April and May is the most hectic and nerve-racking time of year for Taiwanese families in Shanghai. This is when Taiwanese mothers with school-age children rush all over the city trying to find a school for their children.

"Getting our daughters settled in school will take a big load off our mind," admits Macoto Tseng, a mother of two who moved to Shanghai when her husband decided to start a business there.

Thanks to Tseng's tireless efforts, her daughters have had the good fortune of gaining admittance to SMIC Private School, a school for the children of employees of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. The school charges RMB15,000 (around NT$66,000) per term in tuition for the Chinese track and RMB20,000 for the English track. This is a bargain compared to Shanghai's international schools, which charge around RMB40,000 per term and the Shanghai American School, which charges US$20,000 (NT$660,000) a year. Tseng is particularly pleased that the curriculum is faster-paced and more demanding than in Taiwan.

The children of Taiwanese businesspeople and employees in Shanghai used to attend the city's international schools, but the school fees proved too onerous for Taiwanese families whose salaries and fringe benefits were becoming less and less generous. Taiwanese parents have therefore had to make the best of what is available and affordable. Getting their children into a local public (state) school is not easy because such schools have restrictive admission quotas and Taiwanese students do not have urban residence permits in mainland China, which means that they are required to pay temporary enrollment fees ranging from RMB20,000 to RMB30,000 a year.

Caught between two worlds

The high school entrance exam is an even tougher hurdle. Generally speaking, Taiwanese children do not achieve higher exam results than local students, who tend to be extremely hard working. If they don't want to go to a relatively uncompetitive high school for children of Taiwanese businesspeople in Shanghai, they have to return to Taiwan to go to school there.

Teng Yung-hsiang's daughter has always been an outstanding student. Teng thought that the curriculum in Shanghai's Taiwanese high school was not sufficiently challenging, so she sent her daughter back to Taiwan, where she scored high enough to gain admittance to Taipei Municipal Chung Shan Girls' High School, but in the end she chose go back to her mother's hometown and attend National Hsinchu Girls' Senior High School. Although she is living with her grandparents, she is still having problems adjusting.

"My daughter is having some identity problems," says Teng. The girl is unhappy back in Taiwan and feels that her schoolmates have a narrow view of the world and that the things they talk about are of no interest to her. She is also worried about the recent political turmoil and the growing rift between the Blue and Green camps in Taiwan. A few days ago, she talked with the school guidance counselor about the question of national identity.

Teng spends at least 40 minutes a day online talking heart to heart with her daughter. They recently installed Skype and can now see each other as they talk, which has made Teng realize how unhappy her daughter really is. She is seriously considering bringing her back to Shanghai to attend a local private high school (which are similar to private schools in Taiwan, and charge higher tuition than public high schools).

Even if they hold their own against stiff competition and gain admittance to a top-ranked university in China, Taiwanese students still face numerous restrictions. Huang Tzu-shan, who moved to Shanghai six years ago, says that thanks to top exam grades her eldest son was accepted to the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which is divided into two sections: Aviation and Satellite Navigation. Although he would love to study aviation, the regulations say that because he was born in Taiwan he cannot wear a Chinese military uniform, which means that satellite navigation is the only option available to him.

Another Taiwanese student went back to Taiwan for his military service after graduating from East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. On the basis of aptitude he was originally assigned as a signalman, but when they found out that he had gone to university in mainland China, they immediately put him on leaf sweeping duty.

"In China we're considered a threat to national security and in Taiwan they think we're ideologically impure and disloyal," sighs Huang Tzu-shan. She feels ostracized at home and abroad.

Taiwanese children may write simplified Chinese characters and speak with a mainland accent, but their Taiwanese mothers still hope that Taiwan will always remain in their hearts and minds. Given the current situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, this hope is proving increasingly difficult to keep alive.