Afterword

 Patrick Wang (王華燕)

 

Judith Tien Lau (田之雲）was my classmate at DFLL(Department of Foreign Language and Literature) , but we never talked during those years. It seems Judith and I never got the chance to know each other back in university days. Judith distinguished herself as an outstanding student in academic performance and school activities while I spent most of my time playing basketball, hanging out with my buddies and dating my classmate Hsi-Chen Liu (劉西珍）, who became my wife three years after we graduated from DFLL.

In 2008, Professor Yen Chu (朱炎）, also my classmate at DFLL, invited me to join the Board of Ignatius Ying Scholarship Foundation. After I stepped down from the Chairmanship of  Microelectronics Technology Inc. (MTI) in 2013, I became more actively involved with the Foundation and am now the current Board President. Since I have been in the technology industry for decades, I tried to make the website, “In Memory of Professor Ignatius Ying,”  more engaging and influencing, in the hope that it would become a resource for returning members as well as newcomers.

 

I called for essays from my classmates at DFLL. Nai-chenWang (王乃珍), Jun-chao Ma (馬潮潤) and Hui-liu Li(李惠流) were very supportive and wrote of their memorable experiences, which were already posted on the Website.  I asked Hui-lai Chiu (丘惠萊), our class leader at DFLL, to pass on my invitation to Judith,  but receive no response.  With no common topics to converse upon, Judith seemed uninterested.  It was not until  I learned, by chance, of her father being Ambassador Pao-tai Tien (田寶岱) that I found a subject we could discuss.

 

I have long been interested in issues revolving around the South China Sea. Several questions have been lingering in my mind for a long time. Why is James Shoal (Zengmu Reef), being 1800 kilometers from the Chinese mainland, the southernmost point of Chinese territory? Why does the ROC government insist the sovereignty of Taiping Island (better known as Itu Aba) , even though we had not enough Marine Corps soldiers to safeguard the island and had many difficulties in transporting and supplying necessities?  

 

Judith's father has long been concerned about the South China Sea issue.  When he was assigned to the Manila Embassy as First Secretary from 1951 to 1956, he had the first-hand experience in handling the territorial disputes. During this period, Tomas Cloma, a Filipino lawyer and adventurer, claimed he discovered the Taiping Island in the Spratly Islands chain of the South China Sea and established a micronation named "Freedomland" there.  Judith's father helped Minister Shu-kai Chow (周書楷公使)   prioritize this matter with Minister George Yeh (葉公超), who reported to President Chiang Kai-shek. President Chiang sent navy ships to drive Cloma off Taiping Island and later instructed the Navy to station troops on the island permanently.

 

 

A diplomatic career was once my dream profession. I have given special attention and respect to diplomats who make great efforts in maintaining good cooperation and relations with other countries. When Judith's father served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Saudi Arabia from 1971 to 1975, he contributed a lot to strengthening the bilateral relations between the two countries. Saudi Arabia was friendly and generous in providing Taiwan interest-free loans up to US $50m for its Ten Major Construction Projects in the 1970s, in the exemption of Taiwan in the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, and in granting the landing rights for China Airlines in flying to Europe. Besides, Saudi Arabia was one of the few significant countries to maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan as its allies dropped to 31 from 1971 to 1973.

 

Ambassador Tien was a good topic to break the awkwardness between Judith and me.  After one year's email correspondence, we became better friends. I urged her to speed up the work on Ambassador Tien's oral history, which was launched in 2008. In 2014, after the first draft was completed, I asked advice from Professor Li Chang (張力) at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica.  He felt the draft was not long enough for a book and that more elaborations were needed. However, it was not easy for Ambassador Tien, who was then 98 years old, to provide more details. As soon as Professor Chang knew that Judith was an alumni of DFLL and was quite good at writing, he suggested Judith record whatever she remembered given that she had followed her diplomat father to various postings since she was born. In addition, in contrast to the perspective of a male grown-up, the observations from a daughter as a child, a teenager and a young adult may add a different dimension to the life and career of a diplomat.

 

Judith's memory was pieced together in 17 vignettes, beginning with their life in Kunming and Chungking when her father was recruited to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through her father's first assignment to Chicago, then to  Nagasaki, Yokohama, Manila and Taipei. In 1962, Judith got married, no longer accompanying Ambassador Tien to his postings to Sydney, Manila and Saudi Arabia, but she has stayed in close contact with her parents.

 

These 17 vignettes were written in English and then translated by Professor Su-feng Chou, who began her graduate studies at DFLL in 1978. Judith likes her translation, saying that the translation has "a subtle and pristine, literary charm." The Chinese version was appended to Tien Pao-tien: A Memoir. When I asked Judith's permission to post her English version on the Website, she suggested to make it a bilingual version so that readers can appreciate both the English and the Chinese texts.

 

Judith's literary sensitivity was demonstrated by her sophisticated syntax, elegant diction and profound thought. Through Judith's vivid representation of the life a diplomat and his family experienced, we witnessed the turmoil of 20th Century China and the efforts made by Ambassador Tien in seeking the best interests for his weak country.