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Lai Dongjin 賴東進 was born into a “beggar family.” His dad is blind, his mom has a mental illness. He has 11 siblings! Many born into such a disadvantaged position would throw up their hands, blame fate, and quit the fight for life. But Lai refused to surrender – no matter how high the odds. His 2000 autobiography "Beggar Boy" was a best-seller (no English version) and today, Formosa Files brings you his remarkable story.
Cover left: "Beggar boy" Lai Dongjin 賴東進 shows off a certificate for merit in school (Via Author.crown.com). Center: Now best-selling author Lai Dongjin 賴東進 (Via KKNews.com). Right: The cover of Lai's book, 乞丐囝仔 Qǐgài jiǎnzǐ (Beggar Boy, 2000).
In Taiwanese (Chinese) culture – filial piety – xiao 孝 – is highly valued. Of course, this is a universal human feeling, but it especially praised and cultivated among the Taiwanese.
Many of these ideas come from “The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars,” a classic Confucian filial piety text. These “exemplars” are supposed to serves as role models of treating one’s parents well.
You can see pictures of those examples in some temple artwork. Some are rather dramatic, as they illustrate extreme stories that border on insanity.
Below: This image is from the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and illustrates a famous story of a woman from a poor family who breastfed her sick mother-in-law (she had just given birth to a baby). Pic by Eryk Michael Smith
Other "Filial Piety" stories from the ancient Chinese book The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars include a son who tastes his father's feces to learn about his illness, and a man who buries his three-year-old son alive to save food for his mother. Umm... a bit much, no?
From China: Statue of a woman breastfeeding her mother-in-law dismantled for upsetting tourists and netizens
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Check our very first episode, the story of a very white man who showed up in London in 1703... and claimed to be from Formosa. Or try a foodie episode from Season 3. Or, for those who want some harder-core history, hear the tale of the Lockheed U-2 pilot Wang Hsi-chueh 王錫爵, who became famous for defecting to the PRC by hijacking China Airlines Flight 334 on May 3, 1986.
