Colonization Sucks

It usually interests me to listen to older people talk. The old people I know were definitely not ones born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and so their stories of hardship really resonate with me. Not only that, but the fact that they talk about stuff so matter-of-factly--stuff that I've only read about in history books and studied from a distance--is mind-blowing to me.

I was sitting at a table with my dad, our family friends (an elderly couple from Taiwan), and a recent emigre of China tonight. The Taiwanese uncle and auntie were talking about life during Japanese colonization and the takeover of the KMT. Life was bad during colonization, but it was worse during KMT rule. Of course I knew this from reading about it already, but just hearing a first-person perspective was a different experience. Ah Beh talked about how during every harvest families would have to turn in every last grain of rice to Japanese officials and couldn't keep any for themselves. Then the rice would be rationed to each family, each time receiving only enough to survive. Never any extra. Then his wife (Wang Mama) talked about how some people would try to hide rice in the house. Her dad stuffed some in the ceiling. Japanese soldiers were very vigilant about making sure no one kept rice for themselves. They would raid people's houses, including poking through the ceiling to check if families were doing what was just described. If people were caught hiding rice they would be physically assaulted. Wang Mama laughed and said fines didn't work, because people were so poor even if you fined the shit out of them they wouldn't be able to hand over any money. So beating them up served as a more "appropriate" form of punishment.

So life was pretty shitty under Japanese rule, but it sucked ultimate balls when the KMT came. Ah Beh talked about how they welcomed their mainland brothers with open arms, but quickly discovered what a repressive and lawless regime they were. This was a completely new monster. As he put it, the Japanese were cruel, but at least there was societal order. The KMT was cruel AND there was no rule of law. People were shot without reason, people were afraid to say anything, and officials were so corrupt bribes were standard protocol. And just the tone Ah Beh, Wang Mama, and my dad were using when they were talking about all of this. Nonchalant, chuckling. I couldn't detect any resentment in their voices. When I learned about this historical period in school, I was like, WOW omg. When they recalled living through the experience, they were like, meh...haahaha.

Other things that sucked about living during this time:
Noodles were only eaten once a year, at the beginning of the summer. My dad also likes to mention this a lot, that he as a kid would be super excited whenever he heard relatives were coming because that meant they would take him out to eat noodles. Otherwise it was rice and soy sauce (and maybe some meat if lucky).
Having to carry hoes (insert tasteless dirty pun here) as schoolchildren in Taiwan. Kids were expected to do labor. Child labor laws definitely did not exist then.
Making clothing out of burlap noodle sacks. Wang Mama actually laughed and said it was great material for clothes because it was so durable.

I felt like an ingrate just sitting there and listening to them talk. Because come on, I have a closet full of clothes and some days I complain that I have nothing to wear. I write scathing reviews for restaurants because the service is lackluster. I curse at people when I'm in my car. MY CAR. Who had a car during 1960s Taiwan and Vietnam?

How far we've come a generation later. Can I be that noble one day? That valiant? That unconditional when it comes to making sacrifices so the next generation will be so well off they can't even imagine life without an iPod, a car, a closet full of shoes and clothes? I don't know. I know the sacrifices made during my parents' generation was largely because it was necessary for survival, but it's like people my age have a distaste for anything that requires mere compromise. Not even a sacrifice. Compromise. My dad's right. We're soft. We're "too" lucky. Then again, with the way things are looking now, maybe there's some bitterness that will inevitably be tasted. An opportune wake-up call perhaps? As long as we don't have to wear burlap sacks and carry hoes with our briefcases. I don't think I could find shoes to match.