“L’Étranger” since the Civil War: Writing the Civil War Taiwanese-Guomindang Soldiers in the 1990s

Mike Shi-chi Lan Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Email: [email protected]

Paper to be Presented at Fifth Conference of the European Association of Studies 18-20 April, 2008 Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the history and historiography of Taiwanese soldiers who served in the Nationalist or Guomindang (GMD) Army during the between 1946 and 1949. More than fifteen thousand native Taiwanese were recruited and sent to battlefields in northern to serve in the Nationalist Army. As the Communist forces defeated the Nationalist Army, most of the Taiwanese soldiers were abandoned by the Nationalist Army in the mainland. After 1949, more than one thousand former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, commonly known as Taiji Guojun laobing, have settled in . However, the history of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers was largely repressed and ignored discursively in accounts of the war in both the mainland and Taiwan. This amnesia in public memory remained unchallenged till the 1990’s when Chen Yingzhen’s short novel Guixiang [returning to the native land] emerged, followed by oral history works by Taiwanese veterans themselves. This paper will first analyze—in terms of historiography—how these literary and historical works have brought native Taiwanese-GMD soldiers back into history. Furthermore, this paper will study in terms of practice how these native Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were discriminated in the mainland and Taiwan alike since 1949. Because of their Taiwanese identity and former GMD affiliation, these Taiwanese-GMD veterans—as well as their families—have been subjected to various discrimination and mistreatment under the Communist rule in the mainland, particularly during political campaigns such as the Cultural Revolution. Starting in the 1980s, surviving Taiwanese-GMD veterans in mainland China began to seek ways to visit and/or return to Taiwan. However, the ROC government in Taiwan continuously refused to recognize these former GMD soldiers, suspected them as ‘communists”, and denied them entry to Taiwan. This paper will conclude by juxtaposing Taiwanese-GMD soldiers’ lack of belonging in both their native and settled land with Albert Camus’s play The Misunderstanding (Le Malentendu) and motif of the exile and “the stranger” (as in L’Étranger) which are often found in Camus’s works.

0 “L’Étranger” since the Civil War: Writing the Civil War Taiwanese-Guomindang Soldiers in the 1990s

Mike Shi-chi Lan

“The world is neither (completely) rational, nor quite irrational either”—Camus1

I. A brief history of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers Between 1945 and 1949, more than fifteen thousand native Taiwanese were recruited to serve in the Nationalist or Guomindang (GMD) Army during the Chinese Civil War.2 Most of the Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, commonly known as Taiji Guojun, were sent to battlefields in mainland China to fight against the Communist forces. As the Communist forces progressed and took over Chinese mainland, the Nationalist Army troops either retreated to Taiwan or surrendered to the Communist. Some Taiwanese-GMD soldiers returned to Taiwan with the Nationalist troops, but most were abandoned by their troops in the mainland. After 1949, as Taiwan was cut off from the mainland, these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were forced to stay and subsequently settle in mainland China. As a result of political antagonism across the , no former Taiwanese-GMD soldier was allowed to return to Taiwan till 1988.3 Most of the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers have passed away in Chinese mainland without ever returning to Taiwan; and many, in their seventy’s or eighty’s, remain in Chinese mainland today.

