I finally got to meet another of my dissertation interviewees in person last Thursday (6/23).
Dr. Thomas B. Gold, who was an Oberlin rep to Tunghai in the early 1970s, came back to visit the campus before he participated in an international conference in Taipei. Tom was very helpful when I was working on my dissertation, providing me with lots of background and helping me with my analysis of the texts I was working with.
Linda and I had a nice time with him, walking around Tunghai's campus and chatting about what has changed and what hasn't since he taught here.
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| After a hearty lunch at a Hakka restaurant near Tunghai |
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| Walking around Tunghai's campus |
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| Looking for Tom's old room in the men's dorm |
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| Found it! |
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| The shower room had changed somewhat; most noticeably, a natural gas fueled water heater has replaced the one Tom remembered (for the old heater, he recalled, you literally had to gather sticks and light a fire to heat the water)* |
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| Enjoying the view |
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| Enjoying some Tunghai ice cream (I'm holding Linda's "Tunghai-sicle" as well as my own) |
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*David Decker, who was acting chair of the Foreign Languages Department in 1980, told us about how he informed incoming teachers of the need to gather sticks to heat their water and (exaggerating a bit) that the Department would equip each teacher with a bow and arrow so that they could hunt for their food.
1 comment:
Tom's old room looks and sounds even more basic than the 12X15 ft. concrete block room I lived in the last three years of graduate school!
I'm still trying to recognize the guy with the beard. ;-)
--ERG
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