Unit 2: Listening Task #1
Voices of the Past - Interviews with Two Elderly Taiwanese
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INTERVIEW 1 Q: Thanks for coming here today to talk with us. First of all, can you tell us a little about your childhood? A: I was born in Tainan county in 1928. My father worked on a sugarcane farm and mother often had to help him. Our family was poor and I was the youngest of seven children. Most of us started working in the cane fields when we were around 11 or 12 years old. Q: The Japanese ruled Taiwan at that time, didn't they? A: Yes they did, but I didn't see many Japanese till I was 17. I lived in the country, about 50 kilometers west of Tainan city. The Japanese were mostly in the cities. My elementary school principle was Japanese, but most people I knew were Taiwanese. When I was 17, however, I had to go into the Japanese army. The officers above me were all Japanese. Thank God the war ended soon after I entered the army - otherwise I'd surely be dead. A lot of Taiwanese died in World War II fighting for Japan. Q: How were things during World War II? A: Life was tough. Food was short. And near the end of the war American B-29s began bombing a number of cities in Taiwan. Two of my elder brothers died in the war - one as a soldier fighting for Japan and one as a factory worker whose factory was bombed. Strangely, I believed in Japan when I was under 18. At that time I was completely brainwashed, since I didn't have any real information about what was happening. Q: How do you feel about Japan now? A: Well, a lot has changed since 1945. Certainly Japan did many bad things to Taiwan and to China. And Japan should acknowledge that. However, I'm not anti-Japanese. Every nation has its own bloody history. Q: How did you learn to speak English so well? Most people your age speak Taiwanese and some Japanese, but little English. A: From American missionaries. After the War was over, I didn't know what to believe and for a while I felt very unsure of myself. Eventually decided to believe in Jesus. And I learned English from missionaries. Q: Thanks for sharing your time. A: Glad to. I love to talk. And I think young people should know what Taiwan was like before they were born.
INTERVIEW 2 Q: Would you tell us a little about your childhood, Mrs. Lin? A: I was born in Fujian province in mainland China in 1930. My father was a wealthy landowner and had two wives and several servants. My mother was his second wife and I was the only daughter in the family. The first years of my life were happy and quiet, but the Japanese invasion and Chinese civil war made things rough. Q: How did the Japanese invasion influence you? A: Well, food became scarce and our money became nearly worthless. Japanese soldiers also stole some of our property. However, our family was luckier than most. We could live off the black market because we had gold and jewelry. And father wisely hid things in different places - he was a man of many secrets. Q: So you had resources . . . A: Yes, but money is not enough to stop bullets. Two of my brothers died fighting the Japanese. I can never forgive the Japanese for doing such terrible things to China. They were so cruel. Q: What about the Chinese civil war? A: My father always supported the KMT. He knew that the communists hated land owners. When the communists gained the upper hand in 1949, we were fortunate enough to escape to Taiwan. Some of my relatives remained stuck in mainland China. Q: Do you ever wish you could return to mainland China? A: I went back to mainland China about ten years ago for a brief visit. I felt out-of-place. Red China has become a different country - it has changed so much in the last 50 years that it is no longer my home. Taiwan is now my home. Q: One final question. How did you learn to speak English so well? A: Well, after my brothers were killed I became the only surviving child in our family. My father realized our family's future depended on education. So he sent me to the USA, where I studied for six years. Eventually I got a MBA there. Q: Thank you for sharing your time, Mrs. Lin. It sounds like your father was very progressive. A: He was. Women had few opportunties for education in the last, but my father was forward-looking. |
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Ver. 1.2 - Updated 27 Feb. 2000
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