My son was adorable and amiable when he was a kid.  He was so popular that everybody, my relatives, my acquaintances, even strangers on the streets, would praise him for his charmingly naive apperance(萌?).  Turning into his adolescence he became an intelligent student, hardworking and concentrating, almost all of the teachers who had taught him would laud him for his performance.  After graduating from college, he became a competent employee and all bosses he worked for would regard him as gem for them. (He experienced a not so auspicious career though, due mostly to 2008 finacial crisis.)

Now he is a perfect young man, isn't he?  Not really, not least from the eyes of his parents, my wife and I.  He was kind of perverse to us, throwing a fit on us every once in a while.  He may regard us the shoulders to cry on, but not in a proper way.  Since he matriculated and entered into college in 1999, we haven't got together for over two weeks.  Long separation might make us feel not close to each other like we used to be. 

The relationship between my son and me may not be an appropriate metaphor for the one between Mainland and Taiwan.  Taiwan might be an exemplar in "international" society, small but beautiful, but it likes a spoilt and pampered child to his parent, Mainland.  Unlike my son, who will have a family of his own and will probably never return to us, but Taiwan will eventually be a boomerang kid to its parenet, someday, somehow.