When I was 24

This picture was shot in 1975, during the spring season. I was then serving as political trainer sub-lieutenant at the air force cadet training centre based in a small town called Huwei (a vegetable farming area in the mid west coast of Taiwan).

In the picture, I am on the far right. The one on the far left was my colleague, Chou Zhonghou. I left the air force in June 1975 which was the end of my 2 year obligatory service, and Chou Zhonghou took over my position. The two officers in the middle were my colleagues whose name I can not remember.

Many of my friends, whom I have shown this photo to, would usually comment on my good looks. Some of them tried to match me with someone they knew. There was a maid working in the student centre as a clothes alternator who arranged a meeting for me with her daughter. At the same time, a colleague introduced me to a girl in April. He took me travelling to Kaoshiung, a harbour city in Southern part of Taiwan, to meet her.

The rain poured down by the time when we arrived her residence, and we did not have an umbrella to prevent us from getting wet. So at the time of meeting her, both I and the match-maker were drenched in water. However, the first glance of her really impressed me, and I said in my mind she is the one I want to marry. Her name is Cheng Chen. She was studying to be a school teacher for the last year in the university.

The next day, the match-maker arranged a tour for us to a nearby recreation area by Cheng Ching Lake. He aimed at seeing some progress between me and Chen. Unfortunately, both of us were very shy and conservative and in the whole day I only asked her silly questions like: hey, Miss Cheng, do you have sisters or brothers?

Happy times passed really fast. We said goodbye to her and took the evening train back to the air force cadet training centre. Throughout the journey, I had been in silence and my mind was filled with Cheng Chen's smiling images.

After many letter exchanges (actually I wrote her letters most of the time), and a few personal visits, our intimacy had developed to a degree which convinced the parents of both sides that they we were an inseparable couple. So on the 15th of January 1977, we were married.