. Finally he did not report us, so I graduated in ’60. My Chu Chung (竹中) life ended in June of ’60. |
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| T.Y.’s Taiwan Journey (Chapters 1 ~ 10) received from Tien-yuh Chuang (莊添裕) and revised on 2010-08-17 |
| Taiwan Island Village: 台灣島村: Hsinchu (Xinzhu) High School Reminisced 憶竹中 忆竹中 |
| Tel: 1-925-376-7700 Fax: 1-925-376-9632 E-mail: tychuang1@gmail.com |
| Owner TY Real Estate Complete Services 天一完整實業服務 P.O. Box 6138 Moraga, CA 94570-6138 |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter One From Sanyao to Hsinchu-a Rocking Sail Boat Trip I was born on July 9, 1941 (lunar calendar) at Sanyao (山腰鄉), Hweian (惠 安縣), Fujian (福建省), China. This date became my birthday on all my identifications (ID’s). When government changed calendar system from lunar to solar, they did not change my birthday to August 31, 1941, the real birthday in solar calendar. If you had the same problem, these two dates coincided each other every nineteen years, so your 20th, 39th, 58th, 77th and 96th birthday are the day you will have both calendars coincided except if it is a leap year in solar calendar. You will have to check with a ten thousand year calendar, I have one copy. |
| To make my life simple, I just assumed the 9th of July is my real birthday in solar calendar. I was the ninth kid of my mom’s pregnancy. She got pregnant sixteen times. It was a dark age, there were no birth control. My dad once told me if there were a birth control, there would be no me. Not all pregnancy ended up a live kid. We had total of nine siblings in our family. The others were lost due to miscarriage, death and giving away (two girls) while in infancy. I have two elder brothers and sisters; I also have two younger brothers and sisters. I am right in the middle. I am the only traitor who immigrated to US. My eldest brother Tien-mu (T.M., 莊添木) past away in ’01. Therefore we have eight siberlings left. In our family, we have four generations and total seventy members. All my siblings and their family are doing very well in Taiwan and they are wealthier than me. I think I jumped into wrong ship 45 years ago. My dad was a high school grad from a Catholic Pei-Yuan High School (私立培元中學) at Hweian. My grandpa was a landlord and he died one year before I was born. My dad had four brothers including him and one sister. The eldest uncle went to Malaysia and lost contact ever since. The second uncle went to northern China to pursue his college education. He was the classmate of Wong Jing- Wey (汪精衛). Wong was the head of Japanese controlled China during World War II (WW II). After WW II, Wong was executed by Kao-Ming Tung (KMT, 國民黨) controlled Chinese government. My second uncle was an innocent bystander and got buried live by KMT official, because he was the classmate of Wong. It was the political dark age under KMT government. My grandma stopped my dad to leave home to pursue higher education, since her both sons left home and ended up unknown and dead. After dad graduated from high school, he immediately married my mom by grandma’s order. They were set up to be married since they were very young. There was a younger uncle, he was a spoiling rot and only knew how to gamble. My aunt was married to her husband before I was born. I don’t know anything about her. My dad became the principal of local Jing-Shan Primary School (錦山小學). He was also the head of Sanyao (山腰鄉). We were a very prominent family. There were a lot fighting between the villages, he became the mediator. My home town was a rocky country growing nothing. The major product was salt. With the condition of the area, he finally convinced grandma to let him come to Taiwan with my eldest cousin Tien-fa (T.F., 莊添發) after WW II. In 1946, he and T.F. went to Taitung (台東), Taiwan (台灣) to pursue farming. They caught malaria and left there for Taipei (台北) to cure the terrible disease. Taipei has a lot of our country folks. He did not like to raise our family there, because those folk were not motivated hard working people. They gambled a lot. He went to Hsinchu (新竹) and rented a room on Chung-Hua Road (中華路) near the railroad in Nan-Man (south gate, 南門). He liked the culture of Hsinchu, simple and down to earth people were all over. The landlord had an unmarried daughter. She was very nice to my dad. Roomers started to fly over the Taiwan Strait (台灣海峽) to my mom. They said my dad sat with a pretty girl and had tea together. He might have an affair with her. When my dad came to Hsinchu, he invited my mom to join him but she did not want to leave our home town. After the roomer got to her, she immediately asked my dad to move the whole family to Taiwan (台灣). T.F., my cousin went back to help us move. We were in a pretty good size of sail boat and left our home town in February right after the Chinese New Year of ‘47. The boat was rocking by the