Very few children from mainland China in Taiwan are in college, and even fewer have been accepted to prestigious National Taiwan University. Li Yi, who graduated from Ilan high school, was not only admitted to Taiwan's premier university but also made it into his first-choice department--electrical engineering. That kind of record has made people stand up and take note.

Li Yi came to Taiwan in April 1989. At that time, the fervor for taking in children from the mainland had just begun, and he was quite a celebrity at Ilan high school when he first arrived. He was interviewed by the school newspaper; teachers wanted him to give speeches; and local families wanted to meet him. "He was always off somewhere or other, and he used to bring back books, mementoes or flowers that people had given him as presents," recalls his grandfather, Li Tse-kuang, a member of the 14th graduating class of Whampoa military school who taught at the girls' high school in Ilan before retiring.

But those were the days that Li Yi feels were the most difficult. "I had a 'mainland complex' back then and felt I didn't belong." When he saw reports on television of fights in the Legislative Yuan, he was outraged. "It was the same as a Roman arena," he says, and it made him doubt the validity of democracy.

Studying has always been the center of his life, and he's not the least bit lackadaisical about schoolwork. "My grandfather brought me here in the hopes that I could do well at my studies." He comes from a scholarly family. His ancestors include a member of the imperial academy, and his great-grandfather was a county magistrate. His father has four brothers, but because his grandfather came to Taiwan none of them has been able to receive much of an education. "Our generation is over with, and so is his father's generation. Unless we can make something of someone in my grandson's generation, we won't be able to live up to our ancestors," Li Tse-kuang says.

That's also the reason for Li Yi's exceptional diligence.

Back in Kwangsi, he was accepted into the best high school in the county and always ranked among the top three of his class. But when he came to Ilan it was hard to catch up at first. "After he first got here, I asked a friend of mine at school what his level was like," Li Tse-kuang recalls, "and he said that the level of education on the mainland was six or seven years behind Taiwan's. When I heard that, I was really worried."

His grandfather urged him to go to a cram school, but Li Yi said he wanted to study by himself. After a few months he began to catch up, first making the top 20 and then fighting his way to the top 10 by the final semester.

As for what the future holds, Li has no fears. The main difference between Taiwan and the mainland, he says, is that people here have chance to make something of themselves as long as they work hard. "There are a lot of people on the mainland with potential, but not many of them can get anywhere because the channels aren't clear."

Now that he has lived in Taiwan for nearly three years, Ilan has become a hometown he constantly takes pride in. He belongs to a club at college for students from Ilan high school, and his favorite shirt has the city's name on it in an aboriginal language. Ilan in his words is "a place you can go to for help to whenever you feel you have a problem."

When he takes the train back to Ilan from Taipei he sometimes gets off at Toucheng or Chiaohsi station for a look at the scenery before getting back on again. The lush, green fields and verdant mountainsides remind him of the farmland of his old hometown in Kwangsi, even though the landscape is completely different.

Memories are inevitable, of course, but what Li Yi really cherishes is the present.

[Picture Caption]

Li Yi's study is small, but it's the center of his life. (photo by Huang Lili)

Li Yi's days at National Taiwan University have broadened his vision. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

Li Yi's days at National Taiwan University have broadened his vision. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）