It's a Sunday afternoon, and the autumn sunlight is dancing through the willow trees. I'm drinking tea and flipping through an issue of Sinorama that was shipped to me. The September cover story, "Helping Dad Find His Way Home," is about Hsiao Yeh, who burst on the scene 20-odd years ago with his Life of a Chrysalis. Now that one's been eclipsed by This Strange and Loveable Family, Diary of a Bad Man, and Dad Wants Me to Leave School. I am amazed to see the real side of my old idol. Then, suddenly Chen Hao, subject of "Oops, Wrong Dorm," pops up-old "Hao-tzu" from my journalism days, the one who loved to pull faces! Reading the story of him and his daughters makes me wax nostalgic. Time not only leaves wrinkles on our faces but also makes us more finely attuned to our emotions. My scattered memories gradually come back, and I find myself thinking of finding a way back home. I think back to that day more than 20 years ago when, pack on my back, I turned and waved farewell to Taiwan.

Each year, Ankara University's Chinese department takes in 35 students. Ankara University and Taiwan's National Chengchi University exchange students and teachers through their sister university relationship. Pictured are the writer, her husband Bulent Okay, and students of the Chinese department at their graduation ceremony.

Sinorama awakens nostalgia

I remember getting ready to move to Turkey. In my youthfulness, I felt like I was in a play, and that when the curtain fell I would go back to "real life." But when I looked out the airplane window at the ground below, I realized that this was real life, and that I really was leaving my native land.

Over 20 years ago, Taiwan was still under martial law, and single women could not leave the country except for business or study. I was young and wild, with a degree in Chinese, and had been working for a political magazine for a couple years when I and married my Turkish husband. This gave me the opportunity to go abroad-to Ankara, in the middle of Asia Minor. At that time, in all Ankara there was only one Taiwanese reporter from the Central News Agency and a couple of Taiwanese students. The employees of the PRC embassy were still pairing up when going out. The military strongman Evren was constantly giving speeches, picking up the pieces from the coup and trying to rebuild a civilian government.

Evren was trying to spread propaganda and win the support of UN Security Council permanent member China. He made a visit there, and then had the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) set up a Chinese-language radio service. When I arrived in Ankara, the one-year-old station was in need of personnel. Stepping up to the microphone to read copy, I had to lose my Taiwanese drawl and speak "proper" Chinese.

The radio station wanted to employ me full-time, but some professors in Ankara University's Department of Chinese Studies, where my husband worked, heard that my degree was in Chinese and asked me to come read for a Master's degree and act as a teaching assistant. The nine-to-five life never suited me anyway, and I thought it would be great to do sinological research and teach Chinese, so I took them up on it. After finishing my Master's, I became a full-time lecturer in the department. The radio station needed assistance from the university in translating news and programs introducing Turkish current events and culture. I thought I could learn some things doing that, so I went back there part-time.

More than 20 years have gone by in a flash. In addition to my teaching and research, I have raised a daughter and a son, who are already in their third and fourth years at university. In 1989, a Taipei Economic and Cultural Office was set up in Ankara, so finally there were 20 or 30 people to celebrate Chinese New Year with. Also, Ankara University began a sister-university relationship with Taiwan's National Chengchi University ten years ago. In years past, the Chinese department at Ankara University-originally established in 1935 to research references to ancient Turkish history in Chinese historical records-would only have four or five students. Now, due to rising demand, it accepts 35 students per year. In 1998, my husband set up a Chinese language and literature department at another university, which now takes 20 students per year. Our former students are now working at institutions throughout Turkey.

Alumni spread far and wide

Ankara is the capital and administrative center of Turkey, so it's a bureaucratic town with a simple lifestyle. Turkish society is a mix of East and West. The people value interpersonal relationships, but at the same time are particular about Western-style living conditions. For example, when you visit someone's home, they will give you tea or food to express their hospitality. Snacks are always hand-made by the lady of the house, and meals are always whatever their specialty is. Turks place great importance on cleanliness and prefer to eat homemade foods. They put a lot of effort into cleaning their homes as well. Most career women hire a maid to come once a week, and housewives spend all day washing the windows and cleaning the carpets, fearing that a bit of house dust will bring illness. Dishes and cups are of Western taste, and used according to Western etiquette. They follow the British custom of afternoon tea, and also the Islamic custom of fasting and fast-ending meals. Even Westernized women who don't usually wear headscarves wear them while cooking or cleaning to keep their hair from falling into the food and protect against smoke and dust.

In addition to my co-workers at the radio station and the university, my social circles include the members of the Ankara chapter of the Taiwanese Women Association. We have a meal together every month, a chance for us to exchange books, book reviews, and experiences. Interactions with Turkish friends and family, especially my in-laws, are the times when I have the warmest feelings in this foreign land. I also have some Turkish "partners in crime" in a group similar to Taiwan's loan clubs. A group mostly made up of housewives takes turns holding monthly parties. The host prepares some snacks, and everyone brings a certain amount of money to be lent out. The amount is fixed to a US dollar amount or a certain weight of gold, or they just use US dollars or gold coins. That's because in Islam it is a sin to extract interest, and the rate of inflation is high with the Turkish Lira, so this is a way to keep it fair for those among the last to get the loan. These group meetings are full of camaraderie and at the same time offer a way to build up a secret savings stash, so they are popular with Turkish women.

Elegant mix of East and West

Though my life has gotten more and more stable through the years, and I am busy with work and have a broad network of friends, sometimes homesickness still hits me out of the blue. A magazine, a newspaper, a familiar name or a face I haven't seen in a while-all these give me a feeling of nostalgia. Now in my forties, I am looking for the road home. I have learned how to get online and to type in Chinese, so now I use the Internet to stay in touch, make friends, and submit articles. When my Internet friends travel to Turkey, they come to Ankara to try my Turkish cooking and check out some belly-dancing at my friends' places. And when they head back to Taiwan, part of my heart returns with them. One by one, they become points of light there, radiating my greetings from faraway Turkey.