ALUMNI FEATURE STORIES

Even back then, Patty remembers, TAS students were set apart from the local population. "When I started taking the local bus to go to Shilin, I got a lot of hassle from riding the local bus from the local people because they resented a Chinese person going to the American school. My hair at the time was bleached because I swam a lot in the summer, and my skin, for some reason, was also paler, so I didn't look the part of an Asian person. Many people would come up to me and ask if I was mixed. People looked at me a little differently."

And like any alumna who attended in the 1960s, Patty remembers the frequent flooding that plagued the Shilin campus. "With every flood, it was a tradition that the seniors and the juniors had to help clean the classrooms afterward. I also remember the air raid exercises. There was a big dike surrounding the school in the back where all the track meets were, and when we had an air raid, you would line up and plaster yourself against the dike."

Creating "The Thinker"

"The Thinker" was a gift from her class, the Class of 1969, to the Class of 1968. But, of course, the Class of 1968 dug a moat around an island in the shape of Taiwan and christened it Senior Island. The Pagoda was donated as a gift from the janitors at the same time and also sat on Senior Island.

Sculpting teacher Peter Liang originated the idea of "The Thinker." According to the 1969 Yearbook, Mr. Peter Liang was an artist and musician originally from Guangdong. He taught sculpture and would often create busts of fellow teachers at TAS.

"I took an interest in the arts at TAS, and I would stay after school to help Mr. Liang with those busts. First, I would prepare the bust and do a rough portrait of them, and he would then do the finer details of those busts," Patty recalls.

Patty also engaged in ceramics, which she learned with Mr. Liang. "We used to make pottery and create all sorts of figurines that we would sell. I made one, and to this day, I regret selling it. It was a farmer on his hands and knees planting rice," she says ruefully. At the time, Rodin and his sculptures were in vogue, so Mr. Liang and Patty took inspiration from his work. And since this is a school, why not a Thinker? The two made a structure with chicken wire and then covered it with newspaper. The design was finished with cement. She and Mr. Liang finished it in the art classroom. Then they moved it onto Senior Island, where it remained outside, exposed to the elements for many years.

After TAS

Patty graduated from TAS in 1969 and left behind the island. She attended Seattle University for her undergraduate degree in business and Washington State University for her master's degree in marketing. She worked for AT&T in their consumer satisfaction study for the West Coast, from Alaska to Hawaii. After her mother passed unexpectedly in 1990, she became a full-time caretaker for her father, who moved to the US and passed away in 2005. Since then, Patty has made her home in the Seattle area. Since graduating in 1969, Patty only returned to Taiwan once, when her mother passed away. "I never really went back. After my dad sent me off to school, he said, don't come home willy-nilly just because you're homesick," Patty smiles. "Nowadays, people hop on a plane. At that time, airfare was expensive. Even long-distance calls were costly. So he said, you just have to buckle up and keep a stiff upper lip, so that was it. Once I left Taiwan, the first time I came back was nineteen years later. After that, I was never able to go back to TAS."

Decades later, she was surprised to hear from a classmate, Madeline Ma '69, that "The Thinker" was still at school. "A while ago, someone visited and took a picture for me. I was stunned that it has kept up so well through storms, typhoons, and the move to the new campus. It's nice to see that it is inside now. Some of my classmates return to Taiwan much more because they have relatives. Some have visited TAS and told me they saw it."

Patty is touched that "The Thinker" is still standing at TAS and remains part of the memories of alumni and current students. "It just astounds me that this particular statue I made, which was whimsical, to begin with, has lasted this long, and there are people Googling about it. People are still curious about who made it and how it came about. I'm very humbled by it."

Patty considers herself a product of TAS from kindergarten to senior year.

the school.”