tide like crazy. We all threw up and could not take any food. I was crying for dad‘s help. Finally, we arrived at the Wu-Chi Port (梧棲港) in Taichung (台中) area. All of us were so weak; since we had not eaten any thing in the boat. I couldn’t even stand up. It was a nightmare to survive the rocking boat over the strait. We moved in my dad’s room. My mom met the pretty landlord daughter and the roomer finally disappeared. The first time I saw a train, I imitated the whistle of train and made a paper train to run in our room. The room was too small for us. My dad bought a house on 388 Chung-Shan Road (中山路), Hsinchu (新竹). The house sat on a flood trench. It was a piece of junk, but it was all we could afford. My dad lost his investment in Taitung farm. At this time (’49) Chairman Mao Zedong (毛澤東) took over the mainland China. He could not get any financial help from grandma, since the communication between two sides of Taiwan Straight was broken down. In the summer of ’47, he took my second bother Tien-hsiu (T.H., 莊添秀) and sister Mei-chu (M.C, 莊美珠) and me to register in schools. M. C. was 10 yrs old and was too old for the first grade. No other grade would accept her, since she did not go to school at home town. She got rejected. I got rejected due my age of six, too young. One had to be seven years old before July 1st. I was nine days too late. T.H. had to lie about his age to be one year younger to enter Chu-Shih Fu Xiao (竹師附小)’s 4th grade. In ’48, since no public primary school would accept him, I finally entered the Min-Fu Public Primary School (民富國民小學). It was the biggest and best primary school in Hsinchu. There were a lot of alumni ended up in Provincial Hsinchu Junior High School (PHJHS or Chu Chung (竹 中)). Min-Fu had more alumni than any other primary school in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli (桃園，新竹和苗栗) area. I had no memory about my life in mainland China (’41 to’47). Every thing started from the boat trip. |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Two Growing Pain in my Primary School: Min-Fu (民富) My dad moved the whole family from Fujian (福建省) to Taiwan (台灣省) in ’47. In ’48, I started my school life in Min-Fu Primary School (民富國民小學). It was quite far from my home, I had to walk to school with my bare feet. There were only very few classmates wore shoe. They were from the wealthy family. We had a nature leather shoe, i.e., our human skin shoe, the feet. We could even step on a road surface with hot asphalt in the summer. Nature just took its own course and made our feet to be almost indestructible. The first year went by very smoothly; I had a very impressive term report. In the second year, I had a few friends did not like to study, so we went to the Cheng-Huang Temple (城煌廟) to play rubber bands and glass balls. This temple was at the business center of Hsinchu (新竹). It had a lot small places sold a lot of good foods. There was a girl sold rice noodle with meat sauce. She was about twenty years old, I had a crush on her, and it was my first poppy love. I did not have money, or else I would eat at her place all the time. I could still remember now how nice looking she was. I guessed that the first of every experience in you life would cast in your brain forever. No one paid any attention on us, the delinquent boys. I missed a lot of classes by fooling around in the temple. My report card showed that I flunked every single course and missed over 90 % of classes. The report card needed parent’s seal before we brought it back to teacher Lee (李老師). I stole my dad’s seal to stamp my report card. It was a mandatory education system; it guaranteed you would graduate in six years no matter how bad you were doing. The second and third years were teacher Lee’s class. He started to wonder what kind of parent of mine would stamp my report cards with all red marks on my card for over one year. We called it Man Jiang Hong (滿江紅, red color all over a river or all red marks on a report card), a famous song title. Lee finally went to visit my dad. After his visit, my dad spanked the hell out of me. Starting the 4th grade, I was in the class who wanted to pursue high school education. I was in a class of all motivated kids. My school work began to shape up. I was the second place in my class when I graduated from Min-Fu (民富). When I was in Provincial Hsinchu Junior High School (Chu Chung (竹中)), I went to see Lee. He shook his head and told me that he would never believe that I could be in the top high school in the area. My fifth grade teacher Wang (王老師) just dropped in and joined us to talk about the good old days. He told Lee that I was almost a perfect student. Lee still shook his head and was skeptical about my success in the last three years in Min-Fu (民富).I spent a lot time during my Min-Fu (民富) time at a bike shop which was two doors from my home. I met quiet a few friends in