Native sons of Taiwan, sad to part with the edifying influence of Japanese culture, lived side by side on the same small island with old soldiers from Shandong, who sang anti-Japanese battle hymns every day. The exiled elite of Shang-hai, right out of a Pai Hsien-yun novel, found themselves rubbing shoulders with local vagabonds that could have been Huang Chun-ming's "Bumpkin Kin-ah."
小島上有留戀日本文教薰陶的本省歐吉桑、有每天要唱一遍抗日「大刀歌」的山東老鄉；有白先勇筆下的上海流亡貴族，也有黃春明小說中潦倒度日的台灣羅漢腳憨欽仔。