II. Taiwanese-GMD soldiers in historiography

1 As quoted in Jean-Paul Sartre, “An Explication of The Stranger” (original French title: Explication de l’Estranger, 1955), English translation in Harold Bloom, ed., Albert Camus’s The Stranger (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001), p.4. 2 The estimate of fifteen thousand is found in Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan [Taiwan archive section, Academic Historica], ed., Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), p.286 and Xu Zhaorong, Dongdang shidai de wunai—Taiji laobing xuelei gushi [helplessness in a time of turmoil— stories of blood and tears of Taiwanese old soldiers] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2005), pp.63, 217. 3 The ROC government started in 1988 to by grant only “permit” to “visit” Taiwan, for a two-month period, to former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers. Later on in 1989, ROC government began to issue residence permit to allow former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers to return to Taiwan permanently. See Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (: Qianwei, 1995), pp.569-570. 1 The history of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, however, was largely repressed and ignored discursively in accounts of the war in both the mainland and Taiwan after 1949. This amnesia in public memory remained unchallenged till the late 1980’s. Several former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, who retreated back to Taiwan with the Nationalist troops in 1949, began in 1987 to campaign and made appeal to the Republic of China (ROC) government in Taiwan for the right of their former Taiwanese-native comrades to return to Taiwan.4 Soon, several legislators in the ROC congress (the ) and government officials in charge of veterans’ affairs took notice of the issue,5 so did Taiwanese organizations in the mainland.6 The ROC government in Taiwan eventually approved such request and allowed the first former Taiwanese-GMD soldier living in the mainland to return to Taiwan for a short compassionate visit in the end of 1988. However, former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were not allowed to move back and settle permanently in Taiwan until 1989.7 According to my survey, the first systematic study of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers was not published until 1995 in Taiwan, authored by Xu Zhaorong, a former Taiwanese-GMD soldier.8 Xu is one of earliest activists who advocate the right of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers to return from Chinese mainland to Taiwan. Xu first published several articles in Chinese newspapers and Taiwanese community newsletter in North America (in the United States and Canada) between, detailing on the plight of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers in the mainland since 1949. Since then, several oral history projects were conducted by journalists, government agencies, and academics, and the history of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers was known more widely with the publication of additional reports since the mid-1990s.9 In addition, the stories of former

4 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), pp.567-568. 5 Several legislators began to raise the issue in 1987. The ROC government undertook concrete measures to allow former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers to return to Taiwan in 1988, see Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), p.1-2, 533-534, 568-569. 6 Taisheng [Taiwanese voice], a magazine published by the Taiwanese-native Association [Taiwan tongxiang lianyi hui] in Beijing, carried several reports on former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers in Chinese mainland in 1988. See reprints in Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), pp.189-206. 7 Xu Zhaorong, Dongdang shidai de wunai—Taiji laobing xuelei gushi [helplessness in a time of turmoil—stories of blood and tears of Taiwanese old soldiers] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2005), pp.193-194. 8 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995). 9 One of the most notable is the government-sponsored report Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), published by Taiwan’s national archive. It consists of oral history transcript with more than thirty former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers. Additional report is also found in Chen Ming-cheng, Taiwan bing yingxiang gushi [photographic stories of the Taiwanese soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei chubanshe, 1997). 2 Taiwanese-GMD soldiers became the subject of literary works, including Chen Yingzhen’s short novel Guixiang [returning to the native land], first published in 1999.10 In terms of historiography, the history of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers has been largely ignored in both sides of the Taiwan Strait since 1949. It gradually began to attract attention in the news media in the late 1980s, and historical and literary works finally brought Taiwanese-GMD soldiers back into history in the late 1990s.

III. “Stranger” at Home: Life in the Chinese Mainland At the end of the Civil War, thousands of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers settled in Chinese mainland. Many of them were recruited and re-grouped into the People’s Liberation Army; some were trained in cadre schools, specifically in preparation for the Communist plan to “liberate Taiwan”. Some were sent to fight in the Korean War, others were discharged as the Korean War halted the Communist plan to attack Taiwan in 1950.11 As they settled, found new jobs, and many got married and set up families in the Chinese mainland, these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers found their “second home”.12 But many soon found themselves discriminated and ill- treated in this “second home”. As political campaigns spread across the Chinese mainland in the 1950s, most former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were affected. Some Taiwanese-GMD veterans were severely punished long before the Cultural Revolution, partly because they were able to speak fluent Japanese (as a result of being educated under the Japanese colonial rule).13 One Taiwanese-GMD veteran was sent to labor camp and was forced to stay in a remote settlement in Inner Mongolia for more than forty years; he later remarked that he stayed much longer than the famous Han

