T04C, Ellen Uchida ‘19, Thomas Yao, Grandfather, 1931, China
On October 8, 2017, I interviewed my maternal grandfather, Thomas Yao, by telephone. He was born in 1931 and is 86 years old, living in Taiwan.
Q. Where were you born? Can you describe your family life? Can you describe the area where you were born?
A. I was born in Zhejiang province, China, in 1931. My grandfather owned a factory owned by an American company manufacturing electrical equipment. When my grandfather died, he gave his job to my father. Growing up, my family was considered very wealthy. We lived in an apartment with many other families who were also supporters of the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party). Shanghai was also a very internationalized region in China. There were many concessions near the ports so that foreign countries like France, Britain, and the U.S. could easily trade.
Q. How was your family affected by World War II?
A. After the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Army took over Shanghai. There was fear among the Chinese people. There were many people who could not find jobs easily. There were also many people who were starving. My family did not suffer too much. I had a big family: my parents, six sisters, three uncles, and three aunts, and we all stayed together to support each other. After the war ended, life was also a little tough. Nobody was really happy in Shanghai.
Q. Do you have any ideas why your family supported the KMT?
A. We couldn’t stand the Communist regime. My father owned a very big factory and did not want to lose his business, and we believed that the KMT leader, Chiang Kai-shek, knew best for his people. I had relatives who were also owners of important businesses, so there was a growing resentment against the Communist regime.
Q. Can you explain why your family moved to Taiwan?
A. Communists took over Shanghai around 1950. My father had been planning to move the whole family to Taipei for a very long time. He had relatives living in Taipei, and was planning to let the entire family move into one of his relative’s houses.
Q. How did your family escape to Taiwan?
A. I don’t think “escape” is the right word. My entire family moved to Taipei before the Communists actually took over China. It was only my father who decided to stay in Shanghai a little longer to finish some business he had left to take care of. I believe that he also moved to Taiwan one year after my family moved. We moved to Taipei by boat. We didn’t move by airplane, as there weren’t any airlines available. The name of the boat was the Taiping. “Taiping” is Chinese for “peace.”
Q. What were the conditions on the boat?
A. The boat was large. There were many other families on the boat who also supported the KMT. The trip to Taipei itself was stable, as there weren’t any storms. I think that I was very lucky, since two years later, that exact same boat sank, killing 1,500 people.
Q. What happened to the apartment you left behind in Zhejiang?
A. I went back to Zhejiang in 1988 with my mother to visit. We went to check whether the apartment was still there, but the entire area had changed. The apartment was knocked down and was replaced by a large wheat field. It was completely bare, and I remember feeling very surprised. Of course, I didn’t expect the apartment to be there anyway, as it had been years since I had left Zhejiang.
Q. Did all of your relatives move to Taiwan?
A. All of my relatives that I was close with moved with me on the same boat. I’m not sure about what happened to some of my relatives on my mother’s side. I was much closer to my relatives on my father’s side.
Q. Were you never allowed to go back to China?
A. I was not allowed to visit Zhejiang until around 1987, I believe. The people who did go back to Zhejiang were often soldiers who fought during the Chinese Civil War. I think they were allowed to go back, since they fought honorably for the Chinese people.
Q. Did you have to give up your Chinese citizenship when you went to Taiwan?
A. I never gave up my Chinese citizenship. I still have a Chinese passport. However, I am considered an ROC (Republic of China) citizen. People think that ROC equates to being Taiwanese, but I think ROC is basically the same thing as China.
Q. What did you think about the Japanese during the war?
A. When the Japanese invaded Shanghai, we were all naturally scared. We had drills in school where we would drop under the school desks and hide when the teacher yelled out “Japanese!” As school children, we often referred to them as “devils.” I also had the idea that the Japanese were very snobby — since they had Coca-Cola. Back in Shanghai, there was a Japanese kid living in my apartment. He was drinking Coke, and all the other kids in the apartment were amazed at it. During the old days, Coke seemed like a luxury to the Chinese people. Of course, nowadays Coke isn’t a big deal anymore.
Q. What was life like when you first came to Taipei?
A. It wasn’t difficult to get used to Taiwan. Since Taiwan and China are culturally similar, I didn’t feel like I was in a foreign country. I was around 17 years old when I came to Taipei, and I didn’t immediately enroll in a school. I had to wait for a full semester to apply to a local Taipei school. At the school, there were a few kids like me who also came from families who supported the KMT. My father was also extremely lucky, as he was able to establish his own delivery company in Taipei. When he died, I was able to take control over the company.
Q. Do you feel more Chinese or Taiwanese now?
A. I don’t see much of a difference between Chinese and Taiwanese people. To me they’re the same. However, the only thing I don’t like about Taiwan is their food. The food that I ate back in Shanghai was much more delicate. In Taiwan, the food is very oily and unsophisticated. I still can’t eat local Taiwanese food after all these years.
Q. Did your opinions about Chiang Kai-shek change after the Chinese Civil War ended?
A. Not really. Even after the civil war was over, all the KMT supporters still loved him. I remember watching The Godfather in a movie theatre in Taiwan. Before watching the movie, everyone in the audience had to stand up and sing this song praising Chiang Kai-shek. But I also think the KMT was involved in a lot of censorship. At the ending of The Godfather, there was a message on the screen saying that all the characters who were involved in any killing were arrested and executed. But I didn’t see the actual ending until many years later in the States.