Turning Points

I do not know how many turning points one gets in his or her life. Everyone will get some! Turning points are different from breaking points. Turning points are where your life goes in a new direction. Breaking points are dealt to you with no chance to avoid them, such as if a bomb is dropped on your house, or a car accident occurs when it is unexpected. My family had quite a number of breaks, as no Japanese bomb reached us. We were lucky to be just a step or two ahead of the Japanese troops and the communist soldiers. My parents certainly made a correct decision to go to Taiwan, instead of Wuhan or Vietnam (places which were considered).

The year 1950 was the first turning point for my life. At least, this is the first one that I recognized. When I look back, I can clearly feel that the change which occurred was good for me and for the family in all aspects. At the end of 1949, we took a train to Taipei. The train station was very not crowded then. Taipei was still quite small with a population of about .6 million. 

We moved to a house in the middle of many rice fields. Father was appointed as the chief accountant for National Taiwan University. The University provided a house and a popular transportation vehicle, called a pedicab, with a driver. Mom at the time was pregnant with Kai whose was born in March at the University Hospital. Dean even went to stay with Mom in the hospital as Mom was lonesome there for more than a week.

From 1950 on, the life of this ordinary Chinese became very normal. My parents' primary worry had changed from where to get enough food to how to stop me from playing too much, as I had to prepare for the junior high school entrance examination in two years

Kai was born in March, at the end of the year; we took a picture together without Mom in front of our "new" house. No, I do not know why Mom was not in the picture. We did not have a camera at home then. It's possible that someone came to visit us with a camera and took the picture. It is a very nice picture of Kai. Since there was no tradition to take a picture after birth in Taiwan, this picture might be the first picture for Kai.