10 Chen Yingzhen, Guixiang [returning to the native land], in Chen Yingzhen, Zhongxiao gongyuan [Zhongxiao park] (Taipei: Hongfan shudian, 2001/2004). 11 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), pp.92, 111-114; testimonials by Zhang Wu Tengxu, Xu Tengguang, Huang Aruei, Jiang Shuihuo, and Liu Huande, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.37, 126, 133, 183, 281-282. 12 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), p.115. 13 See testimonials by Zhang Wu Tengxu and Huang Aruei, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.38-39, 134. Zhang was sent for “labor reform” in 1961; Huang was interrogated as “international agent” in 1952. 3 dynasty official Su Wu who was in exile (detained by the Huns) for eighteen years.14 Some former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers who “defected” and joined the People’s Liberation Army during and after the civil war were also severely criticized.15 During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), many Taiwanese-GMD veterans were accused and punished as “five Blacks [hei wu lei]”, “international spy”, “Han traitor”, “Japanese agent”, “Guomindang agent”, or simply “Taiwanese”.16 Some were criticized for their action during the civil war as GMD soldiers against the Red Army.17 Examples above show that because of their Taiwanese identity and former GMD affiliation, these Taiwanese-GMD veterans—as well as their families in the mainland—were subjected to various discrimination and mistreatment under the Communist rule in the mainland. In other words, in their “second home” of mainland China, former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were regarded as ‘strangers”. After the Cultural Revolution, many Taiwanese-GMD veterans in China began to contemplate a return to Taiwan. Tension across the Taiwan Strait started to ease in 1987 as the ROC government in Taiwan implemented new policies allowing mainland-native GMD veterans in Taiwan to visit their families in China. This change of political situation eventually led to the return of hundreds of Taiwanese-GMD veterans from China to Taiwan since the late 1980s. Then how did the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers fare in their homeland?

IV. “Stranger” in Homeland: Life in Taiwan As the Civil War concluded in 1949, some Taiwanese-GMD soldiers returned to Taiwan with the Nationalist troops. However, they did not receive government benefit as veterans. Some recalled that the ROC government did not provide medical or career placement assistance after they left their units.18 Ito make their situation worse, some veterans were suspected as “communist spy [feidie]” or “involuntary communist-associated element [beipo fufei fenzi]” and under constant

14 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), pp.117-118 15 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), pp.115-116 16 See testimonials by Xu Tengguang, Wu Aji, Jiang Shuihuo, and Liu Huande, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.126, 159, 184, 283. 17 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), pp.116-117 18 Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), p.101. 4 surveillance by the intelligence agency of the ROC government.19 One veteran who were briefly captured by the Communist force during the Civil War was later on listed as “element to be watched [kanguan fenzi]” and “criminal of conscience [sixiang fan] ”, and as a result periodically interrogated and even tortured, by the intelligence service of the ROC government during the 1950’s.20 Unlike the “glorious citizens [rong min]”, referring to mostly mainland- native GMD soldiers who retreated to Taiwan with their troops after 1949, Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were under-recognized. Many later recalled that they did not receive any veteran’s benefit till the 1990s.21 For those former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers who stayed in the mainland, it took them more than forty years to have the opportunity to return to Taiwan. Starting in the 1980s, surviving Taiwanese-GMD veterans in mainland China began to seek ways to visit and/or return to Taiwan. At the time, there were less than one thousand former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers alive and living in the Chinese mainland.22 The ROC government started in 1988 to grant “permit” to “visit” Taiwan to former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers and, later on in 1989, to issue residence permit to allow former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers to return to Taiwan permanently. However, the ROC government’s regulations were strict, and many former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were denied entry to Taiwan. Some veterans passed away while waiting for ROC government’s approal to visit Taiwan.23 Several legislators raised the issue in 1994, and demanded the government to set up a task-force to look into the need and benefit of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers and find ways to ease Taiwanese-GMD veterans’ return.24 However, the ROC government continued to under-recognize these returning former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers. Former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, especially those who were forced to stay in Chinese mainland after 1949 and subsequently underwent ordeal under the Communist rule and decades

