Taiwanese and Japanese at Once:

Tae Hitoto’s Mandarin name is Yan Miao. Her father, Yan Huimin (Gân Huī-bîn), was from Taiwan, though the way he conducted himself was distinctly Japanese. Her mother, Kazue Hitoto, was a Japanese woman who was able to work magic with Taiwanese cuisine.

A box of memories

In 2009, while renovating her old home in Tokyo, Hitoto discovered a box her mother had left behind. It contained family letters, her mother’s journals, and photographs. She describes how these remnants summoned up ghosts from the past—memories of her elementary-school days in Taiwan before she moved to Japan at the age of 11, of braised pork chops in Taiwanese-­style meal boxes, of the Tang-Dynasty poet Bai Juyi’s long poem ‘Song of Everlasting Regret’ (Chang Hen Ge), which she had learned by heart. Her thoughts kept flashing back to the old days. Prompted by this box, she returned to Taiwan to rediscover her past. 

Visiting relatives and friends in Taiwan, Hitoto tried to piece together a complete picture of her father, who spent his early years in Japanese-era Taiwan, but who after World War II felt torn between different allegiances and identities. She gradually gained a clearer view of her own ancestry: the prosperous Yan family of Keelung, of which she is a fourth-generation member, and their close links with the gold-mining town of Jiufen in New Taipei. She says with a smile that while Jiufen used to be just a tourist attraction for her, now she can vividly conjure up its rich history, in which Taiwanese and Japanese elements intermingle.

Hitoto wrote about this journey—both its physical and its psychological aspects—in two books, Box My Child and What’s for Dinner, Mom? Her experience was later adapted into a film, What’s for Dinner, Mom?, and a stage show, A Suitcase of Memories. The story of ­Hitoto’s family seems to encapsulate Taiwan’s intricate historical relationship with Japan. Not only has it resonated with a wide audience in Taiwan, but many of her Japanese readers have also been reminded of their own connections with Taiwan.

This box left behind by Hitoto’s mother contains family letters from bygone days. For Hitoto it is a time capsule, summoning up her precious memories of Taiwan. (courtesy of Tae Hitoto)

This photo shows Tae Hitoto (right), her sister, and her parents in Taiwan. Hitoto lived in Taiwan until she was 11, going by the name of Yan Miao. Local foods and streetscapes remain etched in her memory, awakening her deep feelings for Taiwan. (courtesy of Tae Hitoto)

After moving to Japan, Tae Hitoto (left) adopted her mother’s surname. This photo shows her with her mother and sister (singer Yo Hitoto) at her coming-of-age ceremony when she was 20. She would return to Taiwan to rediscover her past. Through exploring and writing about various places, she realized that “Tae Hitoto was the Japanese me, and Yan Miao was the Taiwanese me. I cannot be complete until the two come together.” (courtesy of Tae Hitoto)

Awakening the past

When she first returned to Taiwan, she could hardly recognize the city she had lived in as a child. While navigating this place, which seemed both strange and familiar to her, she realized that taste was a key to memory.

Born in Japan, she had moved to Taiwan with her parents when she was six months old, living here until she was 11. “The memories that linger on my tongue are predominantly about Taiwanese food,” she says with a smile. Returning to Taiwan as an adult, she found it hard to speak Chinese, even though she could read Chinese characters. When ordering food at restaurants, she had to resort to body language. Never­theless, the flavors of food never failed to awaken her childhood memories, calling to mind those days when she and her mother went shopping together in the local market, as well as summoning back the scent of braised pork knuckle on her family’s dining table.

Unlike her father, who struggled hard with his identity all his life, Hitoto thinks of identity as a continuous process of discovery, whereby our sense of self slowly takes shape as we grow and change in response to life experiences. “I was never truly aware of this until I wrote Box My Child. It was then that I finally realized that Tae Hitoto was the Japanese me, and Yan Miao was the Taiwanese me. I cannot be complete until the two come together.”

Hitoto enjoys visiting traditional markets and has fond memories of shopping at local markets with her mother as a child. With food and clothing vendors, beauty salons, and various other stalls, these are vibrant places full of pleasant surprises.

Firsthand Taiwan

Little by little, Hitoto learned about herself through writing and visiting different places across Taiwan. It is thanks to her wanderlust that she has discovered her new hometown: Tainan.

While traveling the length and breadth of Taiwan in search of her memories, she was struck by the fast pace at which many Taiwanese towns were changing. Tainan alone seemed to retain traces of bygone ways of life. Elderly people, for example, would carry their chairs into the backstreets and sit there chatting or simply enjoying the shade. Hitoto has met many hospitable locals in Tainan, including a betelnut vendor whom she calls her “Tainan Dad.” These new friendships have further reinforced her ties with the Southern Taiwanese city.

When Hitoto published a travel book entirely devoted to Tainan—the first of its kind in Japan—she sparked a wave of interest in the city among Japanese readers.

Seeing her subject matter afresh through a Japanese lens, Hitoto’s travel writing is different from run-of-the-mill travel guides. She’s interested in seeking out historical vestiges that bear witness to Taiwanese–Japanese interactions. When touring Pingtung, for example, she not only noticed the distinctive seascapes and mountainscapes characteristic of the southern tip of Taiwan but also the history of the 1874 Japanese expedition to Taiwan (a.k.a. the Mudan Incident) and the roles of the Indigenous people of Mt. Dawu in World War II, during which time Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Her explorations there culminated in a Japanese-language book devoted to Pingtung, which she co-wrote with a Japanese friend.

“I guess what I want to show people is ‘a version of Taiwan that can’t be found in the travel guides.’” Hitoto emphasizes that Taiwan is a diverse society, a place that boasts multiple cultures, where different ethnic groups, languages, and historical experiences intermingle. This diversity is what constitutes Taiwan as we know it today. “I hope to bring to Japanese readers a more diverse, multifaceted Taiwan that is also closer to the reality of local life.”

Maru Yang (front row, second left) runs a betelnut shop in Tainan. Grateful for his hospitality, Tae Hitoto regards him as her “Tainan Dad.” This photo shows Yang and other locals supporting Hitoto with a handmade placard on her round-the-island bike tour. (courtesy of Tae Hitoto)

Tae Hitoto, currently planning a new book on Keelung, recently returned to Taiwan to attend the Keelung International Ocean Eagle Carnival, where she interacted with locals while recording the charming diversity of this northern port city.