What’s it like to reunite with your high school homeroom teacher years later?Utsudo only recently discovered that her young high school homeroom teacher, who taught Chinese, is actually a published poet — he released work in grad school and often won poetry competitions. She worked up the courage to contact him on Facebook, and they reunited at the gate of Chaozhou High School, talking about writing and signing books, as if she’d gone back to her high school days.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

A bookish high school homeroom teacher

　　Back in high school, I had a very young and bookish homeroom teacher.

　　Back then we were his first batch of students. You could tell he was still a bit green in places, but you could also feel his dedication and passion for teaching.

　　At the time I only knew he taught Chinese. Outside class he once recommended some little products made in collaboration with poetry. I bought three boxes of matches with poems on the boxes — and the matches actually worked. Once during a power outage I used them to light candles, which was pretty fun XD

　　But let me clarify: the teacher didn’t force us to buy anything — our support was entirely voluntary!

　　Besides that, he lent us some books — poetry, novels, essays and so on. I borrowed from him a few times, and I remember borrowing a book by Jing Xianghai. I picked it because his pen name was so evocative and the cover was so beautiful — I loved it.

Turns out my teacher is a published poet

　　Back then, all I remembered was that this shy, refined teacher loved poetry and literature. It was only recently that I learned he’s actually a published poet!

　　It turns out he published work while in grad school and often won poetry competitions. After entering education, he didn’t publish for a while. When I found out, he’d just made a comeback, and I bought one of his two related poetry collections, How Worth Giving Up This Moment Is.

Working up the courage to contact my teacher

　　Since we’re both working hard in the literary world, I really wanted to reconnect with him. But we hadn’t crossed paths since graduation, and I hesitated — I’m a bit thin-skinned.

　　With a classmate’s encouragement, I found the teacher’s personal page on Facebook and bravely wrote a short self-introduction — basically who I was, that I used to be his student, that I’m now a writer, and that I hoped to get his signature sometime.

　　I was really nervous, worried he’d think I was trying to network. Luckily he replied quickly, said he remembered my name, and we arranged to meet before Lunar New Year for a book signing.

　　I was so happy in that moment — really grateful to my friend for encouraging me XD

Reunited in front of our alma mater

　　That day we met at the gate of Chaozhou High School. My teacher was a little rounder than before, but still the same refined, gentle teacher.

　　We stood under a tree and chatted about the past and today’s creative world, of course exchanging some thoughts and insights about the industry, and he signed my book.

　　He excerpted a passage from the poetry collection and signed it by hand — I was so happy!

　　Since we hadn’t met in so long, his voice hadn’t changed much, and we were standing in front of the school — in that moment it felt like I’d traveled back in time to high school. Watching the younger students pass by, my heart filled with indescribable emotion and gratitude.

　　Although the meeting lasted only about an hour, I felt it was well worth it, and I’m so glad I reached out to him.

　　But something happened that drove me crazy — I got eaten alive by the little black midges outside the school!!

　　Oh my god, I never knew there were so many midges outside the school. I got about fifteen bites, and since I’m allergic, I itched for three whole days — waking up in the middle of the night to scratch. Ointment didn’t help at all, sob sob sob.

　　Conclusion: I think while eliminating Asian tiger mosquitoes, they should deal with the midges too.

　　Ah, I’d like to chat with my teacher again — maybe when I buy his next poetry collection XD

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Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #76 (in Chinese)
• Next: #78 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.

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