First Trip Back to Taiwan

The following story was written by Ning Yeh.

"It took me ten years to make my first trip back to Taiwan. I got married to Lingchi, and my son Evan and daughter Jashin came along. I started teaching full-time. It took me this long to get my Ph.D. degree, which was my goal when I came to the States. Without it, I had no “face” to go back.

In 1978, I took 120 of my students’ paintings and returned to Taiwan with my family, accompanied by 40 American artists. The Pacific Cultural Foundation, under the leadership of Dr. Li, sponsored our exhibition. My homecoming was an extraordinary event.

Top artists staged demonstrations in their homes for us and gave each of us their original paintings.

Taiwan was a tiny fishbowl with many giant whales of Chinese art—the headmasters of many schools in China were now here. These people were highly competitive, even down to the type of tea they served us. Each household would ask the previous one and try to top the effort. By the time we arrived at Mr. Kao’s studio, a bowl of wine with a giant Ginseng root floating in it was waiting.

Master Hung stacked two papers together. He created a waterfall on one and used the ink marks on the other to compose a different landscape.

Nixon went to China. By this time, Taiwan was isolated. The plum blossom bloomed in the harsh wintertime, and it was honored as the national flower. 

There was a popular song about the flower. Our whole group sang “Plum Blossom” at our show reception. It was broadcast on national TV. Many members of the audience, including the film crew, were in tears. They were genuinely touched. Or, we really sounded bad.

Director Chiang of the Palace Museum introduced himself as my uncle and hosted a banquet for my group.

He spoke of the friendship between people; I stood beside him with tears pouring out uncontrollably, as if I had somehow failed him. I had failed to uphold this great tradition. God knows I was just a kid, how I love this tradition.

We made two more trips with groups back to Taiwan. The island’s economy was booming. Everything was made in Taiwan. Tall buildings rose overnight like bamboo shoots. My Village vanished along with my childhood memories."