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机械工程代写,机械工程代考 No Way Back: The Tragedy of an Old Taiwan Soldier

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“I had a brother older than me. He would take care of me when I was young. In my entire life, I have never seen a young man as gentle as he was. We never met again after he was taken to Taiwan by the Kuomintang army in his early twenties,” my grandfather once told me about his brother when I was ten. My little head at that time could not comprehend the grief in my grandfather’s voice. At 13, my grandfather passed away. When I stood in front of his coffin, I suddenly realized how sad my grandfather was when he told me of the diaspora of his brother. Kenny’s explanation of “diaspora” only partially applies the involuntary migration of my granduncle and fails to explain the harsh adaption as well as the limited influence he, as well as the other Taiwan soldiers, had on the political, economic, and cultural affairs in the Mainland, which demonstrates that political and ideological factors can be decisive when diaspora is concerned.

Born in the late 1920s, my granduncle would have been like one of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese peasants who spent their entire lives on serving the land they rented from the landlords if it had not been for the wars. It was like a miracle that my great grandfather managed to keep our family intact in such troubled times until the Chinese Civil War broke out. In the second year of the Chinese Civil War, 1947, when my granduncle was in his early twenties, he was sent out to call a doctor because my great grandmother was seriously ill. But he never came back. The next day my great grandfather learned that my granduncle was taken away by the Kuomintang soldiers in their mandatory recruiting of the able-bodied young men. My great grandmother passed away a few days after hearing the news while my great grandfather spent the rest of his life regretting sending his eldest son out, even though my great grandfather had no other choices to make. Fortunately, my granduncle survived on the battlefield and followed the Kuomintang army to Taiwan after Chiang Kai-shek’s defeat. As an enlisted man who was in the best time of his life, my granduncle received nearly fifteen years of military training after arriving in Taiwan. However, with the failure of Chiang’s plan to counterattack the Mainland, most of the soldiers were forced to retire from the army. With limited pension and little skills to support himself, my granduncle lived a poverty-stricken life. The harsh political conditions between the Mainland and Taiwan cut off the way he could come back. That was why it took more than half a century for him to get in touch with before my granduncle. When the political tensions were eased and the old soldiers were allowed to visit their families in the Mainland, my granduncle could not realize his dream due to his physical conditions. Although a mainlander, Taiwan became his final rest place. My granduncle’s diaspora began with misfortune and ended with tragedy.

“Diaspora” is a term redefined by Kenny as relating to “human migration, settlement, and adaption” (13). To my granduncle, the migration was involuntary, which led to the harsh settlement and difficult adaption in Taiwan. However, Kenny’s explanation of “diaspora” only partially applies to the conditions my granduncle faced. Different from the Jewish exile or the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, my granduncle, together with other Kuomintang soldiers, began his diaspora out of political and ideological confrontation, which also stopped him from adapting to the local environment in Taiwan. The Mainland soldiers were an important part of Chiang’s plan to regain his claim of the mainland. The core idea of Chiang’s propaganda to the soldiers was that helping Chiang to take his power back was the only way to go back home. When Chiang’s plan was broken, the soldiers were dismissed with no backup plan or pension for their future while the harsh political environment between the Mainland and Taiwan stopped them from going back. The estrangement lasted for more than a century while the solders aged with the long estrangement. Kenny’s explanation of “diaspora” also connotes the involvement of the migrants in the economic, political, and cultural aspects of their homeland (13). However, due to the political and military confrontation between the Mainland and Taiwan, there was little involvement of the Taiwan soldiers on the political, economic, or cultural aspects of the Mainland. Actually, it took them almost half a century get united to exert strong influence on the Taiwan authority to give them permission to visit their homeland. It indicates that the involvement is impossible without political support and the unification of the migrants. Economic factors are also important. The Diplomat reports that the poverty rate among the Taiwan old soldiers can be as high as 50% (Wong para. 2). The political appeal of the Taiwan soldiers would have been greater if they were in an affluence state. A long-time isolation, poverty, and political hostility put off or severed the economic, political, or cultural involvement of the homeland affairs. Kenny’s explanation in this sense is not well fit into the story of the Taiwan old soldiers.

“I cannot go back and never will, but I want to.” These are the last words my grandfather heard from his brother. I remembered that my grandfather fell into long silence after saying the words. Kenny’s diaspora partially explains the involuntary migration of my granduncle. But when it comes to the settlement and adaption in the hostland, as well as the economic, political, or cultural involvement of the homeland, Kenny’s explanation fails to explain such aspects. It seems that in front of the political and ideological confrontation, the efforts of a small group of people could only generate limited influence.

Works Cited

Kenny, Kevin. Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2013

Wong, Colleen. “The KMT Soldiers Who Stayed Behind in China.” The Diplomat. 10 July 2013, pp. 45.