To introduce a series of posts about visiting my grandfather’s hometown of Silai (in Mandarin Siluo, Xiluo, 西螺), here’s a sweet song and video slide show, made by the town’s historical society!! It’s called the Luoyang Culture and Education Foundation, or: 螺陽文教基金會.
So I hope you’ll give it a watch if you want to see how the town looks now– in Silai itself, there are some beautiful historically preserved old buildings, collections of old photographs and books at the historical society, and a traditional soy sauce museum and factory.
A special thank you as well, to the incredibly kind and intelligent folks at the Luoyang Foundation, since they have helped me a tremendous amount. They have offered me a great deal of information and research resources, but also have reminded me of why personal histories are worth remembering. They made me feel like I was welcome, and that in coming to Silai, I was also coming home.
The foundation has also written about Thomas Liao (廖文毅) on their blog: here’s the link to the Chinese article. And here are some pictures of him and the ancestral home that they also posted.
Girl Meets Formosa 
How great to see and hear more of Silai!