You must have noticed that I skipped my writings last three day in a row.  Well, during the interim I went to Tainan the very second time since my last visit to the place when I was an elemtary school kid or a junior high student in an extra-curricular activity.  I just cannot recall any image about Tainan from my mind; but how can I, it was the only experience that happened sixty years ago.  Therefore, I just can not make any comparison between the two visits, for after such a long time the vicisstudes would make things beyond comparison from any angle for a visitor like me, nor for anyone else. 

But the images must be vividly live for Mr C, my college classmate and the organizer of the tour this time.  One of the touring schedules was to pay a visit to his old home town somewhere in rural Tainan.  When he led us to his old "house", which is hidden beside a tripleangle housing(Sanheyuan), we were all shocked to see such an unbelievable scene popped out before our eyes.  It is a totally dilapidated house made mainly of clay and stucco, with fewer bricks.  By any stretch of the imagination, it can be a family house so small as only 20 Japanese ping: there are only two bedrooms, no kitchen, no bath, no toilet for a family which was comprised of nearly ten members.  C told us that he had to walk to elementary school with bare feet, but finally he became the only one among siblings as a college student. (Maybe the very first one ever in the villiage.)  His siblings were later left home to KEPZ or NEPZ in Kaohsiung for a better life, contributing a lot to a better Taiwan like him as well. 

The story of the impoverished life of Mr C in his younger days reminds me of A-bian, who allegedly came from a poor family of "third degree" in Tainan.  Well, what degree of the family that Mr C should have belonged to?