Taiwan writer find new life in mainland

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-22 19:28

"It took at least six days and we had to dump them after the 15-day shelf life," he says.

Huang recalls he once threw away 1,200 boxes of rotten fruit. "I cried. All of them were grown with our hard work," he says.

But he persisted. "I always had confidence in the mainland market and mostly in the development of the cross-Straits relationship."

After two years of hard work, mainland customers began to recognize his brand and his toughest problem was solved when direct shipping resumed between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits in December last year, cutting transport costs by two thirds.

"I hope to expand my fruit shops to 300 mainland cities," he says.

He is also applying to build a trading center for Taiwan produce in Xiamen city, Fujian.

"It will be a platform for Taiwan farmers to market their products and for agriculturists to introduce the island's latest technologies," he said.

"Coffee spoon"

Dressed in plaid shirt and baggy jeans, Shen Chih-sheng looks much like his classmates and other young people in the small cafe near the Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University in Fuzhou.

Seven years ago when he first entered the classroom of a high school in Suzhou city of eastern Jiangsu Province, he was very "Taiwan."

"I did not know who Lei Feng (a model soldier and communist in the 1960s) was. I spoke Mandarin with a strong accent," says Shen, whose Mandarin sounds better than many locals.

In college, he won awards twice in the Mandarin speaking contest of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students in Fujian.

Born in Taiwan, he moved to the mainland at the age of 16 with parents who run a logistics company in Shanghai.

"The mainland was clean, pretty and modern, totally different from my image of a remote and backward place," he recalls of his first impression.

Majoring in urban planning, he will graduate next year. "I plan to find a job on the mainland. There are always more opportunities for Taiwanese here," he says. He cites the mainland's opening of more professions to Taiwanese, including social workers, and civil and structural engineers.

For years Shen avoided talking about Taiwan with his mainland friends. "My parents would not like me to stand out as 'Taiwanese'. They want me to be just an ordinary teenager," he says.

But after entering college, he began to discuss politics on the island with classmates and friends.

"I find they are open-minded. We debate sensitive issues, understand each other and sometimes reach agreements," he says. "The cross-Straits situation is easing. Taiwan is a more common issue than before."

Stirring a cup of coffee, he says, "See, we, Taiwanese students on the mainland, are like this spoon, mixing the bitter with the sweet."

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