19 See testimonials by Zhong Faquan and He De, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.192, 271-275. 20 See testimonial by Ye Dongchuan, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.79-84. Ye was working for a Japanese-owned factory in Manchuria at the end of the Second World War, and was subsequently recruited into the Nationalist troops in Chinese mainland in 1945. 21 See testimonials by Zhong Faquan, Liang Qixiang and He De, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.190, 198-199, 276. 22 The estimate is made by Taiwanese-native Association in 1989, see Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), p.37. 23 See Chen 24 See reprints of seven legislative documents from 1994 in Xu Zhaorong, Taji laobing de xue lei hen [blood tear hatred of the Taiwanese old soldiers] (Taipei: Qianwei, 1995), pp.535-555. 5 of separation from their families in Taiwan, have made numerous attempt demanding the ROC government to provide veterans’ benefit for their service during the Civil War and due compensation for their consequent suffering. However, the ROC government continued to deny these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers compensation and veteran benefit till the 1990s. It was only in the mid-1990s that some former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were recognized as “glorious veteran [rongmin]” and started to receive veteran pension.25 Some veterans received an additional compensation, though the amount was rather small.26 More significantly, even family members in Taiwan see these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers as strangers. One veteran recalled that when he first contacted his family in Taiwan after decades of separation, family in Taiwan thought it was a scam and refused to believe that he is still alive.27 Another veteran, Liu Huande, recalled that while he was in China he was given a rare opportunity to speak on state radio broadcasting propaganda to Taiwan. Several years later Liu returned to Taiwan, and he was told that his now-deceased father coincidentally heard his voice and message through the radio broadcast. But when Liu’s father told other family members that Liu was alive, no one in the family believed Liu’s father; everybody assumed that Liu died in the battlefield long time ago and thought Liu’s father missed Liu so much that he mistook someone else as Liu in the radio.28 Many former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers who eventually returned from China to Taiwan recalled, unanimously, that they encountered difficulty in obtaining assistance to return to Taiwan—such as guarantee of financial support—from their family members in Taiwan.29 Because most former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were declared—by court—presumably dead after years of losing contact with their families in Taiwan, their property or entitlement to inherit family property in Taiwan have long been appropriated among family members in Taiwan.30 As

25 See testimonials by Ye Dongchuan, Liang Qixiang, Chen Wenche, Peng Changtian, and He De, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.84, 199, 210, 265, 276 26 Ranging from NT$200,000 to 800,000, see testimonials by Huang Aduan, Peng Changtian and He De, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.136, 265, 276 27 See testimonials by Chen Wenche, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), p.210 28 See testimonials by Liu Huande, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), p.283 29 See testimonial by Liu Huande, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), p.284 30 See testimonial by Zhangwu Tengxu, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.40-41 6 a result, family members in Taiwan sometimes refused to recognize or assist former Taiwanese- GMD soldiers to return to Taiwan for the fear of re-appropriating family asset and land.31 Some veterans who eventually returned to Taiwan needed first to appeal to the court to annul their own “death” and recover household registration; some were forced to take legal action against their own family members to settle dispute over inheritance of family property.32 Stories of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers facing dispute over family property and being seen as stranger by family in Taiwan are portrayed by novelist Chen Yingzhen in his 1999’s work Guixiang [returning to the native land]. The protagonist Lin Shikun, known as Yang Bin since he joined the GMD army in 1946,33 encountered a great deal of challenges in his return to Taiwan. When Lin first made contact with his family in Taiwan after more than forty years of separation, he received a rather lukewarm response from Taiwan.34 Later on, Lin learned that some in his family were suspicious of, if not hostile to, Lin’s motivation to return to Taiwan. Seeing Lin’s photograph—in which Lin was dressed in Leninist-style clothes and a worker’s hat—and letters written in simplified Chinese characters, one of Lin’s nephews suspected Lin’s true identity and considered Lin a communist and a fake who was motivated to steal property. This nephew of Lin’s refused to serve as a guarantor—as required of each Taiwanese-GMD soldier returning from China to Taiwan under GMD government’s regulation—to facilitate Lin’s return to Taiwan, and subsequently asked the local district court to declare that Lin passed away in China and illicitly sold the family land that Lin was entitled to for a profit.35 When Lin finally returned to Taiwan for a short visit, having been assisted by another nephew of his, Lin needed to first file a lawsuit to annul his death, reclaim his original name and household registration, and obtain an identification card before he was able to file another lawsuit to settle the dispute over property.36 Having dealt with indifference and hostility from his own family before and during his brief return to Taiwan, Lin commented before leaving for China: “after all, Taiwan and (Chinese)

