Taiwan Memories

Something I don't speak about on a regular basis is that I was born and raised somewhat in Miaoli, Taiwan. It's pretty difficult to recall the earlier years, since I moved here when I was seven years old. But several distinct memories will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I was raised speaking Chinese, and I was probably fluent...clearly, I don't remember. But I do know that the dialect I spoke was not Mandarin; in fact, the region of Miaoli stretching up to Jhongli spoke a dialect called Hakka. Unfortunately I remember absolutely nothing regarding differences in the dialect.

At an early age, I remembered making a variety of delicacies (at least, delicacies by American standards) which include:

• 较子 (jiao3zi) - dumplings with various vegetables and meats on the inside. I vaguely remember rolling out dough to make them in a kindergarten class.

• 粽子 (zong4zi) - I have sweet, sweet memories of my grandparents giving me steamed rice wrapped in what I thought was corn husk. Evidently zongzi is a sweet rice-ball wrapped with bamboo leaves, and is treated as a delicacy popular in festivals.