Ambrose Wang
Most young people nowadays have no idea what it feels like to be poor. The following short story may help those born with a silver spoon in their mouths to gain some understanding。
I don't know when "GDS Meat Sauce" was first introduced, but I remember tasting it for the first time in 1964, the year I taught in Keelung. At that time, this meat sauce, priced at six NT dollars per can, was truly delicious and luxurious for me. However, for a poor teacher with a monthly income of only 800 NT dollars, or 20 U.S. dollars then, supporting a family of three (at that time, my daughter had not been born yet), it was indeed an "unaffordable luxury"!
For over 70 years, besides its price, the look, packaging, and especially the taste of this meat sauce has remained unchanged and all these years, my family has rarely been without it! Why is it? That's the story I am telling now.
The Fulfillment of Serious Teaching
In the 1950s, the easiest job for college graduates to find was teaching and it seemed that most graduates of foreign language departments who did not go abroad for advanced study became English teachers. I was one of those.
I have worked in six different industries in my lifetime, and teaching is still one of my favorite jobs to this day because it has brought me tremendous fulfillment! Watching my students progress from learning the ABCs to being able to write, read, and speak English fluently gives me a sense of satisfaction and self-affirmation that is indescribable and eternal! I firmly believe that if I had kept teaching for two more years, the three classes of students who performed poorly on their entries and were labeled as "low-performing classes" would have far surpassed the "good students" of the same grade level at the time (in fact, this was proven during a "Keelung City First Year English Quiz Competition" before I left the teaching profession). Unfortunately, the meager salary was not enough to sustain my basic living expenses, so I had to give up my aspirations and beloved job to seek other means of livelihood.
The Worry of Meager Wages
In 1964, a monthly income of 800 NT dollars (20 U.S. dollars then), in today’s sense, is probably equivalent to 20,000 NT dollars or 650 U.S. dollars to support a family of three, including paying rent! The tightness of life can be imagined and that was how I spent the first year of my career! I never stopped worrying about making ends meet for my family each month. The greatest pleasure of indulging in desires for me was going to the night market by the canal in Keelung on the day I received my salary and eating from a roadside stall. Just a bowl of noodles, some braised dishes, and a small basket of steamed spareribs made a scrumptious feast for me and my small family! It was a great pleasure and a huge expense to me but only insignificant in the eyes of ordinary people. What I paid for that “luxurious” meal would appear in the numbers of the month's income shortfall, so while enjoying the "delicacy," I was also bearing a huge psychological burden.
"Mutual Support" Friends
In that year, I also made a few friends, including a teacher named Li Yanyi, with whom I had a "mutual support" relationship. My monthly salary could barely cover twenty days of living expenses, so I often had to ask him for help. Each time, I borrowed around 200 yuan from him. Yanyi was a very honest and straightforward person. When lending me money, he would sometimes say to me, "Ambrose, I can only lend you money for ten days. After ten days, I won't have any food to eat either." (Five years later, I got him out of teaching and offered him a job at a travel service company of which I was hired as a general manager and that changed his life. Later he found another job in a Japanese company, Kanematsu Corporation, and years later he was promoted to higher and higher managerial positions in that company until he retired.)
In the year I was teaching, a few friends and I occasionally got together to have potluck dinners at each other's homes because we couldn't afford to dine out. At that, none of us could afford to treat the others. Looking back, even though we were a bit financially strapped at the time, we all lived happily because the ideals and hopes filling young people's hearts dispelled all the worries of economic hardship.
Relief in Hard Times
In August of '54, my younger brother, Anthony, visited me in Keelung for the first time during his summer break. Learning of his visit filled me with joy, but it also caused me anxiety because I didn't have the means to host him for a few days. As he arrived, he brought two cans of Carnation milk powder as a gift for our son, his nephew. Amidst my mixed feelings of joy and worry, I suddenly saw a solution to my predicament upon seeing those cans of milk powder! I quietly took the milk powder to a nearby familiar grocery store, negotiated with the owner, and exchanged them for four cans of GDS meat sauce cans, a few eggs, some pickled vegetables, and snacks. On the way home, my worries vanished, and I greeted my brother with a big smile.
From then on, I developed a deep affection for GDS meat sauce. In the years to come, whether needed or not, there will always be a can or two stored at home—a taste that once brought me comfort in troubled times. For decades, every time I saw that pork meat sauce, I felt like meeting an old friend, exuding immense warmth, and of course, evoking the memories of the hardships of the past and I seemed to hear it saying to me: "Thank you for never abandoning me all these years!"
Turning Point in Life
In that teaching year, I also attempted to find a better-paying job to improve my life, but after applying to several trading companies, I always failed to get hired. The reason was the same—because I couldn't speak Taiwanese! (In those days, most people in Keelung didn't speak Mandarin, especially the elderly.)
At the end of 1965, 20th Century Fox Film Corp. came to Taiwan to film "The Sand Pebbles," directed by Robert Wise, who had just won an Oscar for "Sound of Music” and The West Side Story”. The leading actors were Steve McQueen and Candice Bergen. The filming in Taiwan lasted for six months, requiring eight interpreters to be assigned to work with eight department heads. After two months of training, I was fortunately selected as one of the eight translators, earning a monthly salary of NT$8,400, or 210 U.S. dollars which was 10.7 times my previous salary. Even luckier, I was chosen as the interpreter/assistant for Superintendent, Mr. Herbert Cheek, a heavyweight figure at Fox during the filming period, and the boss of the seven department heads whom the other seven interpreters worked for.
My experience working at Fox for six months changed my life. I witnessed the professionalism and efficiency of a top-tier American film company's staff, providing me with immense inspiration and guidance at the age of 25. The benefits I gained in terms of life experience and training far exceeded the economic improvement, which was unexpected but one of the greatest blessings in my life.
I'll save the insights and experiences from my time at Fox, including how I met and worked with Mr. Robert Wise and Steve McQueen for another story-writing, as it diverges too far from the current topic.
"How many people have you helped?"
The wisdom of ancient Chinese sages is truly admirable. There's a saying: "A thousand ounces of gold cannot buy the youth of a poor man." Looking back on my life, I am grateful for experiencing that period of financial hardship when I first entered society because poverty is the greatest force that motivates a person to strive for better. During that time, as I received help from friends, I made a vow in my heart: when I have the means in the future, I must take care of my family and help my friends in need. For decades, I have never forgotten my promise. Even now, every time I see GDS meat sauce, while reminiscing, it feels like it's asking me, "Ambrose Wang, how many people have you helped during this time?"
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