Remembering China from Taiwan: Divided Families and Bittersweet Reunions after the Chinese Civil War
Mahlon Meyer

Hardcover: 252 pages Publisher: Hong Kong University Press (April 10, 2012) Language: English ISBN-10: 9888083864 ISBN-13: 978-9888083862

ABSTRACT

The book tells the story of the exodus from China of two million Nationalist loyalists, military and civilians. It depicts the choices faced by millions of families as they were forced to chose which child to send ahead to Taiwan, to safety, as they heard the artillery of the advancing communist armies and anticipated certain death. It also shows the creation of a nostalgic community across the Taiwan Strait created by those families divided by the civil war. The argument is that the mainlanders living on Taiwan saw themselves as cursed, exiled people and only found their way, a new identity when they faced a coming-together with their families on the mainland. Though many of the reunions were bittersweet, they did provide the Nationalists and their families a new sense, a reinvention of, the idea of being Chinese.

Keywords: Kuomintang, Nationalists, Mainlanders, Taiwan, China, Nostalgia, Oral History

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