the mafia. With my experience in the early years of Min-Fu (民富), I would not dare to be a bad kid again. My dad really got me shape up very well. I learned a lot about the underworld practice. I also learned a lot of bad words in Fujianese (閩南話). It broadened my sensitivity on human nature. I spent several hours in the bike shop everyday. I learned to fix the bike. The bike shop owner loved to hunt wild rabbits in the late night. I joined him to go to Keh-Ya Mountain (客雅山) which was not too far from my home to search for wild rabbits. This mountain had lot grave yards. No one took care of these yards. I had not seen a ghost. We had one track mind, i.e., where was the wild rabbit? I graduated from Min-Fu (民富) in ’54. I was awarded with dictionary donated by the mayor of Hsinchu. It was the second best grade average. I still don’t know how I could be the No. 2 in my graduating class with two years flunking grade, the Man Jiang Hong (滿江紅). It was my fun years. |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Three Chu Chung (竹中) here I Come I had past the entrance exam to Provincial Hsinchu Junior High School (PHJHS or Chu Chung (竹中)) in ’54. When the announcement had arrived, my dad started to worry about the tuition and school expenses. Brother Tien-hsiu (T.H., 莊添秀) who was in Provincial Hsinchu Senior High School (PHSHS or Chu Chung (竹中)). With two high school kids, it would be very tough to survive for a small businessman like my dad. He asked my eldest brother, Tien-mu (T.M., 莊添木) whether he should let me go to junior high. T.M. did not finish his primary school in mainland China; he went to work for a butcher after he came to Taiwan (台灣). To be fair my dad asked his approval for me to enter the high school. T.M. told my dad to let me go to register in fall, since I got admitted to the best high school. He could change my whole life if he told me dad for me to go to work. I might a successful business man like some of my grade school classmates. I might even go to jail (Lan-Yu (蘭嶼)) for being an out spoken person and dared to challenge the political system. We called it to sing “綠島小夜曲”, since Lan-Yu (蘭嶼) is a green island (綠島). It is a famous song in Taiwan. Almost everyone in Taiwan knew how to sing it except me. Lan-Yu (蘭嶼) was a political prison. It was a political dark age under President Chiang Kai-Sheik (蔣介石) controlled government. My dad was a chain smoker; he smoked three packs of non-filtered cigarette every day. The brand name of cigarette was ”Banana (香蕉牌)”. He quit his smoking in one day, so I could go to high school. I always told my friends that I am a “Quit Smoking Ph.D. (戒菸博士)”. My dad quit smoking to spare the fund for my school expenses. Dad influenced T.M. quit his smoking right after dad’s quitting. It improved dad’s health a lot. We had a small class in PHJHS (Chu Chung (竹中)), there were only total of four classes (Ban, 班). I was in the forth class (丁班). Our School was located at the foot of 18 Sharp Mountains (十八尖山) in Hsinchu (新竹). All four classes were in the last row of buildings. We went to climb the mountain during lunch break. There were a lot human bones. First year went by very quickly. In second year, teacher Lin (林老師) spent a lot of time to encourage me to pursue senior high and university. My goal was be a primary school teacher. I would have to go to Provincial Hsinchu Normal School (省新竹 師範學校). It was a government supported school. It would be free for me. I could help my family financially. Job would be guaranteed and I would be a primary school teacher. Lin thought it would be a bad decision for me. He finally convinced me to drop the whole idea. I got a job to deliver newspapers after school. I knew how tough it was the job of a delivery boy, especially in raining and cold days. Just before I went to junior high, I was really sick by eating a lot of bananas. Now I knew how I became a”Banana” later in US, i.e., yellow outside (skin) and white inside (brain). (Ha! Ha!) We had a store sold fruits. I had a diarrhea, and then I ate pomegranate (石榴) which would make me constipate. I tried to be a doctor to cure myself. Eventually I went to my family docotor Yang (楊醫生) for help. In my enrollment training period of Chu Chung (竹中), I had to stay home and took Dr. Yang’s prescribed drugs. I was a Mongolian doctor (蒙古大夫) for my disease. We called an incompetent doctor as a Mongolian doctor, since there were a lot of sheep and horses in Mongolia (蒙古), China. All doctors cured both animals and human beings. They were not very competent. Three years later, I graduated from junior class and entered the Chu Chung (竹中) senior class in ‘57. T.M. went out to have his own business with his friends, while I was in junior high. They had a motorcycle. One of their coworker knew how to overhaul their old motorcycle engine. I worked as his assistance. I started to repair motor cycle. I was never a good student, since my side interest always took my study time. I just needed a side interest to keep me out of trouble. I managed to have pretty good grades. I had past all the tough and competitive tests. |
