Ever since last October when the government announced that it would allow people on Taiwan to return to the Chinese mainland to visit their relatives, "going back to the mainland," a subject which was still a sensitive one half a year ago, has become a favorite topic of conversation among people from all walks of life.

From last November, when the visits were formally legalized, to this January, over 12,000 people from the Taiwan area have visited the mainland, 7,000 of whom have already returned to Taiwan. At this rate, over 100,000 people will cross the Taiwan Strait this year to visit their mainland relatives.

As the visitors go and return, bringing back with them their various stories, the two shores of the Taiwan Strait, which have been so widely separated for nearly forty years, have suddenly drawn closer together.

Mushrooms, lotus seeds, ingredients for Chinese medicine, tobacco, carvings, teapots, and other goods from the opposite shore occupy a prominent position in stores on Tihua St. in Taipei and in Chuehchiang Market in Kaohsiung. Publishers are fighting to publish mainland books. Photo exhibitions feature scenes from the mainland. Newspapers offer a page of mainland news each day. Even home liquor cabinets, once devoted exclusively to foreign name brands, have been invaded by "upstart cousins" from the mainland.

Although not all of these trends have begun only in the past half-year, "allowing visits to relatives on the mainland has intensified the 'mainland fever' and inundated us with new information," an expert points out.

Along with the flood of information have come wave after wave of shocks for families with relatives on the mainland, especially for husbands long separated from wives and children there.

Having rushed excitedly to complete procedures and hasten back to their old hometowns, they have found that, no matter how sorry and sympathetic they may feel toward their wives on the mainland, who have been poor now for half a lifetime, and no matter how much pain and regret they may feel for their flesh and blood there, who must work in the fields and who can in no way compare with children on Taiwan in terms of education or material enjoyment, the most they can do, faced with this tragedy created by troubled times, is to try as hard as they can to send back some money each month to help out, or to return once a year for a visit. T'ien Ch'e-ch'ang, manager of the Po Ai Office in Hong Kong, which has arranged meetings in Hong Kong for many relatives from Taiwan and the mainland, says at once cruelly and truthfully, "Family feelings can't make up for harsh reality itself."

Way back in October, before the government formally legalized visits to the mainland, Chao Yao-tung, chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, predicted that the move would quickly lead to the question of trade, as indeed it has.

At a hearing on December 10th before the Economic Committee of the Legislative Yuan, representatives from small and medium-sized enterprises in the electronics, toy, and textile industries were rather unanimous in expressing their hope that the government might allow direct trade with the mainland.

In fact, under the pretext of visiting relatives, some businessmen have already made deals on the mainland and then passed through Hong Kong to find a front company to handle the "transshipment" trade. The mainland's "Taiwan Compatriot Friendship Association" has reported 39 cases of direct trade and investment from Taiwan in recent years. And in November Communist newspapers announced that three plastic footwear makers on Taiwan were making whole-plant exports to the mainland.

Even though government officials constantly warn them not to, some businessmen still seem eager to try. Says Li Hua-hsia, deputy director of the office on mainland affairs of the Chung-hua Institution of Economic Research: "The businessman's psychology is--If there's a risk, I'll bear it; after all, there's a risk in any business. Why not make money where there's a chance?"

What kind of risks are involved in direct trade with the mainland?

"Taiwan's businessmen aren't in a clear position on the mainland," points out Sun Yun-suan, Presidential Office policy advisor. "Even if the Communists give us special treatment, they can change their policy and renege any time. Also, they've always had a problem with foreign exchange. If it turns out they don't have the money to pay for an order, then it's the manufacturer who's out of luck."

Another concern is that the understanding that many people on Taiwan have of the mainland--the image they have garnered from newspapers, books, and films--stops mainly at the Cultural Revolution. The difference between this image and what they see during a visit of a few days--not long enough to understand the problems of the Communist system--is apt to make them feel, "It doesn't seem that awful."

"Because of their ignorance of Communism and the mainland," a scholar warns, "It's easy for many people to be confused. This happened in the past to many of our students overseas, and it's happening now to many people visiting their relatives."

P'u Shu-hua, deputy director of the office of mainland Affairs at the United Daily News, indicates that since the newspaper opened a daily page on news about the mainland, many readers, most of them high school students, have written to ask why the news they read in the paper and what they hear from their relatives who have returned from the mainland differ from what they read in their geography textbooks.

Chao Chien-min, a member of the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University, sums up the problem saying, "In the past we were too cut off from the mainland and failed to 'know the enemy and know yourself.' Young people educated on Taiwan, who have never seen the mainland, find it hard to empathize and relate toward China as a whole. There may be some rather extreme reactions during the early period of visits to the mainland because of a lack of understanding, but in the long run the increase in information should help the younger generation to empathize and relate. And that's the only way for China to have a future."

"So you're lost? Why don't you go over and ask that traveler from Taiwan? He's more familiar with this place than I am "(Cartoon by Chu Te-yung.)[Picture]

[Picture Caption]

Consulting a map before the trip.

After restrictions on visits to the mainland were lifted, all sorts of information began to come out.

Local mainland products flood the Nanpei Market on Tihua St.

The picturesque landscape of the mainland is no longer something that can only be seen in photos.

Consulting a map before the trip.

After restrictions on visits to the mainland were lifted, all sorts of information began to come out.

Local mainland products flood the Nanpei Market on Tihua St.

The picturesque landscape of the mainland is no longer something that can only be seen in photos.