ABSTRACT

National Taiwan University of Arts

The Graduate School of Applied Media Arts

My Grandmother’s Nursery Rhyme

Thesis advisor：Dr. Bing Chu

Graduate student：Lo, Chieh

Date：January.2007

The legend of Dachen Retreat took place in 1955, when a total of seventeen thousand Dachen residents followed the army garrison’s retreat, deserting the island in the midst of East China Sea, and fleeing to Taiwan.

The way Dachen migrants saw their hometown was different from the honored veterans who made the retreat to Taiwan around 1949, for the island hosts no living relatives and community members. How did the elderly Dachen people, when reminiscing the old time, define their native island?

Fifty years after the retreat, the Dachen migrants have settled in Taiwan and raised offspring. Eventually, the second and third generations does not define Dachen as their native land. Instead, they define their roots as Taiwan. This has created a gap in perception of hometown between generations. The meaning of hometown could vary between individuals, but where their ancestors came from is a fact that can never be changed.

My Grandmother’s Nursery Rhyme is a documentary focusing on the traits of Dachen dialect and the variance of the language over the past fifty years. Being the second-generation Dachen migrant, the director documents the stories of his parents and elders, and digs deep into their most inner thoughts, perceptions and interests.

There might be resources related to Dachen legend and documents might be made, but we would like to tell the story in our own way, the story of “our legend, our past.”

Key words: Dachen Retreat, Dachen people, Grandmother, Nursery Rhyme, hometown