| T.Y. Chuang, Ph.D., P.E., Notary Public Real Estate/Loan Broker Mobile Notary, Signing Agent Department of Real Estate Identification Number: 00941710 Secretary of State Commission Number: 1858549 Civil Engineer License Number: C 24627 |
| 各位朋友： 我是莊添裕 (T.Y. Chuang). 二十三年前我從土木工程 界的核能電廠地震研究轉 行進入房地產界。房地產 的起落不定，康郡的情況 隨異。如果您購置房地產 及貸款經由我為您服務， 我會給與合理的優待。 歡迎來電咨詢，我會誠心 誠意的協助您，不懂得也 會設法找到答。我也可以 幫忙諸位購車 (BMW, Mini Cooper, Buick, Pontiac, GMC and other dealers) 。 隨信附上我的服務項目及 California High Schools Survey 供諸位參考和2010 年的陰陽月曆。謝謝！ Attachments (Calendar is not attached, it will be mailed to you with the current year calendar) T.Y. Chuang (莊添裕)上 November 1, 2008 |
| T.Y. Chuang's 2008-11-01 Letter to Clients and Potential Clients |
| 各位朋友： 我是庄添裕 (TY Chuang). 二十三年前我从土木工程 界的核能电厂地震研究转 行进入房地产界。房地产 的起落不定，康郡的情况 随异。如果您购置房地产 及贷款经由我为您服务， 我会给与合理的优待。 欢迎来电咨询，我会诚心 诚意的协助您，不懂得也 会设法找到答。我也可以 帮忙诸位购车(BMW, Mini Cooper, Buick, Pontiac, GMC and other dealers) 。 随信附上我的服务项目及 California High Schools Survey 供诸位参考和2010 年的阴阳月历。谢谢！ Attachments (Calendar is not attached, it will be mailed to you with the current year calendar) T.Y. Chuang (庄添裕) 上 November 1, 2008 |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Eight Graduating from National Taiwan University Four years in National Taiwan University (NTU) went by really fast. My side interest was assembling radios with tubes. I assembled quite a few for my classmates free of labor charge. My Electrical Engineering (EE) roommates were envied on what I could do as a Civil Engineering (CE) major. They told me that I was “Bun Man Lung Fu (班門弄斧)”. It was an old Chinese saying that I tried to perform an act in front of experts. CE major assembling radio in front of EE major was a little bit too much humiliation for the EE majors. I had never in my life to concentrate on my class work. Side interest always had priority, I assembled radios until dawn very often, but it was never for my class. I just managed to get a pretty good grade. I lived in Dorm. No. 6. The next dorm was converted from a boy to a girl dorm. Two dorms were very close to each other. We could see girl room with a pair of binoculars. In my “Surveying” class, we could bring the transient to the dorm for a few hours before the office was closed. It had a very powerful telescope. We saw girl room very clearly. We became peeping Tom. Girls found out with their binoculars and filed complaint to our dorm administrator. We had to quit being a peeping Tom. It really satisfied boy’s curiosity of girl’s room. It used to be a dorm for overseas student. Most are Cantonese. They yelled at any girl went by with f-word in Cantonese. It was degrading for us. They told me the f-word was most popular word in Cantonese. I guessed it was true for every culture. There were one semester; I had to take bus to Chung Shan Hall (中山堂) to tutor and rode bike to Jing Mei (景美) for another tutoring. I hade a pretty good income, my grades did not suffer. I must have done something right. Graduation ceremony finally took place; I borrowed a camera from my tutoring student and took pictures with our five transferees from Agriculture Engineering Department (AED). After graduation ceremony, I stayed in the dorm to get ready to go to military service. Two of my five roommates in EE major went to US graduate school. Two more were preparing to leave for US. They motivated me to leave for US graduate study. Y.K. Tang (湯于光) and I went to an American tutor to learn English, so we could pass the Embassy test to enter US. I also started to collect info of US graduate schools. Y.K. kept going to that teacher while I quit since I did not think he was good enough for us. Y.K. was my classmate since freshman. Y.K’s mom asked him about me. She insisted to meet me. She told Y.K. “You brought back T.Y.’s homework for four years now. I would like to see what kind of boy he is”. So I went to meet his mom, bother and sister. She cooked a very good meal to treat me. She was a very nice lady. We later met in my Moraga , CA home. His dad became the President of Chung Hsing (中興) University in Taichung. Our Professor Chao became the Dean of College of Engineering. I told Y.K. to ask his dad to watch him closely, since he was a very bad teacher for our junior and senior years. We called him Chao Wu Tan (趙污蛋 (bad egg)). To my surprise, his dad said he was the best dean among all the deans. He just wanted to be an administrator not a teacher. After lottery of military service, I sould be in Armor Corp for my military service in September, ’64. I registered in the Kao Deeng (高等) Exam for CE in early October of ‘64. If I past the exam, I would have a Professional Engineer license