You may have come across children like these in a store or on the bus some time:

They speak perfectly fluent Mandarin but with a thick regional accent, even stronger than that of old people from the mainland.

Much of the slang so popular with young people rarely crops up in their speech, but some of the words they use can only be understood by old mainlanders.

They're not necessarily shy--you can often hear them laughing and chattering away--but they're somewhat more plain and unsophisticated than other children their same age.

They're a group new to Taiwan: youngsters from the mainland. And they live here, making them a rare breed: "mainland guests" with legal residency in Taiwan.

The number of children from mainland China living in Taiwan has increased markedly over the past couple of years. According to the Bureau of Entry and Exit in the Ministry of the Interior, no more than 100 children from the mainland came to Taiwan each year between 1984 to 1988, but the figure jumped to 246 in 1989 and to 513 in 1990. By the end of February this year, 1,106 children from the mainland under the age of 16 had entered Taiwan in all. Most of them come from the provinces of Kwangtung, Fukien, Hunan and Yunan, which are geographically closest to Taiwan, and more than two thirds are 12 to 16 years of age.

Liu Peng-chen, deputy commissioner of the bureau, says that children from the mainland have been coming to Taiwan for a long time. According to entry and exit controls under martial law, children and old people from the mainland under 16 or over 75 were exempt from the rule of having to live in a noncommunist area for a full five years before being able to come to Taiwan. Nonetheless, the number of mainland children taken in back then was quite small. It was only three years ago, after visits to mainland relatives were legalized, that the numbers began to increase significantly.

A large proportion of the families that have taken in children from the mainland are headed by elderly veterans who left behind their wives and children during the Communist takeover decades ago.

"A lot of folks who go back to their old hometowns simply can't bear to see their grandchildren living in such deprived circumstances with such low educational standards, and they bring the kids back with them," Liu says. A number of procedures must be completed, of course, including proof that the children are direct blood relatives.

What are the children here for? Besides living with their relatives, their main purpose is study. Because they have increased in numbers only during the past couple of years and were under 16 when they arrived, almost all of them are in elementary or junior high school rather than high school or college.

There are rather large individual differences, of course, in how well they adjust to their environment, keep up with their studies, get along with their families, classmates and teachers--and even relate to a new ideology and ethics. But they share the characteristics of maturing quickly, being keen and sensitive to others, and trying hard to get ahead, which are clearly related to their having left home for a new life at an early age.

Something else they have in common is the question of what should be done if the grandparents who brought them to Taiwan happen to die.

That question is also a nagging concern to their elders. Sung Wen-hsiang, a veteran who took in his grandsons Hung-kang and Hung-sheng but is hard pressed financially, says that he has figured out a future for them even if he isn't around--study at a military academy.

The Taipei City Department of Social Affairs received two cases last year in which children from the mainland had been driven out of their homes after their grandparents had died. None of their relatives were willing to adopt them, and they finally had to be put up for adoption.

Speaking from a strictly utilitarian standpoint, mainland children living in Taiwan all receive R.O.C. citizenship. "If a problem should happen to occur, they receive social assistance the same as any other member of the public," says Ma Ying-jeou of the Main-land Affairs Council in the Executive Yuan.

But can it be true that a special group like this one, formed by historical circumstances, really needs no special guidance and assistance?

"It's a real dilemma," says Kao Koong-lian, the council's vice chairman. The children do come from a special background, he agrees, but giving them special treatment would be not only be unfair to other citizens but would also make the children feel even more different than they do and prolong their adjustment period. Guidance should be given nonmonetary areas--schools should help them keep up with their course work and encourage classmates to make friends with them--but the government should be highly wary of granting financial assistance.

Helping them become "just like the others" as much as possible is, in fact, the present direction of most schools. In most areas they are treated no differently from their classmates, although teachers and classmates help out a lot with their course work.

Under the current political situation, the parents of mainland children still can't come to Taiwan. "It's another can't-win situation," Kao says. If the parents are allowed in, he asks, what can we do when others want to come, too? And it may not be such a tragedy, after all. "Seen from another angle, if these children can have some individual development by coming to Taiwan or can affect the development of the mainland as a whole, wouldn't that be a good thing?"

What effect will the children have on nongovernment contacts across the Taiwan Strait? The 1,000 mainland children currently spread out across the island are naturally of some benefit in improving communication and understanding, Kao points out. But since people from the mainland are unlikely to be allowed to come and live in Taiwan in the foreseeable future, "as their grandparents' generation slowly dies off, fewer and fewer children will be coming to Taiwan from the mainland." Kao foresees.

The curtain of history rises and then it falls. Are mainland Chinese children in Taiwan really only the ephemeral breed of a certain place and time?

[Picture Caption]

More than 1,000 children from mainland China have come to Taiwan. They are one of the few kinds of visitors from the main land able to live in Taiwan legally.

Children from Mainland in Taiwan

Source: R.O.C Bureau of Entry & Exit

Can you guess which child is from the mainland! It's hard to tell once they've lived here for a while. The one on the left is Chan Hai-po from Hunan.

Whether in Taiwan or on the mainland, studying is always a joy. The picture was taken in Anhwei.

There happen to be a number of children from the mainland at Shih-chien high school in Taipei.

Chang Hung is much happier than other mainland children since his parents were able to come with him.

Life on Taiwan was unfamiliar to him, but it hasn't been hard to adapt to. Chin Yu-hua came here from Kwangsi six months ago.

Mainland Chinese children in Taiwan are a special group formed by historical circumstances. Do they need special guidance and assistance? (photo by Diago Chiu)

Children from Mainland in Taiwan Source: R.O.C Bureau of Entry & Exit.

Can you guess which child is from the mainland! It's hard to tell once they've lived here for a while. The one on the left is Chan Hai-po from Hunan.

Whether in Taiwan or on the mainland, studying is always a joy. The picture was taken in Anhwei.

There happen to be a number of children from the mainland at Shih-chien high school in Taipei.

Chang Hung is much happier than other mainland children since his parents were able to come with him.

Life on Taiwan was unfamiliar to him, but it hasn't been hard to adapt to. Chin Yu-hua came here from Kwangsi six months ago.

Mainland Chinese children in Taiwan are a special group formed by historical circumstances. Do they need special guidance and assistance? （photo by Diago Chiu）