Before coming over the Taiwan Strait, all those on the ships were "provincial outsiders" to each other, since they came from many different provinces. But once they came to Taiwan together, they were all called "taros" by local Taiwanese.
在橫渡台灣海峽之前，船上的同伴們，彼此都是不同省籍的「外省人」，只不過一起來到台灣後，都被台灣當地人叫成「芋仔」了！