Identity is our interstitial life-line.
What is interstitial?
“occurring in or being an interval or intervening space or segment : of, relating to, or forming an interstice”
—Dictionary by Merriam Webster
“The word interstitial comes from interstitium, and it is used in biology to describe tissue situated in vital organs. The tissue is not organ tissue, but rather, it connects the organs to one another. Interstitial tissue lives inside things, distinct but inseparable from what would otherwise be disconnected.”
—Cooking Without Recipes: Interstitial Integrity, Rita Nakashima Brock
Where does the story begin?
Often we think our story is just one within our family or between two dates. However, when I was in the Rubenstein Archives, I found an unexpected letter signed by Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.
Soong Mei-Ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, was the first lady of Taiwan after the nationalist party was exiled from China at the end of the communist revolution in 1949. She was also the daughter of Trinity College’s First International Student, Charlie Soong. Duke University, a place I once thought was only connected to me through admission suddenly became deeply connected to the history of my ethnic identity.
Both of my grandfathers were military personnel and officers in the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) under Chiang Kai-Shek. At the end of the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) and Communist Revolution (1945-1949), the Communist Party gained control of China and their Nationalist opponents were forced to retreat; my paternal grandfather left China when his own father told him to leave quickly with Chiang Kai-Shek and his military. He spent the majority of his time under intense military training in preparation to return to China with Chiang Kai-Shek, which would never happen. After retiring early due to illness, my grandfather passed away having briefly met my mom and right before the reopening of passage between Taiwan and China on November 2, 1987. Exactly one decade later on November 2, 1997, I was born in Bozeman, Montana. My grandfather had a wife, children, and family in Shandong Province, China when he left. He had two sons, three daughters, and a wife when he passed away in Taiwan.
Did the story begin in the archives when I found the signed letter? Did it begin when my grandfather unknowingly left his family behind along with millions of others in retreat, or does it begin when I was born in Montana? In reflecting on how national movements and figures are interconnected with individual stories in ways often unseen, I wanted this project to be about remembering written and unwritten realities and the power of holding these with integrity. I have often felt like it was hard, but beautiful to constantly be in the margins. Margins are not just white space, they are the life-givers, the interstitial line that brings blood to every distinct and vital organ in the body. Identity is our interstitial life-line.
A brief and incomplete history of Taiwan highlighting the context behind my project:
17th century Dutch colonization
1662 Koxinga defeated Dutch
1683 Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) takes over
1885 Taiwan declared province in Qing Dynasty
1895 Qing Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japanese Empire after First Sino-Japanese War
1937 Start of Second Sino-Japanese War
1939 Start of WWII
1945 End of Second Sino Japanese War, Nationalist Republic of China (ROC) led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) takes control of Taiwan at the end of WWII
1949 ROC loses Chinese Civil War (April 1927 – May 1, 1950) to Communist Party of China (CPC)
– Chiang Kai-shek retreats to Taiwan with 1.2 million from China
– Martial law declared
– Military and political stand-off in the Taiwan Strait
July 21, 1964 Plum blossom adopted as the national flower of Taiwan
Nov. 2, 1987 Door reopens between Taiwan and China
Pieced together from https://www.taiwan.gov.tw/content_3.php and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Taiwan
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