When he returned to his home in 1987, "My father, my mother, my brother, my sister. . . they had all died. My wife had remarried. I was all by myself," recalls Li Ah Yao. But without thinking he had let his Hong Kong visa (which he needed to transit back to Taiwan) expire, and thought to himself that anyway he had no family in Taiwan either, so he decided to settle down in Zhoushan and live with his choice, right or wrong.

You must carry on the family line

When Li left Zhoushan he had a friend working on a ship, so he was able to get in touch with his family quickly. "My first wife waited for me for ten years. Only then did she marry my second cousin. Today they have a house full of children and grandchildren." Li Ah Yao had no desire to tear others apart in order to get a family of his own, so the year he went back to Zhoushan he and his wife were legally divorced.

But he still wanted to have a family of his own. As the only son in his family, he knew that if he had no heirs that there would be no one to even sweep his grave after his death. He was pained to learn from neighbors that people had ridiculed his mother as an "abandoned old woman" whose son had taken off to Taiwan and left no grandchildren to tend her grave or make offerings to her in the afterlife. Thus, Li began to think that he would like to get remarried.

Mrs. Li, 46 this year, is an optimistic person. When she was young she married a man from Hong Kong. But a mere ten days after their marriage, the man went to Hong Kong and didn't send back any word. Afterwards she asked around and found out that he already had a wife.

"Other men who went to Taiwan never sent even a single letter, but he always sent letters back to his family. I thought to myself that this Taiwanese compatriot must really be nice, since he could never forget his old hometown no matter how old he got." Thus Mrs. Li, who had never thought of remarrying, made friends with Mr. Li. "He came to my house everyday, sat quietly for half an hour or so, and then went back home." Mrs. Li felt sad for him because he was all alone in Zhoushan. Also, he was always very polite and never tried to take advantage of anybody. Thus after three months they decided to get married. At Mrs. Li's insistence, there was no wedding banquet.

"I knew quite well before we were married that he had been a laborer in Taiwan, not some big-shot. He mopped and cleaned in a restaurant, was a watchman in an apartment building, and he lived in a house that wasn't even up to safety standards." Mrs. Li knew that they couldn't afford the 10,000 RMB a big wedding would cost.

Burning incense for a son

"He is straightforward and honest, though before we were married he did tell me he was ten years younger than he really is," laughs Mrs. Li in her clear and bright voice. Off to one side Ah Yao hurries to explain: "I didn't lie to her. I told her the year of my birth according to the Republican calendar [which is 11 years different], not the Western calendar." Then, looking sheepish, he says that anyway that's all in the past, and asks his wife not to bring it up again. "For heaven's sake," responds Mrs. Li, "our son is already seven years old. You think I'm going to start making a fuss about that stuff now?!"

After getting married, they went to the temple on Putuoshan to worship, because they had heard that the goddess Guanyin there was very efficacious at helping couples produce sons. And she apparently came through, because in their second year together Li Ji was born. Li Ji's birth rounded off Ah Yao's fondest wishes. But Ah Yao still is unable to figure out how to arrange for his wife and child in the future.

Because Li came to Zhoushan in 1987, when Taiwan law still prohibited travel to mainland China, he is not able to collect his NT$8000 per month veterans' pension. His only income in Zhoushan is interest from his bank account. When he first arrived, prices were low and stable. He didn't know that economic reforms in China would unleash inflation that has driven the Renminbi down in value from 1.8 to the US dollar to 8.4 to the dollar. "The ticket for the ferry has gone up from 0.4 RMB to 2.5 RMB, and pork is now 30 RMB a pound." He was shocked by the rise in prices each time he went to the market. The interest from his savings was not enough to support even himself, never mind his family.

Yet the optimistic Mrs. Li takes a practical view. As she feeds Li Ji, she says, "Money goes into a bottomless pit, and if we had more we'd just find more ways to spend it. Anyway, I'm still young, and I could support the family, right?"