31 See testimonials by Huang Aduan, Jiang Shuihuo and Peng Changtian, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.135, 184, 265 32 See testimonial by Zhangwu Tengxu and Wang Yuanlong, in Shanghen xuelei [scar blood tear] (Nantou: Guoshi guan Taiwan wenxian guan, 2006), pp.41, 177 33 Chen Yingzhen, Guixiang, pp.24, 54 34 Chen Yingzhen, Guixiang, pp.50-54 35 Chen Yingzhen, Guixiang, pp.59-60, 66 36 Chen Yingzhen, Guixiang, pp.55, 60-62. 7 mainland are both my old home”.37 But after decades of being away from Taiwan, Lin was hardly recognized as a Taiwanese at home. As Lin lamented to the nephew who assisted him to return to Taiwan: “ I became a Chinese for decades in the mainland, this time (I) return to (my) old home of Taiwan, yet nobody recognizes me as a Taiwanese”.38 To people in the homeland, these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers become strangers.

V. Experience of being L’Étranger in the Life of Taiwanese-GMD soldiers This paper will conclude by juxtaposing Taiwanese-GMD soldiers’ lack of belonging in both their native home of Taiwan and their settled home of China with Albert Camus’s play The Misunderstanding (Le Malentendu)39 and the themes of exile,40 a sense of the absurd (le sentiment de l’absurde),41 and “the stranger” (as in L’Étranger) that are often found in Camus’s works. In Camus’s work L’Étranger, the protagonist Meursault is constantly seen by others as an evil man. But from Meursault’s own point of view, he is simply “indifferent”: indifferent to his mother’s death, indifferent to the killing of an Arab, and indifferent to religion. Yet, because of his characteristic indifference, or as one scholar puts it “inattentiveness and confusion”,42 Meursault is considered by others as “different”—and evil at unfortunate occasions, hence as a “stranger”. A stranger, by definition, is “being physically removed from his own group” and “stands apart from the life of the family or community into which he has been cast”.43 Living in a state of exile in China, which was created by the GMD army, since the civil war, the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were physically removed from their own group—families and community—in Taiwan for decades. Furthermore, as they settled in mainland China, Taiwanese-

37 Chen Yingzhen, Guixiang, p.67 38 Chen Yingzhen, Guixiang, p.65 39 Albert Camus (Pierre-Louis Rey, ed.), Le Malentendu (Gallimard, 1958/1995). For this paper, I have also consulted the English translation by Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, available at http://www.spa.ex.ac.uk/drama/staff/dramaturgy/misunderstanding.pdf (accessed in March 2008) 40 The theme of exiles is found in works such as “La Femme adultère (The Adulterous Woman)” in L’Exile et le Royaume (Exile and the Kingdom, 1957), La Peste (The Plague, 1947) and La Chute (The Fall,1956), see discussion in Danielle Marx-Scouras, “Portraits of women, visions of Algeria”, Margaret E. Gray, “Layers of meaning in La Peste”, and David R. Ellison, “Withheld identity in La Chute”, in Edward J. Hughes, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Camus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp.141, 166-167, 179 41 Leon S. Roudiez, “Strangers in Melville and Camus”, French Review, Vol.31, No.3 (January 1958), p.217 42 Peter Dunwoodie, “From Noces to L’Etranger”, in Edward J. Hughes, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Camus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p.159. 43 Leon S. Roudiez, “Strangers in Melville and Camus”, French Review, Vol.31, No.3 (January 1958), p.218 8 GMD veterans were seen as standing “apart from the life” of the community (mainland China), because of their Taiwanese identity and former GMD affiliation, during various political campaigns. Consequently, they were criticized and punished for being “different”, i.e. as “strangers”. Ironically, this state of being “strangers” did not end with their return to Taiwan. Instead, former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers continued to be considered by their own families in Taiwan and the ROC government as “different”—standing “apart from the life of the family or community” (now in Taiwan) because of their mainland experiences and affiliation—when they returned to Taiwan. In other words, throughout their lifetime, these Taiwanese-GMD veterans were constantly seen as “strangers”. This theme of “stranger” is also found in Camus’s play The Misunderstanding. In this work, the protagonist Jan has been away from home and lost contact with his family for many years. When he finally returned home, his mother and sister Martha not only did not recognize him, they conspired and killed Jan for his money as an ordinary stranger. There is a striking parallel between Camus’s story and stories of the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers. Like Jan, these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers have been away from home for decades and lost contact with families at home. Like Jan, who leaves his wife Maria—temporarily—and returns to his old home alone, most former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers leave—temporarily—their families in China and were alone for their first trip to Taiwan (though most are able to bring their families in China to Taiwan when they finally move back to Taiwan for good). Like Jan, who does not feel at ease after meeting his mother and sister and expresses to his mother that he wants to leave,44 some Taiwanese-GMD soldiers experience various kind of difficulties when they finally get the chance to visit Taiwan after decades of separation but decide not to move back to Taiwan after their visit. And most importantly, like Jan who is not recognized by his mother and sister and instead is treated as a guest/stranger (and an unfortunate one), a great number of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers encounter suspicion, indifference, and even hostility from the GMD government and their families in Taiwan. As Martha tells Jan: “Remember, you’re the guest. Enjoy what’s on offer. But please don’t ask for more”.45 When they finally return to Taiwan after decades of separation, these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers are considered by the GMD government as well as their own families in Taiwan as different and consequently treated as guests/strangers.

