Chu T'ien-wen, the eldest child, was bom on August 24, 1956, in Huang- pu Village, a so-called "civil service community" (chuan-ts'un),14 w hich was part o f the Fengshan M ilitary Academy, near K aohsiung in the south o f Taiwan. W hen she was three years old, her father was prom oted to propaganda officer in the M inistry o f Defence. This led to postings to various bases in and around Taoyuan and Taipei. Finally, on her father's retirem ent in 1972, when Chu was sixteen, the fam ily moved to their own home in Chingm ei, a m ajor university district o f Taipei. Up to this point Chu had always lived around m ilitary bases in a strongly m ainlander culture.
Judging from the fam ily photos printed in a book about this w ell-known family, A F am ily o f N ovelists (H siao-shuo chia-tsu, 1986), C hu had a very comfortable childhood. The photos illustrate the way the three daughters stood at the door with their m other every m orning to say Good-Bye to their father, and m any other photos illustrate the closeness o f the fam ily.15 H er descriptions are evocative o f a contented family life:
The whole fam ily m oved to Taoyuan Ch'iao-ai N ew V illage, (we had) a courtyard and a living room; the kitchen we built ourselves. I rem em ber to this day that on rainy days my m other w ould w ear a bam boo hat while
14 The form of words is used to describe the KMT settlements on Taiwan. The KMT regime was both a military dictatorship and exercised a parallel civil administration based on the last KMT government on the mainland. The functionaries o f the regime usually had both a military and a civil role. The KMT and its supporters were housed in settlements akin both to military barracks and to settlers' colonies.
15. Chu Hsi-ning, Hsiao-shuo chia-tsu (A Family o f Novelists) (Taipei: Hsi-tai, 1986) p. 53.
cooking. She would sing, her round face glow ing red. Sha-la sha-la (Sssss. . . ) the sizzling sound o f cooking brightened the incessant plum rain s16. . . I looked at father's and mother's faces, felt com pletely peaceful, and happily continued playing with (my) sisters. . . Every afternoon I sat with m other listening to the radio drama Sweet Home. . . .17
Chu took a romantic view o f her life in the civil service community, as she said it is "a kind o f colour, a m elody and a fragrance th at rem ained forever som ewhere" in her life.18 The people around her were all associated w ith the military. Her father had no relatives with him on Taiwan, and his arm y comrades were seen by Chu T'ien-wen as her uncles. In her essay, C hu describes these fellow s and their personalities as joyful, righteous, loyal, and versatile m en; brave and honourable like her father who had overcome great difficulties in the emigration to Taiw an,19
This feeling, which was general among the m ainlanders w as one o f the factors w hich contributed to the feeling o f privilege they felt com pared with the various groups already resident on the island, whom they referred to, in mainland style, as the "common people" (lao-pai-hsing). The feeling o f privilege was accentuated for Chu T'ien-w en by her father's stories about his fam ily's life in China — an idyllic picture o f country life on a large farm in beautiful scenery.
16. Spring rainy season when it typically rains for weeks,
1*7. Chu T'ien-wen, "Ch'un-shan-hsing" (Walk with Spring Clothes; Lit. The Journey of the Youth), HPTKS, p.72.
1®. Chu T'ien-wen, "Wo-ke ytieh p’ai-huai" (A Song in the Moonlight), HPTKS,
p. 78.
19.Ibid., p. 77.
Chu had an image of herself as a tomboy playing battle gam es.20 She was certainly attracted to the Military Academy and identified strongly with the brave male or female heroes from Chinese folklore and im agined h erself horse riding, galloping through the green grassland o f China.
H er early autobiographical essays present scenes o f m ilitary school life and a rom antic evocation o f what it m eant to be a brave o fficer enjoying the respect and perquisites o f the uniform. One is described in "A Song in the Moonlight" (Wo-ke yiieh p'ai-huai, 1981):
T he naval officers w ith (their) snow -w hite u n ifo rm s w ere exactly handsom e. . . I have often laughed at those rom antic stories in film s and fiction where young girls fall in love with smart officers, regarding them as extremely shallow and vulgar. But, look at me, am I not gradually falling too? 2 1
C h u d escrib es officers from the m ilitary school as w ell-ed u cated , em otionally contented, and perfectly good-natured. They are portrayed not as m en o f war, but as innocent boys playing with their toy w eapons. She describes with a feeling o f envy an officer's dream o f flying his plane and his desire to be the first one to fly over the m ainland on the day o f "returning to China": "Under the big w ind and bright sun, his dazzling orange flying ja c k e t looks like a beautiful flam e tied to a tall phoenix tree. The sky o f th at boy's w o rld is so boundless and far away, so pre that it is entirely free o f sorrow . Suddenly, it m akes the tears well up in m y breast."22 She thought th at officers o f this kind
20. Chu Hsi-ning, Hsiao-shuo chia-tsu, p. 290.
21. Chu T'ien-wen, "Wo-ke yiieh p'ai-huai", HPTKS, p. 85. 22. Ibid., p. 86.
were the sort o f men to lead the nation into a bright future. She encouraged and supported her high school boyfriend when he decided to enter a m ilitary school. H er patriotism made her believe that all m ilitary school entrants w ere patriots, devoting their lives to the country.