Ten years after arriving in Taiwan, Tsai Ting-jung lost her husband to illness just as her son was born. Looking back, she shares a winding tale of pain and blessing.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/10
Oral account: Tsai Ting-jung (蔡定蓉)
Interviewers: Tsai Kuei-tien (蔡桂恬) & Cheng Chi-han (鄭至涵)
Writer: Cheng Chi-han (鄭至涵)

Tsai Ting-jung (蔡定蓉) | Credit: 互鄉誌

Time has flown by. It has now been 21 years since I first arrived in Taiwan. Before I came here, I was a high school dropout. My parents’ salaries were unable to pay for me and my more than 20 siblings. As a result, I voluntarily dropped out of school at the age of 17.

To ease my family’s financial burden, I went to work at a local sewing factory owned by Taiwanese businessmen. During that period, busy with work and exhausted after my shifts, I could not learn to cook from my mom, so I didn’t inherit my mom and sister’s culinary skills. The salary I earned from working at the factory managed to help subsidize my family’s expenses, but it was far from enough to completely solve our problems.

When I was 23, I learned that many young girls from my hometown had opted to get married and relocate to Taiwan. They all came to Taiwan under marriage with the help of matchmakers in Taiwan and Vietnam, though I didn’t know why. I finally realized that many Vietnamese girls did this so they could work legally in Taiwan to help their families back home with expenses and financial burdens.    [FULL  STORY]