Wandering in the Garden, Waking from a Dream

I saw the change of guards at 2PM when I arrived at Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall among a big crowd, mainly tourists from the mainland China. I saw the change of guards at 5PM when I left Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall among a bigger crowd.

On the second day of year 2011, I saw the play of Wandering in the Garden, Waking from a Dream by Pai Hsien-Yung. What could be a better way to celebrate the founding of ROC for 100 years than reminiscing the good old days of our parents at Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall?

Being a second generation of mainlanders in Taiwan, I enjoy reading Pai Hsien-Yung's books about Taiwan in the early second half of the 20th century. The protagonists in the Wandering in the Garden, Waking from a Dream remind me of the aunties and uncles of my childhood, the vanity and homesick life of mainlanders before and after KMT came to Taiwan in 1949.

I sat at row 29, No. 56, with nobody around me. I saw the play from afar without a binocular, but with a better prospective of life on stage and in the audience at the same time. It was like reading a book with miniature protagonists acting between pages. When the light dimmed, Madame Dou was preoccupied on her mind about the dinner party for her friends of Chinese opera connoisseurs from Shanghai. The play began.

The stories, lines, and stage lighting of the play were all good. The actors and actresses played their roles well, but their accents disclosed the secret. Singing opera is one thing, conversing in Mandarin is another. I could not immerse myself in the play simply because of the lack of accents I was used to in my childhood! I was in total conscious that it was only a play of 20th century in the 21st century.

Everybody misses the good old times. I miss my carefree childhood living in a military community in Chia-yi. In the heterogeneous environment where everybody spoke mandarin with accents of various provinces in China, I was brought up as a baby boomer. I didn't experience any war myself, but I saw the impact of wars on people who laid the foundation for the country to be built upon, the new Taiwan.

PS: A Joke of Chinese dialects:

中國話一個比一個厲害﹗
例：某甲在樓上窗台往下看見熟識的某乙路過而忽然停止不前。

假設現在倆人是以北京話對談．．．六個字
甲：是誰在樓下阿？
乙：是我在這兒貝！
甲：你在做什麼咧？
乙：我在這小便吶！

假設現在倆人是以江浙話對談，
除了他們自己，沒人聽得懂．．．
甲：殺個人在樓下？
乙：阿拉在割裡!
甲：濃做啥個日踢？
乙：阿拉在砸蟋！

假設現在倆人是以國語對談．．．四個字
甲：誰在下面？
乙：我在這裡！
甲：你在幹嗎？
乙：我在小便！

假設現在倆人是以台語對談．．．簡單多了，才三個字
甲：蝦咪郎？
乙：喜哇啦！
甲：衝啥悔？!
乙：棒溜啦！

假設現在倆人是以四川話對談．．．兩個字ㄟ
甲：喇國？
乙：使握！
甲：昨傻？
乙：潦瞭！

假設現在倆人是以山東話對談．．．超酷！才一個字
甲：誰？
乙：俺！
甲：啥？
乙：尿！