Interesting Taiwan articles
Not Clear on the Concept?
I haven't had the time or the inclination to stop in at this new McDonald's near the intersection of Wenshin Rd and Nantun Rd. in Taichung, but the juxtaposition of the golden arches with the three letters is quickly piquing my curiosity.
McHot tubs ? French Fried Manicure? Big Macsage? Is this part of Mickey D's new healthy image? Do they have these in the States?
I mean is the idea that you can go in for your McFried stuff and then after lunch someone will unclog your pores or arteries? Anyone?
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Daily Links, July 24, 2008
A couple of days ago I went up to Sun Moon Lake with some friends....what are my friends talking about on the blogs?
Sponge Bear goes to Ta-ken and finds lots of storm-damaged trails.
J Michael at the Far Eastern Sweet Potato has a detailed write up of Paul Wolfowitz's talk in Taipei this week.
Taiwan matters! on the Ma intervew on CNN.
David On Formosa, soon leaving for Oz for a month, comments on the nutcase "patriot" who attacked Chen Shui-bian.
Fili blogs on a survey of international students at NCKU.
The big Ugly Brown Building in Tainan.
My Several Worlds goes to the Penghu.
Jerome on Taiwan's Black Hole and Chinese cultural imperialism.
Rank with the continuing series in great Taiwan bike rides: the Northern Cross island highway.
Kitesurfing in Taiwan.
Sean Reilly finds some funny stuff over at The Gentle Rant.
My friend and fellow NCKU student Olga, who is absolutely stunning, and her in-laws, went with me to the lake. Here she poses on Route 136 in Nantou. Despite her awesome good looks, it is almost impossible to get a good picture of her, but here I think I got close.
NEW BLOGS ON THE ROLL: Stocks and Politics, Hitech Taipei, Taiwanese Identity, Taipei Personality, Strait Talk, A Man in Tainan, Pangolin Scales, The Dutch Lady.
A landslide. Mud and trees had been hastily pushed off the road all along the road that winds around the lake.
MEDIA: Did we have a quake last night? I could have sworn....USGS says a small one, far away. Wolfowitz says Bush Administration will eventually OK arms deal. Taiwan's aviation consortium, AIDC, urges that upgrades to Taiwan's indigenous IDF fighter be carried out. Nursing homes becoming more popular here. Taiwanese factories have discovered Bangladesh. Don Isenberg has an excellent review of the whole Taiwan arms freeze mess at Asia Times. Taiwan's export orders finally fell for the first time since 2003. Ma save us! I'm so glad our economy took off after Ma's election. Radio Australia reports that -- Ma save us! -- the new Administration's popularity is plummeting as AFP reports our unemployment rate pushes 4%. Don't miss: Kanwa's Andrei Chang with a great piece (as always) on Taiwan's deteriorating defense situation.
Here you can see how a landslide gashed the forest and filled the road with mud. Road crews have moved the mud off to the side, pushing it over the concrete embankments. Clearly, if you want perpetual employment, road crew at Sun Moon Lake is a good choice.
Life on the lake went on. A farmer tends his flowers...
As the sun was setting, we left....
[Taiwan]
Sponge Bear goes to Ta-ken and finds lots of storm-damaged trails.
J Michael at the Far Eastern Sweet Potato has a detailed write up of Paul Wolfowitz's talk in Taipei this week.
Taiwan matters! on the Ma intervew on CNN.
David On Formosa, soon leaving for Oz for a month, comments on the nutcase "patriot" who attacked Chen Shui-bian.
Fili blogs on a survey of international students at NCKU.
The big Ugly Brown Building in Tainan.
My Several Worlds goes to the Penghu.
Jerome on Taiwan's Black Hole and Chinese cultural imperialism.
Rank with the continuing series in great Taiwan bike rides: the Northern Cross island highway.
Kitesurfing in Taiwan.
Sean Reilly finds some funny stuff over at The Gentle Rant.
My friend and fellow NCKU student Olga, who is absolutely stunning, and her in-laws, went with me to the lake. Here she poses on Route 136 in Nantou. Despite her awesome good looks, it is almost impossible to get a good picture of her, but here I think I got close.
NEW BLOGS ON THE ROLL: Stocks and Politics, Hitech Taipei, Taiwanese Identity, Taipei Personality, Strait Talk, A Man in Tainan, Pangolin Scales, The Dutch Lady.
A landslide. Mud and trees had been hastily pushed off the road all along the road that winds around the lake.
MEDIA: Did we have a quake last night? I could have sworn....USGS says a small one, far away. Wolfowitz says Bush Administration will eventually OK arms deal. Taiwan's aviation consortium, AIDC, urges that upgrades to Taiwan's indigenous IDF fighter be carried out. Nursing homes becoming more popular here. Taiwanese factories have discovered Bangladesh. Don Isenberg has an excellent review of the whole Taiwan arms freeze mess at Asia Times. Taiwan's export orders finally fell for the first time since 2003. Ma save us! I'm so glad our economy took off after Ma's election. Radio Australia reports that -- Ma save us! -- the new Administration's popularity is plummeting as AFP reports our unemployment rate pushes 4%. Don't miss: Kanwa's Andrei Chang with a great piece (as always) on Taiwan's deteriorating defense situation.
