Author：Judith Lau
In 1939, my father graduated as Economics major from National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming. It seemed natural that Father should accept assignment to a bank job. Within a few weeks, my father was bored stiff handling client transactions. Mother suggested that father should consider the Special Examination for Consular and Diplomatic Personnel scheduled in 2 weeks(?). At first, Father objected, not having had any preparation time. But mother encouraged him by saying that if he failed, he still had the bank job.
In all of father's previous national exams, father had demonstrated his broad range of knowledge and uncanny memory. He placed no.1 in the national high school placement for the High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University(師大附中) and later in the national college, Peking University, admissions. My Auntie told me in 1988, the entire Tien clan was jubilant and the Tien ancestral temple doors in Leling (樂陵) and Shouguang(壽光) at Shandong Province(山東) were flung open to resounding firecracker celebrations! My grandfather had claimed under the old imperial system, father would have been awarded the title of 狀元. Auntie also proudly told us that until then (1988), father's scores had yet to be broken. Father's academic accomplishment was certainly sufficiently impressive to win my mother's admiration and her hand. (However, my mother would wryly observe, once father was admitted to his school of choice, he was not diligent in studying the established curriculum and always graduated in the middle by placing high in the subjects that interested him and just passing in those that didn't.)
Mother sent father off for 2(?) weeks of intense cramming in the library and fortunately, father passed, not at the top of the applicant pool but a respectable #6(?). The placement and father's high English score landed father at Department of Protocol(交際司) in Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), a junior official translating English to and from Chinese. Father was self-taught in English from browsing his father's large library of English books and records. My grandfather was an English major graduate of Imperial University of Peking(京師大學堂), the predecessor to Peking University. Grandfather had served in MFA but declined his Consul General assignment to London preferring to stay in Beiping. Fathers oldest brother 田寶齊was in the Russian department of MFA serving in Moscow at that time.
Father's English always impressed me as classic, precise and erudite. For most of my life, I had believed father was an English major. He had only a slight Chinese accent in his British enunciation which he learned by listening to Lawrence Olivier Shakespearean records as a child.
In the summer of 1939, Father happily embarked on his training in Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chungking while mother tended to me, their first born, in a classic courtyard house in Kunming called "石屏會館" . In the previous fall of 1938, when my parents followed their professors of Peking University to National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming, they found a large, handsome 2 story courtyard house that had been the home of 清朝狀元near Green Lake(翠湖). It had been converted to a scholars' quarters during the early Republic. My parents obtained residence there with some other fellow classmates. My parents took the back courtyard upstairs section. After my father left for Chungking, my mother continued to stay in 石屏會館with me.
石屏會館becomes a restaurant. My parents had the 2nd floor corner rooms very close to
Green Lake. Photos taken in 2019.
One early fall day a few months after I was born in 1939, my mother recounts a high-pitched sound pierced the normally calm little city warning of the imminent arrival of Japanese dive bombers. Mother grabbed me, stuffed her few important possessions tied in a cloth kerchief into the top of her shirt and ran down the stairs, out of the courtyard, trying to run across the grassy lawn around Green Lake when a Japanese dive bomber swooped down shooting at the fleeing populace below. Mother sprawled down on the ground, covering me with her body and then immediately scampered up when the Japanese dive bomber soared to make a turn. Mother and I were both unharmed but as she crouched in the air raid shelter, mother realized she had dropped her little bundle of precious belongings: her money, her citizen identification documents and her wedding jewelry from her mother - a large pair of clear jadeite pierced drop earrings!
As soon as it was safe to emerge from the shelter, mother rushed back to the Green Lake Park but her packet was gone! Mother was frantic about losing her identity cards, money and small treasures from her mother. Mother immediately posted a note on the central bulletin board with a description of her small lost bundle and pleaded for its return to her address. She said she felt her heart crushed. Friends helped mother and her infant with necessary provisional to get by but a person without identity papers was in serious difficulty for rations, collection of father's salary and travel. For several days, mother worried deeply and then one day, mother received a small package left at the gatekeeper. It was mother's cloth packet. But It felt very slim and a piece of paper was enclosed when mother tore it open. The note read " Your identity card I return to you, but I apologize I am keeping the rest in these days of national difficulty".
Mother never complained about the thief; grateful he was good enough to return her identity papers during a time of hardship for everyone. But mother always looked immensely sad when she told this story. Those pair of earrings were the last physical connection to her mother and her homeland.