44 Scene 6, Act 2, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.32 45 Scene 5, Act 1, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.16 9 Stories of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers returning to Taiwan demonstrate that these veterans are “strangers” in their homeland Taiwan, just like Jan in The Misunderstanding. And similar to Jan, what the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were seeking in returning to Taiwan is a simple recognition of their existence and identity. Upon his arrival at his old home, Jan expresses to his wife his expectation as a returning son: “I’d expect some sort of welcome—you know, the return of the prodigal son, killing the fatted calf, and so on”.46 For the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, what they are asking is a due recognition of their contribution in the past from the GMD government and a warm welcome from their families in Taiwan. But for more than forty years, they could not even get the chance to ask for it because of the political antagonism and separation between Taiwan and China. And when the political environment changes in the late 1980s and the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers finally got the opportunity to return to Taiwan, however, they received a rather lukewarm response from both the ROC government and their families in Taiwan. Furthermore, to enable themselves to return to Taiwan, former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers are asked to follow very strict rules set by the ROC government and their families in Taiwan—such as having family members as guarantors and renouncing their right to inherit family property— and applied exclusively to these veterans. As Martha puts it rather frankly to Jan: “if you refuse to behave as a guest should, I’m afraid that we shall have to ask you to leave”.47 When former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers finally returned to Taiwan, they were asked to behave as a guest since they were not entitled to full privilege as a member of the national community or as a member of the family. As Martha adds, if Jan expects his mother and sister to welcome him into the family circle, “[t]hat really would be asking too much”.48 For the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, despite all the hardship they have endured throughout their lives, there is a perennial wish of feeling belonged and a commitment to realize this wish. Just like Jan in The Misunderstanding has said: “Happiness isn’t everything. Men have their obligations too. Mine was to find my mother, and my country. To be where I belong again”.49 Yet for the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, this simple wish is hardly obtainable. Placed and caught in a constant status of exile, the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers are

46 Scene 3, Act 1, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.8 47 Scene 5, Act 1, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.16 48 Scene 5, Act 1, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.16

