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Weight: 150g
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The Night March of the Chrysanthemums

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1.County Road 184 (Preamble)

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3.The Worries

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4.Two Generations

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5.Ah-cheng Wants to Be a Farmer

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6.The Night March of the Chrysanthemums

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7.Ah-cheng Goes to Southeast Asia

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8.Ah-Fen’s Carrying a Baby

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9.After a Long Period a Strange place Becomes Home

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The Original Story of "The Night March of the Chrysanthemums"

County Road 184 starts in Luchu, Kaohsiung County runs through Ahlien, Tienliao to Chishan and connects with Chi-Nan Provincial Highway and then passes through Meinung going to Liuguei. It just seemed like any other county road leading to a farming village. In the 1950's and 60's with the "Agriculture Supporting Industry Policy", County Road 184 in Meinung was just like a straw: it used various ways of unequal value to squeeze out the labor and produce of the farmers. After agriculture declined, the youth and their dreams welled up; plus there was the large scale deforestation of Liuguei's mountain areas. All this activity used County Road 184 connected to Chi-Nan Highway for transport to the city and industrial areas.

County Road 184 is a road of two extremes-life and death. Regardless whether leaving to conquer the world, or returning to start again after dreams have been destroyed-success or failure, glory or shame, voluntary or compelled, numberless people of Meinung have been forced to exert their will on this road. In the summer of 1999 while kneeling upright anti-dam protesters, because of voting failure, on this life and death road held back tears and swore to fight.

County Road 184 winds a solitary course. At the eastern extreme of the road, as a youth Ah-Cheng helping with the farming led the ox and walked into the dusk of agriculture. At the end of the 70s, agricultural production occupied proportionally well under 50% of the farm family's income. Ah-Cheng, who had been squeezed out of the ladder to higher education, along with the ironwood trees that blocked trafficc and the memory thereof disappeared from County Road 184.

From dirty hands to an industrial worker to one wanting to be a boss, Ah-Cheng hoped to build a base in the city. For a period of time, it appeared that his beautiful dream was about to be realized. At the end of the 80s the stock market was running wild. Although the growth rate of real wages was slipping down and the real estate market was very extended, Ah-Cheng considered that the Earth God would protect his investment. Thus at the end of 1990 when the bubble economy burst, it easily leveled what he had accumulated in his life and his belief in hard work, and it expelled him from the city marriage market.

Another young man advised him, "It's not as good as going home. Both places are dicult to endure, but at home it's slightly easier." Ah-Cheng carelessly wrapped his luggage and his pain and jumped on his old motor- cycle to rush out of the city. At the same time, he became aware the farther east he went along County Road 184 the more dicult were the problems.

First is the looming shadow of the WTO, which overall will inhibit the photosynthesis of agriculture. Next add to that his parents' disappointment and distress plus his neighbors' disdain. The force pushing him to leave the village never once ceased. All voices and expressions again begged Ah-Cheng to negate himself.

Ah-Cheng loudly contended, "Since we come from the earth, then let's go toward the earth! If worse comes to worse, then return to the earth for some peace!" The possible choices in agriculture are limited. Ah-Cheng accepted his friends' support and went into a labor-, technical- and capital-intensive enterprise-chrysanthemums. In the night when he turned on the sunlamps in the fields, Ah-Cheng always thought of the evening roll call of a night march. The top soldier Ah-Cheng on his own initiative awarded himself the rank of commander-in-chief. A commander-in-chief's discipline is strict and impartial. Every day and night training, the esprit de corps of the chrysanthemum units was aroused to the point that they looked death calmly in the face. It was only that the road to the market at each level was exploited. If a commander-in-chief's strategies were not accurate, then commonly the entire military force is thoroughly annihilated.

Approaching middle age, Ah-Cheng, who before assisted in farming, formally became a farmer, and his parents, while dissatisfied, silently accepted it. Yet on the marriage front they did not yield. The matchmakers everywhere pulled strings and everywhere proved: in the domestic marriage market males like Ah-Cheng were definitely out of the market.

In 1987 the KMT Regime facing the conditions of globalization dismantled the regulations controlling foreign capital. In three years Southeast Asia became the largest investment area for Taiwan capital. At the time a neighboring relative changed his business and collected his money to respond to the policy of looking south. Several years later production still hadn't started. Rather he was establishing good relations among the various local Chinese communities. At the start of 1991 as the tendency for Taiwan and Southeast Asian international brides strengthened, that relative thereupon assumed the heavy responsibility to be a matchmaker between nations.

In order to compromise with the good intentions of his elder, Ah-Cheng at the instruction of his relative went with a group to Southeast Asia to look for a bride. In a hotel Ah-Cheng and Ah-Fen mutually selected each other. Following a very short few days, they like all the world's lovers through frankness and glossing over became familiar with their mutual strangeness. Without too much vanity, they quickly were engaged. Afterwards it was a year to wait for Taiwan's branch office for a visa interview.

Ah-Fen is the descendent of a Chinese laborer. In the past hundred years, her family has met with various kinds of political and economic turmoil. Globalization is the most recent one. In this age, all at the same time, there is the loosening of restrictions on foreign capital, privatization of state-operated enterprises, protection of mechanization, worsening of the conditions of laborers, and the bankruptcy of agricultural villages. Globalization in relation to Ah-Cheng and Ah-Fen is both an enemy and a matchmaker.

Ah-Fen came to Taiwan and is occasionally referred to as a "foreign bride". The media in the name of patriotism or love of the people at times accuses her kind as coming abroad to pan for gold, or they're afraid they'll lower the quality of the population. In the summer of 1995, sociologist Hsia Hsiao-chuan and the Meinung People's Association cooperated together by starting the first "International Brides' Reading Class." It tried to use the medium of literacy education to guide the solitary Southeast Asian brides through their circumstances and moreover assist them establish a district mutual safety network.

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