and government would give me a job. I went to the exam and sat in the first subject for 15 minutes and turned in a blank answer sheet, and then I went back to the NTU dorm by missing all the other eight subjects’ exam.. After the result of exam came to my dad, it had a zero score for one subject and eight subjects of not showing. He immediately asked me what heck I was doing by wasting time and money. I told him that I wanted to go US for graduate study and taking the test could delay me to be in military service about one month. I would have time to prepare ground work for US graduate school. He was very sensitive about my delinquency, since my track record was pretty bad. In October of ’64, I finally reported to Ching Chuan Gong (清泉岡) in Taichung. The Armor Military School was there. My college life was formally over. I got a B.S. degree in CE from NTU. |
| T.Y.'s Taiwan Journey: Chapter Nine I was a Second Lieutenant in Armor Corp In October of ’64, I reported to the Armor Military School in Ching Chuan Gong (清泉岡) of Taichung (台中) . The school was preparing to move out the area. It was part of Air Force military airport. We started to pack as soon I reported to the school. I was there one month late, because I had to take the Kao Deeng (高等) Exam in early October of ’64. The night before we moved, school officials gave us a few hours break. We went to visit the Military Happy Paradise (軍中樂園), the legal prostitution for soldiers. Those prostitutes were the retiree from other money making prostitution. They became too old to stay there. The fee was very cheap, only soldiers could go there. It was my first time to see how the prostitution worked. We called it as a zoo. It has a small room like a cage. Soldier made love with the prostitute in a single bed tiny room. We saw a soldier was put his clothe back and the prostitute came out with a pot of water. The picture of prostitutes hanged over the pool table. All girls in the picture were very young; it was a picture of long time ago. We moved to a new school in Chongan (長安), Hsinchu. It was about ten miles north of Hsinchu. We had a eight weeks training there. We were all from the Civil Engineering (CE) and Chemical Engineering Department of different universities. We learned how to drive the tank retired from Korean War in ’49. After one more lottery, I was assigned to Chi-shan (旗山), Kaohsiung (高雄). I became a second lieutenant wearing one bar on my shoulder. I was a vice platoon leader. My leader Chiang was a very nice man, he took very good care of me. We shared one small room. He worked very hard for his English. I was in banana kingdom. Banana farms were everywhere. I finally became a real “Banana” in US, yellow outside and white inside, They sent me to the ski training on Ho Huan Mountain (合歡山) to be in the military training for snow area. I was there for six weeks. I only took one bath while I was in Taichung to fix my broken eye glasses. With the low air pressure on higher mountain over 3,000 meters, you could not get hot water for bath. You would catch cold if you took a bath. Hot water was too cold for bath. After certain temperature, it became steam due to the low air pressure. Most of us did not take any bath for all six weeks. We came in late in the cold season, no much snow to ski. After we were thru with the training, we came down to Taichung. Our body smell was awful; we could not even take it. I stopped by my NTU roommate Chung-Wu Han (韓宗武) home to wash myself several time. I reported back to my unit after one week vacation. We then moved to Tainan for troop training. I had a NTU’s CE classmate Wen-Fan Lin (林文樊) who lived in Tainan. He loaned me a bike, so I could go to different places during the Sunday break. We further moved to Hukow (湖口), Hsinchu to practice the gun shooting from a tank. In early ’65, Cal Berkeley offered me admission and later a teaching assistant (TA) job. I then qualified for early retirement from the military service, since I had to be at Cal in September, ’65. I past the Embassy oral test at the first trial. There were two vice consuls performed the interview, one was skinny and the other was heavy set. One was tough and the other was easy going. I was lucky to be interviewed by the easy going one or the heavy set one. I prepared to leave for Berkeley. My youngest sister Yin-chu (Y.C., 莊銀珠) sewed a nice looking shirt for me. I had two cases of cloths and $300 in my pocket. I left Taipei Airport (TEI) on September 4, 1965. All my relatives went to TEI to say good bye. My newly wed second sister-in-law delayed their honey moon and came to TEI. My mom was crying all the time. Cathay Airways Boeing 727 finally took me to Tokyo Airport (TKO). I arrived at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on September 4th, 1965. This concluded my Taiwan Journey. Thanks for reading it. See you in my US Journey. |