From: tsai@tecrus.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: Fond memory of my college days.
Date: 17 Apr 92 05:46:38 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


I've been a silent reader for quite some time on SCT, and I greatly appreciate
the news, the historical facts, the fine arguments, and even the expressions of
love and compassion for Taiwan, all of which netters take time to put on SCT.

When netters started to talk about their own beloved high schools, I was a bit
lost since I have mixed feeling about my high school. So, I cannot utter out a
downright claim saying mine was the best, or even flaunt what we had. I used to
call it Beating-Dog High School. I seldom think of it except when an occasion 
like this occurs.

However, I do have some fond memory of my college days, and that is "May2-Jwu2-
Sai4" between Jau1-Da4 and Chin1-Hwa2. This is somewhat parochial to the 
general SCT netters, so please indulge me for the moment.

About two weeks before the contest kicked off, poster war of words and graphics
started on each school's poster wall. Students on each side were stretching to
the limit of their wits to use all kinds of pun and comics to tease and provoke
each other in both monologue and dialogue ways. Sometimes, It went too far for
personal attacks, such as smearling the cheer leadrs, were involved.

All these excitement, fanaticism, and carnival spirit were gradually buiding up
to its pinnacle till the open day and stayed up there for the whole duration.

The first contest was "Chui4-We4-Jin4-Sai4" (funny game contest). Long before
the game began, the audience from all places started to swarm on the scene.
There was official la1-la1-dwe4 (cheering teams) and volunteering ones. The 
official one would have a three-wheeled bicycle with huge drum and other metal
percussion instruments on it to spur up the morale and the festival atmosphere.
For this funny game match, there're, in fact, a lot more nervousness and 
tension than funniness and laughters. All the rules were observed to 
the most meticulous details I'd ever seen. Protests and disputes from the 
coaches and student representatives would come up every so often such that 
every inch of ground would be secured to guarantee the final victory.
In my day, the schedule for all the 11 contests was reduced from a whole week 
to 2 days only. Thus, we could only choose some of them to watch. Lan2-Pai2-
Jwu2-Bon4 (basketball, vollybsll, soccer, and baseball) were the most common 
pick and thus made the stadium flooded with the most fanatic audience in Taiwan.
Even though the atheletes' techniue was far below world class level,
everyone seemed to be out of his mind and shouted out spontaneously to every 
cheerful and crucial moments of the game. There was also slogan war between
the audience during the contest, and the slogan were funnier than mean,
more amusingly childish than derogatory. Also within these two days, there were
quite a few editions of express news circulated to keep the students
posted of what's happening on and behind the scenes, such as the progress of
the long-hour bridge and chess contests and some morale-uplifting brief portrait
of the atheletes or events. As usual, many student lost their voice after
being so heated for two days. 

The most memorable one was when Jau1-Da4 won over Chin1-Hwa2 in 1983. It was 
my senior year. At that time we lived in the 5th dormitory and two of my 
classmates were raising pigeons on the roof of it. They used cracker to scare 
the pigeons from landing during the training session. Anyway, right before the
tug of war which was held in the field within the range of rocket cracker from
the roof of the 5th dormitory, I found them preparing to fire them to the sky
to celebrate the would-be-grand-slam because by then we already won 10 out of
11 with only tug of war left. Unfortunately, we lost the tug of war and they
only fired a few rocket crackers. So, when the night came, students were still
very much in the euphoria of this gratifying landslide and thus fired the 
rocket crackers from within the 5th dormitory. As the 6th dormitory, where the
sophomore and junior resided, was about 50 feet away, some of the non-guided 
rocket crackers hit it and they thought we were intentionally attacking them.
They fought back with the same weapon and the war between 5th and 6th dormitory
broke out. As a sidetrack, some of the members on the tug of war team had 
skinhead haircut as an apology that they lost that match.

The war didn't last long in that we all had limited supply of ammunition.
One day after the victory, both side secretly refueled and prepared for an all
out war when the night curtain fell. The rocket cracker war began at about 8PM
and the intensity escalated as time went by. Besides this, both side also
turned on their stereo with highest possible volume trying to blow off each
other. My classmate's 200-Watt speakers was functioning at full load then.
Behind the frontline, logistics was going on at the same time and kept 
searching for rocket crackers in Hsin-Chu City. Later on, I heard that all the
stores ran out of stock that night.

Where were Gau4-Gwan1 (campus military officers)? They couldn't stop the war and
students from other dormitories, including the girls, were attracted to the
scene by all the phenominal noise and glare. Eventually the university president
Kuo1, Nan2-Horn2 came and said our neighboring residence was tremendously
disturbed by the noise during such late evening. One student shouted out that "
We would stop after president dance to one song here". With all the cheers, 
Kuo1 was not moved by that proposition and continued his bargain with us. We 
were all just joking with him as he was a very amiable and humorous person in 
our minds and were also a little reluctant to let go the fun moment we had 
at Gau1-Da4 before we graduated in June that year.

Three months later, we graduated and I cherished the days at Gau1-Da4 more
and more since then.

Tsai, Kuo-Yeang
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan