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The CCP and the KMT were fighting in the mainland
so we just came with the KMT to Taiwan
I was still young then, just 21
When I got here, I just found things to do and then got married
By myself, I just sit here
Even when there are a lot of peole, I continue to sit here
Every day I just come and sit here, in this place
until noon, when I go home to have lunch
Will my friends come out today?
Zhao, Gao and Li haven't arrived yet
they will definitely come
I live here, so coming down is convenient
Some of them live very far away
but they still come sit over here
because the airforce headquarters are here
these are the living quarters
Empty words... they talked about it for many years but no news came
of evicting all the people below
and clearing out this area
but to where and when it will happen I am not sure
I am moving to where my lives in Zhonghe to buy a house
It's not the same there, there is nowhere for you to sit
Once you go out of your house, you have to leave the alley
There is no place for people to linger and rest
like here, where you can just sit, there is nowhere like that there
As soon as you go out, you just leave
otherwise what are you doing standing there?
You don't know anybody, people are going to work
Your neighbors are all busy going to work, no one has time to talk to you
No-one pays attention to anybody, there are several neighbors I have never spoken to
We just come and chat, we are old neighbors
There used to be more of us, seven or eight
But now most of us have died, there are only two or three
Old Zhao must be about to arrive
There are still 20 minutes before he gets here
My old friends all live here
If this area hadn't been changed, all of these would still be my old comrades
They are all my old friends
so we all came to live here
They all came early
and squatted up here
This mountain was beyond the reaches of the law
The weather is nicer today, very hot!
It's more than 33 degrees today
Tomorrow will be a nice day too
Someone else will soon arrive
The one who rides the wheelchair
the electric wheelchair, he is coming
He's almost here
On January it was empty. Some left on December last year
some in Novemeber last year, some even in March this year
Look at the notice on the door
A lot of people were even less fortunate than us
and they just dropped dead
All the people in these houses have died
He died at home, his daughted didn't know. She found hi, dead on the bed
She bought an apartment for him, even if he lived here he would still die
She bought a 6 million NT apartment for him in Taoyuan
and left him by himself there. When she returned after work, he was dead
On rainy days I don't come
I know with this weather it will rain later, so I should get ready to leave
-You're back late! -Yes!
-You came back so late today! -So late!
I went to Jingmei
Uncle, you should go home
-Are you going home? -I'll will go in a short while
You should eat!
Bye bye!
It's so hot!
You go to the market to buy food
those two barely buy anything, and neither do you
but on Saturday and Sunday, the old ladies and men
Mr. and Mrs. Zhang bump into Mr. and Mrs. Li
Aiyo! Miss Li you bought so much today!
Aiyo! It's because my son and his wife are coming over to eat
Mrs. *** bumped into Miss Zhang
You bought so much today!
Aiyo! My daughter and her husband are coming round!
Who's going to visit me? My mother or mother-in-law?
It's funny right?
Can you help me take this for Mr.Tang living at number 40-2
-I'll do it. -Here you go
Your wife isn't home
-Gao, look how fast... -There are still five minutes
The best place in Taiwan, none of you know it...
Let's see if he knows, ask him
Taiwan, Formosa!
Next to this door, in this road, there was a sewer
The fish you caught there could be eaten
In the doorway, our children would always shower around there
The water now is no better than flour paste
Because Taiwan is too good
we have let them turn it into this
and worn down those honest, law-abiding rich people
Shady people all make up the leaders of boards
Gao, it's time for people to get off work
Gao, come to talk for a while tomorrow
It's 11, you should go home
Open the door
When I lived there it was fine... I can't deal with this door.
See all these here? They are all people from where we just were
They all just came from over there
See floors 5 and 6? they moved here
He just naps at home
so he likes to go out
and he can talk there
and forget about the pain in his body right?
So he always goes
To talk to the others
He leaves at 9 and often chats till 11 and even 12 sometimes
It feels like being trapped in a birdcage
Also, the feeling when you walk in
is everybody closing the doors
It's not like in the old place, when you walked out
every window was open and people asked whar you were doing
It's not like that here. Come or go, the doors are always closed
If you want to drop by, you have to consider whether they are home
and press the doorbell, so people don't usually bother with that
Look
These are his treasures
All the military dependents' villages in Taiwan were here
All the villages
Somebody took this picture for me, you can ask him if he still has it
The state is worried that I might ask for remuneration, I don't understand
I don't want any
He took a photo of the mountain
What do we need this for? It's useless to us
Every day, no matter what the weather is like, I will be home by 11
When I leave I always tell her what road I am taking and where I am going
There won't be accidents, if she wants to find me she knows what road
I don't want to dial
Look, Uncle Zhao, Zhao Hongde
I don't want to talk, his phone is ringing. He is going to ask who it is!
The important part is being able to call for help
Supose I go out shopping and something happesn to him
If I am here
I have friend's emergency numbers
I didn't need this before
Before we had neighbors all around knocking. If he fell at home before,
the indigenous Taiwanese living opposite would just come and pick him up
Here I can't ask for help
So I don't dare to go out. Living here I don't dare to go out
He lived there for almost 50 years
so he still has a good relationship
with some of his old friends from there
at least it's someone to talk to
When he's at home with me we have less to talk about,
On rainy days he sits at home, napping, watching tv or counting cars
Outside the window
he can see the cars coming and going along the overpass
so he just sits and looks at the cars
and counts them. When he gets bored of counting he takes a nap
Time to go back!
Time to go meet up with Uncle Zhao
In 1996 the Ministry of Defence passed
the "Act Governing the Reconstruction of Old Villages for Military Personnel"
which seriously afffected most of these villages
At their peak there were 879 such villages
which included 98.535 houses and more than 2000 hectares
Zhao will come down at 11
He went to eat
Huanmin Village (1949-?)
Dedicated to all our friends who lived in military dependant villages