4 - The Long Road Home

Summary

Chapter 4 describes the emotional roller coaster of the belated homecoming in China for the aging civil war exiles and their Taiwan-born descendants, four decades after the initial displacement to Taiwan. Rather than being passive beneficiaries of democracy’s windfall, the most impoverished and disadvantaged mainlanders – the retired Nationalist soldiers – helped break down the barriers. They led the social protest that ultimately forced the hand of Chiang Kai-shek’s son Chiang Ching-kuo in his decision to lift Taiwan’s four-decade-long ban on its people traveling to “communist bandit territory.” Sadly, mainlanders’ elation and anticipation soon turned into shock, frustration, and disorientation as the home and family that they had longed to see again were nowhere to be found in the post-Mao PRC. The second- and third-generation mainlanders, who had never seen “home,” also felt estranged by the entire “return experience.” Yet, their sense of disorientation was relatively moderate compared to their parents’ and grandparents’. The chapter argues that the reverse culture shock of the belated homecoming in the PRC shattered mainlanders’ China-centered nostalgia and provincial identities. It paved the way for the rise of a Taiwan-centered mainlander identity based on the previously repressed memories of the great exodus.