My Taiwan Journey: Reflecting on the Past, Embracing the Present, and Imagining the Future
My clearest memories of Taiwan involve enduring the hot and humid summers, engaging in fierce battles of Street Fighter at the underground arcades with my siblings, exploring crowded night markets where I indulged in street food and played carnival games, watching Mandarin-subtitled Totoro while my cousin explained it to me in Chinese since I couldn’t read the language, and exploring Alishan where the winding roads made me queasy. These childhood trips to Taiwan have always brought me great joy and entertainment. While in the past few decades, I’ve visited Taiwan regularly for a couple of weeks at a time, my half-year Fulbright fellowship has allowed me to delve deeper into more profound aspects that eluded me during my earlier years. Over the years, my parents, who grew up in Taiwan, occasionally shared their childhood experiences, including living through a period of bloody martial law known as the ‘White Terror.’ During that time, they were prohibited from speaking their native Taiwanese dialect at school. They were warned about the potential danger they would face if they confronted the government in any manner. These stories helped me gain an initial perspective of my parents’ plights. However, it was only during my Fulbright
