Ma! Don’t Die on My Back

This is the story of Huang Chiu-mou. owner of the Fruit Garden of Conscience. Ah H Hsiung(played by Ko Chun-hsiung), A garbage collector and dumpling seller. and his wife Chiu Lien (Yang Hui- shan) were a happy couple. However, a trap set by Wu Shih-chuan(Ma Sha).an underworld mobster ster, forced them to part. Ah Hsiung was jailed and Chiu Lien waited patiently for his return. Wu still tried to force Chiu Lien to stay with him but Chiu Lien refused and went away. It never rains but pours. Unfortunately. Chiu Lien's house caught fire and she was burnt while saving her son, Shao Mou. Later on, Chiu pretended that she was only Shao's old maid. When Shao Mou went to school, he refused to let Chiu deliver his lunch box and umbrella to him at noon because his classmates would laugh at Chiu's face. A classmate Shao Hui liked Shao Mou very much. They played together happily during their childhood. After Ah Hsiung got out from the jail, he could not find Chiu because she had already moved. Therefore. he blamed himself for not having taken good care of his wife. One day, when Shao Mou went to steal fruits from a fruit garden. he was caught and beaten by the owner Shao Mou then swore that when he grew up. he would build a fruit garden where all children could eat wh-atever they liked. Chiu tried her best to raise Shao Mou. However, Shao Mou regarded himself an orphan. He rejected himself and fooled around everyday. He • took sacrfficial offerings from the temple. dumpling without paying for them. and fought with gangsters. A group of gangsters headed by Iron Wire hated Shao Mou very much and wanted to get rid of him. Therefore, they pretended to rob rod the dumpling seller. When Shao Mou came to help the seller and fight the gangsters. Iron Wire called the police to take Shao Mou to prison. Shao Mou found him-self following the same path as his father Ah Hsiung. Time flew quickly and old Chiu Lien knew that she would not live much longer. She thus entrusted Shao Hui (Chiang Ching- yen) to take the jade pendant. which had belonged to Ah Hsiung to find Shao Mou. Shao Mou had changed a lot in the prison. He had been taught by the prison director to be a useful and good person. He had also learned that the dumpling seller might be his father. When he left the prison. he first went to the dumpling seller's house. He discovered a green dragon tatoo on Ah Hsiung's chest when he took off his shirt. The father and son then recognised each other and cried. After Ah Hsiung asked Shao Mou how he had been raised. Shao soon relized that his old maid was actually his mother. Shao Mou was shocked and ran to Chiu's house to confess his un-filial acts to her. However. Chiu was too ill to recover. Shao Mou carried Chiu on his back to see Ah Hsiung. After learning all the facts and blaming himself. Ah Hsiung felt ashamed to see Shao Mou and his wife. He hanged himself. Chiu was close to dying on the back of Shao Mou. So he tried his best to keep on running. He cried out oul in his heart, "Ma! Don't die on my hack. Please don't die so soon. Time waits for no man and when Shao Mou knocked at Ah Hsiung's door. Ah Hsiung was already dead. Only remorse was left to fill the heart of Shao Mou. A Chinese proverb say, When the tree wants to stay in a quiet place. the wind blows. So too the son who wants to repay to his parents finds that his parents are too old to wait longer.