Changhua Raoping Hakka Junior Corp took a tour to Mrs. Qiu’s favorite historical residence –Yongjing Loyal House (古蹟永靖忠實第). Most of the windows and doors in the quaint siheyuan (四合院) were closed because only a few of the clan members still resided there. Teacher Qiu briefly introduced the Loyal House to the Corpse. It was built in 1886 by a fifth-rank official Cuiying Qiu (邱萃英)et al. It nurtured prominent pupils like Fengjia Qiu (邱逢甲). Qiu Cui Ying was the dean of Xing Xian (興賢) academy of classical learning, and that consolidated the handed-down saying “Yongjing Loyal House nurtures teachers”. There were many damages to the 150-year-old Yongjing Loyal Houses in Raoping (饒平) and are waiting for renovation. Behind the main hall situated four shabby low iron-roof clay dwellings, which turned out to be the residence of Teacher Qiu’s family of six when she was 16. We listened to her narrating her growing-up story.

Mei Dou, the second daughter and the fourth child of Chuangxiao Qiu (邱創効)(1935-1968), was born in a clay dwelling of Yongjing Loyal House in the rustic Hulian Village, Yongjing Township in 1964. Her name suggests a “beautiful metropolis”. When she was five, she lost her father for a doctor’s misprescription. What was left for the family was a small amount of debt for her illiterate mother – XiuMei Qiu Zhan (邱詹秀梅) to be lumbered with. She also had to carry the weight of a family of two boys and three girls on her shoulders by doing cement odd jobs. It was tough for her to raise the kids all by herself and she almost unwillingly gave up Mei Dou’s three-year-old sister for adoption. The utterly destitute family was then the low-income household certified by the township office, and the family adopted by Changhua Fund for Children and Families (家扶中心). The most nutritious food they could get was powdered milk provided monthly.

Mei Dou was a hard-working student who excelled both in morals and studies, but her family was too meager to afford any appliance. She could only study by a rectangular table before the ancestral tablets for it was the only place with lights on at nights. She was a class leader with great leadership and a sense of justice back when she was in elementary school and she got second place in junior high school intellectual assessment. In the teachers’ eyes, she was a diligent and ambitious student who, without going to cram school, graduated with County Executive award and was second to none in National Taichung University of Business on high school entrance exam. She could have gone to Taipei First Girls High School but because of a lack of finance, she went to a comparatively outstanding school – National Taichung University of Education. The elders in the Loyal House were proud of her and complimented, “You did an excellent job, Mei Dou. You are another great teacher-to-be from Yongjing Loyal House! ”

Teacher Qiu recalled how rare it was for them to have rice at meals. The staple food back then was sweet potatoes. She appreciated her mother for doing all the hard labors to raise five of them and she felt a gratitude to her eldest sister Qiu Gui Dan (邱桂丹), who, although being a hard-working student, sacrificed her chance to study and worked to supplement family financial at age 13. Mei Dou felt compelled to work extra hard to succeed as a payback for their devotion. Encouraged by her elementary and high school teachers, she decided to become a teacher. In year 1984, she began teaching in Xin Sheng Elementary School (新生國小). She went back to her hometown school –Fu Xing Elementary School and Yong Jing Elementary School –to teach in the following year.