fulbright Taiwan online journal

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Author: John Gregory 葛約翰

John Gregory 葛約翰
John Gregory, Ph.D. Candidate, Chinese history, Georgetown University. John graduated from West Point in 1995 and has a JD degree from the University of Florida (2001). He served as a judge advocated in the US Army from 2001-2011 with two tours in Iraq. He is married to Mrs. Yali Gregory, and they have five children. He is currently serving as an Academy Professor at West Point.

Zhongshan Road

       I arrived on the “beautiful island” with my wife, originally a native of Taiwan, and five children nearly ten months ago. That arrival was not unlike many of our arrivals over the last twenty years. But, although over the years we have also experienced many departures, this departure was unlike any in the past. Unlike other times, the children and I left this time less as foreigners. Rather than returning from a place we were merely visiting, we left a place we had lived. Indeed, during this time, we lived in Shulin District of New Taipei City. More importantly, we lived on Zhongshan Road, and what a road it is. In this essay, I use Zhongshan Road as a focal point to say a little bit about Taiwan’s history, its current society, and what it was like to live in such a place.        To understand that Zhongshan Road translates to Sun Yat-sen Road in English is to understand something essential about the recent history and ongoing question of identity in Taiwan. The name itself is both a relic of a bygone era and a symbol of a continuing journey. The three districts surrounding Shulin—Banqiao,

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Research & Reflections

fulbright taiwan online journal