Many decades later, mother bought and often wore a pair of small jadeite dangle earrings she said were much inferior in quality, color and size to her mother's gift on her wedding day. In 1961, my grandmother died of pancreatic cancer without ever seeing her daughter again after 1938. My father was then serving as Consul General in Australia. I don't have pierced ears, so mother is leaving her replacement pair of jadeite earrings to my younger daughter who does have pierced ears and is named Estelle after my mother's English
name, Stella.
National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming, 2019.
Classrooms are freshly painted and restored.
In one of the restored classrooms where my father studied 1938-1939
父親的「得」與母親的「失」
父親大學畢業後，先是進入銀行工作，不久就對處理顧客交易之類的事情頗覺呆板無趣，母親建議他去考高考。一開始父親很排斥，因為他毫無準備，但母親鼓勵他說，考不取還可以回到銀行工作。
父親淵博的學識和過人的記憶力充分展現在他所參加的各種考試上，高中考試以第一名考取師大附中，之後以榜首進入北京大學。大姑說當時田氏家族欣喜若狂，特別打開家族祠堂在山東樂陵和壽光的大門，喜迎慶賀的鞭炮。爺爺說，要是在古時候，這就是狀元了。大姑在1988年驕傲地告訴我說，到那時候為止還沒有人打破父親這個紀錄。父親的學養讓母親非常欽佩，也因此獲得母親的青睞。然而根據母親的側面觀察，父親進入學校後，並非盡全力研讀所有課程，他喜歡的科目自然會名列前茅，其他的就只是低空掠過及格邊緣，因此畢業時的成績並不出色。
父親高考的英文分數很高，他的英文乃自學而來，利用家中豐富的英文藏書和唱片，因為爺爺田樹藩畢業於京師大學堂(北京大學前身) 譯學館，也曾任職於清末外務部、民初外交部，因為不願意離開北平就任駐倫敦總領事而卸職。父親的英文用詞典雅，精準，深奧，只有些微的中文腔，我一直以為他主修英文，原來這完全是因為他從小就愛聽爺爺收藏的那些唱片，尤其是勞倫斯．奧立弗(Lawrence Olivier)所扮演的莎士比亞劇中角色。
1939年夏天父親剛剛赴重慶外交部任職時，母親並未同行，因為她得留在昆明照料我這個剛出生的大女兒。我們在昆明住的地方叫做「石屏會館」，那是父母在前一年秋季跟著北大教授到西南聯大時，在翠湖附近看到的一棟雙層的四合院建築，原為清朝狀元的宅第，在民國初年改成學者的住處，於是父親與其他同學決定落腳於此，我們家擇居於後棟的樓上。
在昆明時，某日清晨空襲警報大作，母親趕緊抱起不過幾個月大的我，拿了一條布巾，包了幾件重要東西塞到衣服上的斜襟，匆忙下樓往外跑。經過翠湖時，日本的轟炸機往下俯衝，對準四散奔逃的平民掃射。母親趴在草地上，用她的身體護著我，之後趁著飛機掃過要回轉的空檔，立刻起身拼命跑。我們倆沒有受傷，但等到她蹲在防空洞時，才發現塞在身上那個布巾包不見了，裡面有錢、身分證明，還有外婆給她的結婚首飾：一對翠玉耳環。
空襲警報一解除，母親馬上回到翠湖公園四處尋找，但那包東西早已不見蹤影。母親心急如焚，於是在昆明的布告欄上張貼尋找失物，詳述她遺落的東西以及送回的地址。當時靠著身邊的朋友提供物資協助，因為沒有身分文件，我們無法領取配糧，也領不到父親的薪水，更無法到外地去。母親憂心忡忡，直到有天有人留了一小包東西給門房，正是母親那個布巾包，但卻小了許多，裡面放了一張紙條，上面寫道：「身分證件還你。其他的我留著——國難當頭。」母親不曾抱怨這位小偷，反而感激他將證明文件送回來了。然而，每次講到這件事，母親總是神情哀傷，遺失的那對耳環是她的陪嫁，在她心中代表著她和北平的家，和外公外婆的聯繫。
多年以後，母親買了一付小小的翠玉耳環，並且經常戴著，彷彿代替了那對遺失的耳環，但她總是說，這個替代品無論品質、顏色或大小，都比不上原來的。母親從1938年結婚之後，一直到1961年外婆因胰臟癌去世，都不曾再見過自己的母親。