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Taiwan writer find new life in mainland

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-22 19:28

BEIJING -- In her fifties, Taiwan writer Gao Ying became a celebrity among mothers in the mainland.

Her blog, focusing on parenting, on the popular mainland website Sina, has attracted about 3 million hits in the past two years. She published a book on parenting in January and two more books are coming soon.

But before she moved to Shanghai, Gao was mostly known for writing travel books. Her books, introducing ethnic minorities in the mainland, were popular on the island in the 1990s.

"I moved to Shanghai in 2002 because my daughter went to a college of traditional Chinese medicine here," she tells Xinhua. "I was thinking about writing something new because I might not be able to compete with writers here in writing about the mainland."

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A friend suggested a new direction. "Very few writers wrote about parenting in the mainland and I have an advantage. I am a mother of a boy and a girl. I have hosted radio and television programs about parenting. And I am from Taiwan, sharing a similar culture with the mainland," she says.

In 2007, she opened the blog. "I want to learn more about what mainland mothers are thinking and worrying. I have many friends on-line now."

From Taiwan to the mainland, her life and career changed. "No matter how successful I was in Taiwan, I feel new here."

An estimated 1 million Taiwanese live on the mainland, where some extend their careers and some start their dreams.

Farmer's ambition

During the hour-and-40-minute flight from Fuzhou city, Fujian Province, to Beijing, Huang Yi-chung buries himself in work, even refusing to take water.

Running a Taiwan fruit company, Huang has three wholesale centers and 13 outlets on the mainland, selling 5 to 10 tonnes of Taiwan fruits a day.

"I'm just an ordinary Taiwan farmer, doing business across the strait," he says. "I have realized my dream to introduce Taiwan's best fruit to the mainland, and next I will grow it here."

He was among the first group of Taiwan farmers to come to the mainland after it lifted duty on 10 varieties of Taiwan fruit in May 2005.

But many were deterred by transport issues. Taiwan fruit had to be shipped to the mainland via Hongkong or Japan as direct shipping was banned across the Taiwan Straits at that time.

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