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He
He has probably forgotten the name that he was given by his own family. Throughout the many years that have passed, he has used several names. Even his Tibetan wife did not know his real family name, and only learned it after they arrived in India. The thing that he is most proud of in his entire life would probably be the fact that he has never surrendered, whether during the war or in real life.
He was born in a large family in Henan Province, China in 1928, which was a few years short of two decades after the Xinhai Revolution broke out. At the time, his family still enjoyed the affluence of being a grain supplier. He belonged to a generation born in the transition from the old times to the new era. As a child, he was taught to read at an old-style private school. Later, he learned about the revolution and democratic ideals through newspapers and translated books. At the age of sixteen, he decided to give up his comfortable life, and joined the fortieth troop of the Kuomintang (KMT )army to fight in the Sino-Japanese War. It is hard to say whether it was his good luck or a misfortune, the war ended in the second year after he joined the military, which was ensued by the aggravating conflicts between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party. It was the beginning of a life-long drift from one place to another with the KMT army.
It was in 1955 that he arrived in Lhasa. At that time, the KMT’s main troops and the military dependents had already retreated to Taiwan, leaving behind a small number of troops scattered in Sichuan, who were chased by the Chinese Communist army. The KMT had gathered some of the soldiers and took them to the coastal region secretly through the Free China Relief Association, before bringing them all to Taiwan. However, he gave up the idea as his fellow soldiers surrendered and mutinied one after another during the retreat, and decided to move from Sichuan to the plateau region.
He had seen the outing of the Dalai Lama there. Concealing his past of being in the KMT army, he rented a store front near the city center from a family affiliated to the Mint of the Tibetan government, and opened a small restaurant to earn a living by selling noodles and momos. Another fellow soldier who escaped to Lhasa with him also went incognito and succeeded a beef shop on the street. He still remembered that Tibet had its own currency and laws back then. One hundred taels of silver could exchange for one Tibetan bank note of the largest face value. It was a time when the currencies were not unified. Silver ingots were used and circulated in the market of the Qing empire. One silver ingot was approximately fifty taels of silver, and one yak at the time was worth one hundred taels of silver(註1). The new Chinese government did not have governing power in Lhasa yet, so Chinese people living there governed by the Tibetan government.
Aside from the restaurant, he also did business with some big families in Tibet, among which were the Sichuan-based Chama family(註2) and the families of officials working in the Mint. He had looked at the granddaughter of an official in the Mint. Later, through the matchmaking of his Tibetan neighbor, they became husband and wife. Before the wedding, the would-be newlywed – the groom wore a military uniform, and the bride a new Tibetan outfit made from fabric imported from Britain – had their wedding photos taken at a photography studio. The wedding expenses were covered by the bride’s family that was financially comfortable. Yet, their happiness did not last long. No more than a year after they got married, the Communist Party’s power in Lhasa grew increasingly and began hunting down the remaining KMT soldiers. He was forced to leave his pregnant wife behind, and fled to India on horseback, with the bride’s elder brother as his guide.
With the assistance of overseas Chinese living in Kolkata and local KMT members, he found a job working as a chef there, and lived in a neighborhood with both Chinese and Tibetan residents for three years(註3). Lobsang Kyap(註4), a Tibetan who regularly traveled between India and Taiwan and had received American intelligence training, also lived in the neighborhood. Eventually, with the help of Yeh Kan-Chung, the leader of the local Chinese community, and that of the Free China Relief Association(註5), he and more than thirty refugees were granted the status to come to Taiwan. They boarded a steamer from Kolkata to Taiwan through Hong Kong. After he arrived in Taiwan, he then brought his wife and children to Taiwan as well. The family eventually settled down in Taipei. His fellow soldier, who retreated to Lhasa from Sichuan with him, was also assisted by a female Tibetan employee to flee to India, and arrived in Taiwan one year before he did. In the media reports, they became propaganda material for campaigning harmony in between Han and minorities(註6), it also showed that Tibetan were a part of Republic of China which led by KMT.
Perhaps he had seen too much of a life inflicted by frustrations and compromises, with ideals ground to dust by reality. Although he believed that living in Taiwan was living in a land of freedom and democracy – a land that was supposed to be China – he turned down the position arranged by the KMT government, and continued working as a chef. He had worked in a Chinese restaurant owned by an overseas Chinese in West Germany, and had opened his own restaurant in Taiwan as well, but he had not worked in and for the government ever again.
She
She was born in Lhasa in 1937. Her father was born in Tsang, and had served in the army of the thirteenth Dalai Lama. He met her mother during a deployment, and chose to stay in Lhasa permanently. Her maternal grandfather worked in the Mint of the Tibetan government. Her family controlled the mines and other businesses. Because her mother passed away when she was little, she had worked for her father and helped manage the family’s business since she was ten. She was a young girl who loved fashion. Even if her father would tell her off, she would still copy the way foreigners dress and wear traditional Tibetan clothes with shirts. However, the drastic changes of the times eventually caught up with her.
Her marriage was simply something she had to do due to her family. According to her, it was love at first sight for her, but she also said that very few Tibetan women married Han Chinese men at that time. So, examples of run-away brides were not unheard of back then. The way she left Lhasa showed her family’s capability of diplomatic negotiation: in November 1958, most embassies had stopped issuing travel documents amidst the turmoil of military conflicts. Her father was able to pull some strings and arranged for public officials working at the Nepal embassy in Tibet to take her and her newborn daughter with them when returning to Nepal. In the freezing coldness, they were escorted by Communist officers to Nathu La near the border of Tibet and Sikkim, where they then took the bus to Kalimpong via Gangtok. Her father’s friend who traveled between India and Tibet for business had a place in Kalimpong. She borrowed the place and stayed there for twelve days(註7), trying to get some news about her husband in the local Chinese community. Finally, she reunited with him in Kolkata.
She only started learning Mandarin after she arrived in Taiwan. Because of her superb language ability, she began working as a temporary interpreter at the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission in 1968, assisting the commissioner general Kuo Chi-Chiao with administrative affairs. She could still remember Wangchen Geleg Surkhang (1910-1977)(註8) and Yuthok Tashi Dundrup (1906-1983), who still worked in a style reminiscent of old aristocracy when they were in Taiwan. Other Tibetans who were also listed in the employee roster of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs(註9) included Lobsang Yeshi, Tsepal Dorjee, who trained in the Chinese-American Composite Wing (CACW), and Kelsang Chomphel.
Her husband was proud of her job, even though her boss Kuo Chi-Chiao had changed commanders numerous times throughout his military career, and had been upgraded every step of his way, which differed greatly from his own circumstances in life. Since the 1980s, she has returned to Lhasa to visit her family several times. Young Chinese Communist Party officials curiously asked her why the Tibetan people would choose a life in exile in India, to which she replied, “cattle and sheep always go where the grass is good.”