Born in Taiwan

In the war-ravaged China between 1937-45, children born outside family hometowns sometimes were named after their birthplaces. This was when the masses migrated to the interior or other parts of China to escape the Japanese invasion. The names are often based on the abbreviation of a province, for example, 閩粵桂黔滇瓊蘇浙皖贛鄂湘川(or 蜀)魯冀豫晉陜(or 秦), and one of these plus a second character, usually 生 (birth), becomes a newborn's given name. Commonly seen are, e.g., 閩生, 蜀生, 湘生, and some moved with their parents to Taiwan in 1949. After 1949, if born in Taiwan, then it was natural to be named 台生. Hiding in these names are the parental memories of wartime hardship. The book "Big River Big Sea 1949" by 龍應台Lung Ying-tai, who was also born in Taiwan, has retold many such heart-wrenching stories. An English edition is now in the offing.

Then there are the 灣生 (Wansei), repatriated Japanese born in Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial era. As 閩生, 蜀生, 湘生 who now travel freely back to China to visit their birthplaces and hometowns, the 灣生 Japanese also return to Taiwan looking for the neighborhoods and old friends from their childhood.

A documentary on Wansei, 灣生回家 Wansei Coming Home by Tanaka Mika 田中實加, is premiering this month in Taiwan. Here is the trailer:

"We must clean up our house for the next family whoever they are to move in. 
And these fresh lilies to greet them, too."
"Birthplace is very important, it must not be mistaken."

"They absolutely positively did live on this land Taiwan!"

Background: The first Japanese immigrants of 133 families (385 members) arrived in Taiwan in 1899, organized by a private 賀田Kata company. They settled in Hua-lien area in a brand new village named 賀田村. The migration continued well into the 1930s. In Hua-lien/Taitung area, there were 15 such settlements all together. [For more, see here.]

This documentary is about children from one of the settlements, the Yoshino Village (吉野村, now 吉安郷). They are the sorrowful Perpetual Foreigners, who left Taiwan, not by choice, in 1946.

Yoshino Village (source: http://taipics.com/hualien.php)

Yoshino Village meeting house (source: http://taipics.com/hualien.php)

Karenko 花蓮港 sea shore (source: http://taipics.com/hualien.php)

The Yoshino children are not alone of course, see here. It is still unknown how many of these children islandwide were repatriated. An estimate puts the number at ca 100,000.