Compared with the other students in the eighth grade at Chengpin junior high school in Keelung, Chang Hung seems much more settled and mature. It could be his age--he's 17, quite a bit older than the others--or it could be his experiences.
He's descended from the Ami aborigines of Taitung county, but he grew up in Shaowu county in Fukien. Asked to define where he's from, he replies without hesitation: "I was born and raised on the mainland, so of course I'm a mainlander." But in point of fact, he was able to come to Taiwan only because his ancestral registration is Taiwanese.
That gave him two advantages: he could enter the country even though he was over 16, and second, he could come with his whole family. When he stepped onto Taiwanese soil last May, he was accompanied by his father, a Taiwanese soldier who had been away from the island for more than 40 years, and by his mother, from Fukien.
In fact, he received a lot of attention even when he was small because of his father's being from Taiwan and a member of a minority at that. Ami are talented singers, and he was chosen by the school to perform all over the country: "Kwangtung, Fukien, Shanghai, Soochow, Hangchow--we went everywhere."
His talent has made a big impression at his school in Taiwan, too. The students and teachers all know about Chang Hung, the singer. He's happy and cheerful and has made a lot of friends. His classmates are excited about this singular individual and ask him all kinds of odd questions. "Did you sneak in the country illegally?" One of them once asked. "I sure did," he said. "I swam all the way from Fukien. It was tough going."
Being afraid of heavy traffic, of complex Chinese characters, of going to Taipei, and not knowing the Chinese phonetic alphabet... he's had to go through an adjustment period just like other mainland Chinese children in Taiwan. But "his adjustment has been rapid and steady, maybe because his family is with him," the school's guidance counselor says, adding that, far from causing any problems, he's been a model for other students.
Chang Hung happily accepts the praise. "Teachers and other students have paid attention to me ever since I was little, and I've always had people helping me. Maybe I'm just lucky," he smiles. But his greatest impression since coming to Taiwan is you can get ahead here as long as you work hard. Maybe he can depend on himself from now on instead of on just being "lucky."
[Picture Caption]
Cheery Chang Hung is a noted personage at his school. (photo by Huang Lili)