10 continuously considered “strangers” on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. They speak the same language, yet they are unable to fully communicate or identify with people in either Taiwan or China in terms of history and experiences. In Jan’s words: “there is nothing for me here. Nothing for me to do. To sum it up, I don’t feel at home here. And it’s not a sensation I like”.50 This sense of loss and lack of belonging can be best illustrated by Camus’s sense of “the absurd”. In discussing his own L’Étranger, Camus identifies “a sense of the absurd” as the theme of the work, and he further points out that a sense of the absurd is due to a “divorce” between man and his life.51 Jean-Paul Sartre later elaborates on Camus’s idea of the absurd, and he argues that man is both a stranger “facing the world” and a stranger “in relation to himself”. The stranger then, is a man “realizing the gap between the eternal nature of the universe and his own finite nature”.52 Sartre calls it the “divorce between the physical and the spiritual nature of man” or “natural man in relation to mind”.53 Throughout the lives of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, these men are constantly facing a physical world that is rarely—if ever—in conformity with their mind. They wanted to serve as good soldiers, yet the (ROC) government deserted them during the civil war; they wanted to return home after the war, yet, the tension across the Taiwan Strait blocked their return and the (ROC) government refused to open its door to them; they wanted to find a home in China, yet political upheaval there did not allow them to do so; and when they finally got the opportunity to return to and to find a home in Taiwan, they were seen and treated with suspicion from both their own families and the (ROC) government in Taiwan. To make things worse, former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers are betrayed time after time by the physical world. They were promised a career in the GMD Army, a home in China, and again a home in Taiwan. Again and again, Taiwanese-GMD soldiers made commitment and pledged their allegiance to the ROC government, the PRC government, and their families, only to see promises given to them broken. This gap between reality and expectation/promise—or what Camus refers to as the “divorce” between man and his life—existed continuously in the lives of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers. Encountering such huge and chronic gap in life, these Taiwanese-GMD veterans are constantly

49 Scene 3, Act 1, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.9 50 Scene 6, Act 2, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.33 51 Leon S. Roudiez, “Strangers in Melville and Camus”, French Review, Vol.31, No.3 (January 1958), p.218 52 In Sartre’s Explication de l’Estranger, see Victor Brombert, “Camus and the Novel of the ‘Absurd’”, Yale French Studies, No.1 (1948), p.120.

11 facing—and trapped in—a state of the absurd in which man is a stranger to the world and to himself. Furthermore, the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers have been facing a physical world that is rarely in the hands of themselves. During the civil war, during the Cultural Revolution, and during their trip going back to Taiwan, Taiwanese-GMD soldiers’ lives were dictated by circumstances that were far beyond their control. Facing such a formidable world, the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers were insignificant and powerless as they could do nothing to assert or defend themselves. Sartre finds in Camus’s absurdity a cleavage between “man’s drive toward the eternal” and the “finite character” of man’s existence, and between “the ’concern’ which constitutes his very essence and the vanity of his efforts”.54 In the lives of the former Taiwanese- GMD soldiers, the lack of control is clearly a manifestation of the “finite character” of man’s existence. In addition, as these former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers failed in every attempt to establish themselves in the physical world, their lives became a living proof of “the vanity” of their efforts. Again and again, absurdity becomes reality. As Jan laments in the play The Misunderstanding: “perhaps coming home isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. It takes a bit more time to make a son out of just another man”.55 For the former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers, returning from their settled home of China to their old home of Taiwan has been a long and winding road—physically, psychologically, and historiographically. Jean-Paul Sartre argues that Camus has stated the “notion” of the absurd in Mythe de Sisyphe and presented his theory of the “novel of the absurd” as well as a “feeling” of the absurd in L’Étranger.56 Beyond notion and feeling, the history of former Taiwanese-GMD soldiers testifies to the absurd in reality.

53 In Sartre’s Explication de l’Estranger, see Victor Brombert, “Camus and the Novel of the ‘Absurd’”, Yale French Studies, No.1 (1948), p.120, and Jean-Paul Sartre, “An Explication of The Stranger”, English translation in Harold Bloom, ed., Albert Camus’s The Stranger (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001), p.6. 54 Jean-Paul Sartre, “An Explication of The Stranger”, English translation in Harold Bloom, ed., Albert Camus’s The Stranger (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001), p.4. 55 Scene 3, Act 1, see Graham Ley, The Misunderstanding, p.8 56 In Sartre’s Explication de l’Estranger, see Victor Brombert, “Camus and the Novel of the ‘Absurd’”, Yale French Studies, No.1 (1948), p.119. 12