Emily's blog

There’s a man who devotes all his time and efforts without a complaint in my family. He is my father, Jay.

My father is a businessman who imports compressors from Germany to Taiwan. He studied there in Berlin during his Master’s Degree on Engineering, and that’s the reason why the biggest compressor company in Germany asked him to work for them - he speaks their language and knows everything about how compressors and fans related stuff work. Only a few people spoke German back then in my father’s days.

The compressor importing company is not a mass enterprise like the most well-known ones in Taiwan like Chimei or Samsung, but the profit it produces is sort of remarkable.

My dad has always been a hard working person since he was born and raised in a straitened family background. His hometown is a fishing port in Taitung, and he has 4 older brothers and 1 older sister. With the considerable number of children in his family and concern about living out a different life from back when he was born, my dad and his brothers and sisters all work hard and now have their achievements in their field.

However, my dad does not brag about his achievements of work at home. Instead, he seems to choose to let us notice the efforts he makes by giving us a better life and just working hard. As his company is getting more and more successful, Dad starts to expand the domain from compressor related sales to real estate trades. He opens up some commercial motels with partners these years, and with the motels’ opening, he needs to go there to the motels and his company back and forth and watch over stuff.

Expectable, the time Dad’s at home declined and he gets so physically tired almost every day when he gets home that he does not want to speak too much. Our home seems to have become another motel opened for him - but was constructed by my mother and him together and later on with us, the kids.

Dad calls us, especially mom, routinely when it’s time for meals. He calls for breakfast, he calls for lunch, and dinner so on. He calls when he wants to come home, relax and eat at home(which means my mom has to cook for him) while all the family have finished dining out and so Mom has to go to the kitchen and cook reluctantly. Dad seems to become a role in a drama or a documentary film, as his schedule and acts everyday, every week all seem the same. My family go to movies and trips usually without him too, as he’s too busy or Mom thinking he’s way too boring to play with.

He has become a No Name Man in my family.

Nevertheless I think it’s too brutal to interview him for this essay. How could I ask him questions like, “Hey, how does it feel like being a No Name Person in our family?” or anything like that?!