In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been watching DVDs of a Chinese soap called ‘The stories of Time”. There are 6 or 7 DVDs worth and it took a long time to finish the whole series. I knew I was going to be hooked so I put it off for a while. And as soon as I started the first one, I was watching it day and night sometimes staying up in the wee hours of the night, crying with the characters about the situations created in the story lines.
The stories are about families living in a small community in Taiwan from the 50s to the current time. That was the time I grew up in and the conflicts and life situations were very similar to what was played in the soap. The time was difficult, there was very little money and there were lot of tragedies created by the political situation between Taiwan and China at the time. The parents are mostly from mainland China who couldn’t go back home to their families, the kids were raised with limited resources and yet under a tremendous pressure to do well in school and to help the parents. The material resources were poor but the emotional resources were plenty and thus lots of tears were shed while watching the show.
Watching the show has reminded me of the food I had when I was growing up. So in the past few days, I was making rice noodles, beef stuffed pancakes, water dumplings and rice porage with salty side dishes. Although the old houses have been torn down to build sky scrapers and the games are now played on machines instead of running around the neiborhood with friends, the same kind of food can still be found or made. It provides a little connection to the past even though we are all growing older and friends are scattered and old neighborhood unrecognizable. Sigh.
Time can create so many unforgetable memories. Sometimes, the only way to catch a glimpse of the past is through the familiar food you eat then and now.