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Trying to Fit In
Taiwanese
citizens living on the mainland endure isolation and loneliness,
but a new school in southern China is reuniting families
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By CRYSTYL MO / Dongguan |
Wei Leng Tay for Asiaweek.
Taiwanese youngsters in Dongguan
get the same education as their compatriots.
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Eight years ago, Taiwan native Chen Zhengzhong accepted a job
in a Taiwanese factory located in mainland China. He might as
well have volunteered for duty behind enemy lines. "It's been
a great sacrifice," says Chen, a plant manager for Delta Electronics
Components in Dongguan. "I've worked very hard here, long hours
every day, away from my family. I came here when my son was
four months old. I haven't had much time with him."
For more than 40,000 Taiwanese who run the assembly lines
in Dongguan, a dreary industrial city of 3 million in southern
China, life is almost monastic. Guests of a hostile government,
they do little but work and sleep, seldom venturing beyond
their factory-site dormitories. Assimilation with the community
has been difficult.
But last September, a step was taken to improve their lot
with the opening of the Taiwan Businessmen's Dongguan School.
The first of its kind on the mainland, the school is meant
to normalize life for Taiwanese managers for whom a mainland
posting meant separation from family. "We worried about safety
and medical facilities for our wives and children," says Chen,
"but mostly I worried about my son getting a good Taiwan-style
education."
The $6-million facility, built with money raised by the local
Taiwan Business Association, has a student body of 755 students
who attend classes taught by 32 Taiwanese teachers. Far from
frowning on the school, the Chinese government contributed
$2.4 million to construction. It's good business: Taiwanese
investors have pumped more than $3.3 billion into some 4,000
Dongguan ventures. Despite friendly relations between local
government and the Taiwanese community, the curriculum is
not immune to politics. Ultrasensitive topics including modern
history and Taiwan's legal system can't be taught (older children
must fly home for summer classes in forbidden subjects). Students
are not allowed to sing Taiwan's national anthem to begin
the school day.
Tang Muyin, a volunteer teacher at the school, says she recently
moved from Taiwan to rejoin her husband because of the school.
But she worries that her child has adopted her father's cloistered
lifestyle. "We are quite separated from the mainlanders,"
she says. "I would like my [six-year-old] daughter to have
more interaction with people outside the school." You Zhaozheng,
who works in the marketing department at Union Power Information,
wishes the same for his 13-year-old daughter. "We want her
to see China, to realize this is her heritage. The main reason
we came here is to open our daughter's eyes."
Another Taiwan school is slated to be built later this year
in Kunshan near Shanghai. It will take many more before Taiwanese
feel secure in China. Dongguan school principal Wu Canyang
is taking things a generation at a time. "We want our students
to accept and understand the local society and culture," he
says. "We don't want them to be arrogant or prejudiced. If
we spend more time together, many of our differences can be
solved."s
  
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