(This is a re-post of Han Han's original guest column published in South China Morning Post on May 19, 2012)
As the Airbus A320 touched down at Taoyuan airport, the vibration and noise of the landing jolted me awake. My mobile phone was playing a song by Taiwanese actress-singer Sylvia Chang Ai-chia: " In 1948, I left my dearest beloved … if I knew then that my departure would mean 40 years, and if time could be reversed, I'd like to say, I don't want to go."
It made me think again about all the changes Taiwan and mainland China have experienced in the last half-century or so.
I saw many special things and met kind-hearted people everywhere during my three-day trip to the island. What most interested me were the numerous small protests taking place almost every day. There were banners out on the streets, and TV shows in which political leaders scolded each other at will. Things like this are new and unfamiliar to any tourists from the mainland.
But the individual who gave me the deepest impression wasn't President Ma Ying-jeou or another well-known personality. It was Wang Hongsong, a taxi driver who returned my mobile phone to the hotel where I was staying when I left it in his cab. He didn't ask for a reward and just seemed happy to help.
As a writer from the mainland, experiences like that and other encounters during the trip gave me a sense of loss. I realised how much certain values have changed, that some things can't be reclaimed, and wonder what comes next.
For example, I live in a country that has been through decades of political movements and harsh struggles. It sometimes seems we are now destined for a prolonged era of greed and selfishness.