CLASSMATE - 張國本

 作者：Judith Lau 田之雲

The last time I saw Walter Chang 張國本 was on May 12, 2007.

 

On that day, Walter had gently helped load my luggage and my broken leg in a thigh high, clumsy plaster cast into a waiting car from my hotel in Seoul to Inchon Airport, Korea. 

Walter and I were classmates at TDFLD 臺灣大學外文系 from 1956-1960. I first met Walter at Professor Ying’s freshman renowned History of Western Literature class 西洋文學史. Over the next few Taida years, Walter would occasionally[1]  stoop his lanky frame through my family’s small entry gate to my home on Hsin Sheng Nan Lu 新生南路 to shyly chat about class. Though reserved, Walter exuded a courteous warmth and was easy to converse with. During our freshman year in the spring of 1957 when the azaleas burst into a spectacle of crimson hues on Yangmingshan 陽明山, I met up with a few other classmates and Walter to enjoy the rites of spring in the fresh mountain air amid the joyful exuberance of awakening flowers. It was also the first year of a new life for us in college, particularly celebratory for the Taiwan freshman whom had passed the rigorous exams of entry 高考 into the most prestigious university in Taiwan, 臺灣大學 the National Taiwan University, Taida. On that spring day, no one was thinking of life post graduation nor the rocky trials yet to be met.

 

After 1960, Walter and I lost touch with each other until the age of internet connection and Bea’s dedicated work on the TDFLD ‘60 network of communication (around mid-1990’s?). Through email, Walter and I exchanged short greetings which Walter always signed off with “Cheers!”

In 1987, my mother had guided my brothers, daughters, sons-in-law and myself on a grand tour of China culminating in Beijing. It was my mother’s first return back to her and my father’s hometown - Beiping, now called Beijing where we would reunite with both my mother’s Liu and my father’s Tien clans whom she last saw at her wedding to my father in 1937. 

Under the auspices of 趙模初, the foremost PRC Buddhist lay scholar, mother had started a successful series of lectures on the Mainland and was sponsored by Mainland patrons to establish residence in Beijing to teach the Chinese Three Treasures: Tao, Buddhist Sutras and Confucius Four Books and Five Classics 國學三寶:道佛儒 lectures. I began to make biennial monthlong visits to my mother in Beijing.

 Walter had been living in Shanghai and invited me to visit him and his wife Sue where she had a thriving interior design business. But I had little opportunity to break away from my mother in Beijing who had became especially popular for her Buddhism and Tao De Jing 道德經 classes. However, in May 2007, I planned to stop off to see Seoul for a three days on my transit to Beijing. Walter offered to flyover for a long overdue, nearly 50 year catchup.

When Walter came to my hotel on my arrival, I immediately recognized him, still slender and shy but now quite urbane in a smart fitting suit and trendy cravat. Over dinner, I learned that after many years of hard knocks, Walter had become a prosperous wealth manager for a major New York financial institution before settling in Shanghai. He had previously lived in Europe, married Sue, a Korean woman, had a daughter and they escaped each sultry Shanghai summer to Switzerland. No longer the retiring, gangly youth, Walter had grown into a sophisticated, self-assured, mature Chinese and European gentleman. He had made plans to take me on a tour of Seoul which he had become familiar with through Sue.

 After dinner, I decided to take a quick reconnoitre around my hotel on my own. Bad mistake! In the dark, I missed a step, fell down and was unable to get up. Fortunately, a group of Singaporeans witnessed my accident and took me back to the hotel. Early the next morning, I called Walter to tell him I would have to go to the hospital as my leg had hurt all night. Walter immediately located the nearest hospital, borrowed a wheelchair from the hotel, and rushed over to drive me to the hospital. Walter spoke sufficient Korean to navigate me through the labyrinth of hospital procedures. Following exams and x-rays, I ended up with a thick plaster cast from my hip to my calf. I was also quite exhausted and in some pain. Walter took me back to the hotel after stopping off at the pharmacy for pain relievers. I notified my mother’s secretary in Beijing that I could not go on to Beijing and called my children to reroute my flight back to the US and I spent the rest of the day sleeping.

 The next day, I felt much better, on pain meds and agreed with Walter that it would be a good distraction to take the tour around Seoul on my last day than nursing my leg in my hotel room. Having taken notice that I had difficulty with my slim cut skirt over my leg cast the previous day at the hospital, Walter thoughtfully showed up with a flouncy, black skirt for me which he had bought at a department store. Later, Walter’s lovely wife Sue took charge of us for dinner at a typical Korean restaurant.

The next day, after Walter carefully positioned me into the airport limousine, I flew back to New York with great gratitude for a gentle classmate I had not seen for five decades who was still the kindhearted and empathetic young classmate I once knew. Though Walter was seasoned from years of struggle, he had achieved the business success most young men would aspire to. Over the following years, we kept up by email but I was not able to personally thank Walter and Sue for their gracious solicitude in early May 2007.

Each spring, the azaleas on Yang Ming Shan blaze their crimson colors drawing new generations of admiring hikers. Each spring at Taida, Patrick sends us photos of the renewed profusion of azaleas on our campus imparting sweet memories to the new generations of students to hold sweetly in mind as we, 甲子同学, now do while slumbering in our cozy homes.

 I still have the black skirt Walter bought me for my flight home, a little faded and worn out, like all us 甲子同學 but I wear it with warm remembrance of Walter, a multinational gentleman-

 his kindness 仁, righteousness 義, propriety 禮 and trustworthy friendship 信

 

Cheers, Walter 張國本 and Fare Thee Well!