Tauno Kelder says Estonia’s silence enchants him

Tauno Kelder, who has lived in Taiwan for 30 years, told ERR’s Vikerraadio that he was the first Estonian student to receive a Taiwan University scholarship in 1996. He now has a Taiwanese wife and three children, but says visits to Estonia are rare because travelling with the family is complicated and expensive.

“I was the first Estonian student to receive a Taiwan University scholarship to study Chinese there,” Kelder said. He recalled that Taiwan’s representative office had recently been opened in Riga, while students from Lithuania and Latvia had already travelled to Taiwan a year earlier.

Kelder said his interest in Taiwan began when he was a child and heard a radio serial featuring constant fights between a kung fu practitioner and a karate fighter. During his secondary school years, an English teacher began giving Chinese breathing classes in the 1980s. Karate was banned at the time, while kung fu was in a grey area, he said, adding that the teacher later moved on to martial arts.

Kelder travelled to Taiwan in 1996. His scholarship covered tuition and living expenses, although the funding did not begin until the end of his second month. He borrowed money during his first months, despite receiving some US dollars from his brother.

The scholarship lasted two years. Kelder then returned to Estonia and taught Chinese, but later went back to Taiwan and stayed there. He said he was drawn to the culture, found the people friendly and did not mind the heat. He cycles to keep fit, even when temperatures peak at midday.

“The fear of China is in the back of your mind. The confrontation between China and Taiwan has lasted for decades, but people do not think about it; it has become part of the background. There is no panic, although exercises are held around Taiwan,” Kelder said.

Kelder and his wife have three children. He said travelling to Estonia with the family was a major undertaking. When they saw snow there two years ago, the children played in it “like puppies”. The family usually visits Estonia in summer.

Compared with Taiwan, which Kelder said is smaller than Estonia but has 23 million inhabitants, Estonia feels peaceful and quiet. Much of Taiwan is covered by mountains where construction is not possible, he said.

“When I come here, something shifts inside me. I have to get used to the silence and peace, and it is pleasant,” Kelder said. He has tried to speak Estonian with his children as much as possible. There are few Estonians in Taiwan, however, and he rarely gets to speak Estonian there.