Chapter 66 Section 1 Impressions of Taipei

When I crossed the Taiwan Strait in a propeller plane for the first time in October 1947, I was very excited because it was a place name in a geography book, and it felt like flying on a map.Two hours are up in no time. The name Taipei is very unfamiliar, and the airport is quite simple, probably "temporary".Since everyone says that Taiwan is a small island, you should immediately be able to see the more familiar "chicken cakes" (Keelung, Tamsui, and Kaohsiung in the geography class of Mr. Wu Zhenzhi), at least you can see real bananas and pineapples first. It was a bit of a surprise when I saw Taipei for the first time. There is neither a beach with swaying coconut trees nor brightly colored small buildings. It is a small dusty city as a whole.A few two-story concrete houses are sandwiched between piles of Japanese-style wooden houses, with little greenery and no squares.Come to Taipei.I borrowed at Uncle Ma Tingying's house.

Uncle Ma Tingying, nicknamed Xuefeng, was born in 1902 in a farmer's family in Jin County, Liaoning.When he was young, he determined to serve the country with science, and was admitted to the Department of Natural Sciences of the Tokyo Higher Normal School in Japan, and graduated with the first place in the Department of Geology, Tohoku Imperial University, Sendai.After graduation, he followed the famous geology and paleontologist Dr. Ya Changke to study, specializing in the growth rate changes of ancient and modern coral reefs and related issues of paleoecology, paleoclimate, paleogeography and geotectonics. Double Ph.D. from the Academy.In 1936, he overcame the obstruction of the Japanese and returned to the motherland with what he had learned, and served as a professor in the Geology Department of Central University.In the following year, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident caused a shortage of salt in inland provinces. At the request of the government, Uncle Ma went to the coast and other salt-producing areas to survey and instruct him to explore well salt and rock salt, which contributed to the national economy and people's livelihood during the Anti-Japanese War.

Since the beginning of the war, various institutions and schools in Beijing and Shanghai have moved to the southwest. Since the September 18th Incident, my father was in charge of the Northeast Association of the Northeast Underground Anti-Japanese War. Stayed in Manchukuo and moved to Peiping, originally had his own teachers and students, which was different from the later establishment of the National Northeast Zhongshan Middle School for exile students).The original teachers and students who led the school from Shanhaiguan to Peking and then to Nanjing trekked across mountains and rivers, from Hubei, Hunan, and Guizhou provinces to Sichuan. After a hard journey, he went to Ziliujing Jingning Temple to resume the school.After he resigned, he returned to research work. During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, he went to the mountains and went to the sea to study glaciers, the causes of quasi-plains, lateritization, and the paleoecology and changes of coral reefs. He completed seven professional masterpieces.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, at the request of the Ministry of Education, he served as a special commissioner for receiving educational institutions in Taiwan, especially Taipei Imperial University.Because he has been in Japan for twenty years.Well aware of the psychology of the Japanese nation, with the open-mindedness of Chinese intellectuals, they have done their best to maintain all the equipment, data, and systems of National Taiwan University.At that time, the Japanese had not yet been repatriated, so they respected Professor Ma's academic status and handling methods very much, but he insisted on not holding an official position. He founded the Department of Geology and the Institute of Oceanography, led students to study with great concentration, and sent the New York survey team to Lanyu, Nansha, The Diaoyutai islands wrote "On the Origin of Petroleum", which had a great influence on the development of Taiwan's resources.After that, he published nearly 20 papers in the series of "Research on Paleoclimate and Continental Drift", proving the theory of crustal sliding, which aroused the discussion and affirmation of the international geological community.

Uncle Ma's home was on Qingtian Street, at No. 6 Sanjotong at that time.There are narrow alleys, Japanese-style houses with low walls and wooden doors. You don't need to knock on the door, just push it open and enter.There is a small Japanese-style garden, a small rockery and a pool, like toys, but a row of big trees along the wall is a bit grand.Opening the door was the porch, on which a woman kneeled (not sitting or squatting, but kneeling), and said a lot of words about welcome in Japanese.I still remember the face of the woman named "Jinniang" clearly, because there is a kind of cunning in her respect, which, like her Japanese, is something I have never seen before.Everyone took off their shoes, put on the straw slippers that Jin Niang handed over, and entered the room, walking on the tatami as if walking on someone else's bed, even walking a little uneasy.The dishes she cooks are real Japanese-style fish, grilled, fried, and miso soup, which are quite delicious for the first time.

Sitting in the corridor outside the kitchen, there is a very thin middle-aged driver with a white towel tied around his belt. They call him "Xiu Sang". A rickshaw is parked in the side yard, which is the official seat assigned by National Taiwan University to Uncle Ma. Che (he was acting as the dean of science at that time).Uncle Ma weighs about 80 kilograms and is about 180 centimeters tall. Xiusang weighs about 55 kilograms and is 170 centimeters tall.But that's not the point. The point is that the hand lever of the official car broke when Uncle Ma sat on it for the first time, and it broke again after being repaired, so he couldn't sit on it after repairing it, and the driver is an official employee of the school. Commuting to and from get off work every day.After I arrived, I went to the National Taiwan University Department of Foreign Languages ​​to "see" work. Uncle Ma told Xiusang to take me to school and take me back to Qingtian Street in the afternoon. This salary survives.

I sat twice, and Xiusang expressed his gratitude to me in Japanese (they don't understand Chinese) all the way.After I took office, I gave him rice, coal, and ration tickets, and a pair of teaching assistants who lived in Ma's house ridiculed me for "showing off".When I took the dean's car for the third time, I was "driving" on the field road on Xinsheng South Road.