Memories of Taiwan(2)

看老外寫台灣, 很有趣

穿越蜿蜒的時光隧道，隧道的盡頭是五十年代的臺灣，那裏有一個美國男孩和他的童年……已近花甲之年，回憶起童年在臺灣度過的日子，美國教授Dick不禁感慨萬千……


Our cook and maid

We had a cook and a maid. The cook and his wife lived in a small set of rooms outside our house but inside the wall of our compound， near the front gate. Our first cook was named Lao Du， and he was a well-known chef. But my father fired him after about a year because he didn’t get his shaving water hot enough. Then we got a cook called Lao Zhang. Our maid was a young woman called Ah Yu. We had a kerosene stove in the house， but many people in Taichung still cooked on hibachis， a small round stove that burned a pressed coal brick， heated one pot， and which had to be fanned by hand.

Our backyard

Many of the houses in the area had beautiful Japanese style gardens in their backyards， with ponds， stepping stones， stone lanterns and rocks. Ours didn’t. We did build a bamboo trellis for hanging flowers and orchids， and there was some sort of square concrete tank on the back patio， possibly for goldfish. Arching above the house was a large tree called a flame tree， which bore pink and white flowers， and in the yard grew a kind of mimosa which was sensitive to touch if you touched it， it closed right up. The house was surrounded by a wall topped with cemented shards of broken glass， to deter robbers， and there was a row of trees planted next to the wall which I could climb into and from which I could watch the world outside the wall， or even shoot neighbor kids with my slingshot.

Living with the tropical climate

Taiwan’s climate was warm and wet. We kept bare light bulbs burning in the closets to prevent mold on clothes. We had tropical fruit like papaya， pomelo， lichees， and longans， as well as fresh sugarcane to chew on. There were short， fat bananas called “apple bananas” as long as your finger. Papaya is still my favorite fruit. The tropical climate meant tropical diseases. I got a double-dose of skin infections： impetigo， which bubbled up on the inside of my elbow， and ringworm， which left scabs on my head. I was prevented from swimming in the pool at the Taipei Grand Hotel because of that. The tropical climate meant that we never got snow or ice， but it also meant that houses didn’t have heat. When it got cold， we used moveable kerosene heaters. In the summer， we used portable floor fans and sat on rattan furniture， or else on foam rubber cushions on the tatami floor. Taiwan had tremendous amounts of rain， as well as typhoons in the late summer and fall. Our house had broad eaves， and I loved sitting under the windows listening to the rain and seeing it pour off the roof. When the typhoons hit， the rain would sometimes come at our house nearly sideways. Because of heavy rains， the streets around our house would often be covered in several inches of water， and I loved going outside in my buckled-up rubber galoshes to explore the flooded landscape.(To be continued.)


About the author： Richard Bodman少年時在臺灣台中市求學，哈佛學士，Cornell大學博士，St. Olaf學院教授，中國通，熱愛中國文化。


Notes:

compound 有圍牆的房子； 大院 chef 廚師

kerosene 煤油 hibachi <日> 木炭火盆
pressed 壓制的 brick 磚 trellis 格架 orchid 蘭花 patio 天井，院子 flame tree 鳳凰木
mimosa 含羞草cement 粘牢 shard 碎片 deter 阻止 slingshot 彈弓 mold 發黴
papaya 木瓜 pomelo 柚子lichee 荔枝 longan 龍眼 sugarcane 甘蔗 infection 感染

impetigo 膿皰病(一種皮膚細菌感染)

bubble up 冒泡 ringworm 癬scab 疤，痂 portable 輕便的rattan 藤條 tremendous 巨大的 foam rubber cushion 泡沫橡膠軟墊 buckled-up 扣上的
galosh 橡膠套鞋