Here you can see how a landslide gashed the forest and filled the road with mud. Road crews have moved the mud off to the side, pushing it over the concrete embankments. Clearly, if you want perpetual employment, road crew at Sun Moon Lake is a good choice.
Life on the lake went on. A farmer tends his flowers...
As the sun was setting, we left....
[Taiwan]
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
In the aftermath of the storm
I went to the Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑 area this afternoon to do some walking and, unsurprisingly, found the area had been battered by last weekend's storm. There were several landslides along the No. 7 trail, like this one:
but they were all passable. The real damage was on the No. 8 trail. About halfway down from the top, a section of the wooden steps had been washed away by what appeared to be a large mudslide:
I was still able to cross at this point, but soon afterwards, the trail came to a sudden end, blocked by dirt and fallen trees. Retracing my steps, I took an alternate route and made it down to the end of the trail, only to soon find that the road beyond was completely impassable due to a series of large storm-caused earth movements. The view on the left is what forced me to turn around, and make my back to the No. 7 trail. The photo on the right was taken from the approach to the No. 8 trail (from the other side of the landslide), when I stopped to have a look on my way home:
Considering the fact the No. 1 trail is still officially closed almost a year because of storm damage (hikers still use it, however), it looks like it's going to be a long time before the No. 8 gets cleaned up.
Despite not being able to walk my intended route, I was able to see a lot of wildlife on the paths today. No doubt this was due to the relatively little human foot traffic, being a weekday afternoon on top of the damaged trails. The snake on the left was one of two I came across today. This one was long, and in the bushes off to the side of the trail - I wasn't able to get a very clear picture of it as it slithered away:
Speaking of calamities, it seems that some in the ruling Kuomintang (Guomindang) 中国国民党 are beginning to wake up to the fact that the administration of Mr. Ma (Ba Eikyū) 馬英九 has so far been a disaster for Taiwan ("Taiwan official bemoans bad Japan relations" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080723a5.html):
"A failure to maintain political ties and a lack of senior Japan-savvy Taiwanese envoys has caused 'fault cracks' and misunderstandings to emerge in bilateral relations, ruling Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (Go Hakuyū) 呉泊雄 said Tuesday. 'In these past few years, fault cracks in the Taiwan-Japan relationship have appeared, and because of neglect in maintaining contact . . . many misunderstandings have been generated,' Wu said...Referring to senior Nationalist Party diplomats with links to Japan, he said, 'Right now we lack this kind of talent.' Wu made the comments to a visiting delegation of Taiwanese living in Japan who...said Japanese officials had expressed concern to them over Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's attitude toward Tōkyō 東京. Wu received them at his party's headquarters in T'aipei (Taibei) 台北. His remarks are the strongest indication since Ma took office May 20 that Taipei's ties with Tōkyō are wobbling, despite what some pundits said were 'sugar-coated' assurances Monday by Ma that relations were on track."
The same Taiwanese delegation apparently received more "sugar-coated assurances" later on Tuesday from Wang Jin-pyng (Oū Kimpei) 王金平, Speaker of the Legislative Yuan 立法院, according to an article in today's Taipei Times ("Wang affirms Japan’s importance to Taiwan" http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/07/23/2003418289). As the story notes:
"...many in Japan are skeptical about Ma’s stance toward the country because he failed to mention Japan in his May 20 inaugural address and played an active role in Taiwan’s campaign in the 1970s to claim sovereignty over the disputed (Senkaku islands) 尖閣諸島."
Of course, Gregory Clark would probably find some reason to excuse Ma and the KMT, and put the blame for any problems squarely on the Japanese government. In his most recent column in the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ ("Birth of a massacre myth" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080721gc.html), however, Clark avoids Taiwan and focuses on finding excuses for the Chinese government over the Tiananmen Square Massacre 天安門大虐殺. While trying to make his case that there was no massacre in Tiananmen Square on the night of June 4, 1989, Clark grudgingly admits:
"True, much that happened elsewhere in Beijing that night was ugly. The regime had allowed prodemocracy student demonstrators to occupy its historic Tiananmen Square for almost three weeks, despite the harm and inconvenience caused. Twice, senior members of Deng Xiaoping's (Tō Shōhei) トウ小平 regime had tried unsuccessfully to negotiate compromises with the students. Unarmed troops sent in to clear the square had been turned back by angry crowds of Beijing civilians. When armed troops were finally sent in, they too met hostile crowds, but they kept advancing. Dozens of buses and troop-carrying vehicles were torched by the crowds, some with their crews trapped inside. In the panicky fighting afterward, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of civilians and students were killed. But that was a riot, not a deliberate massacre. And it did not happen in Tiananmen Square."
Oh, those poor soldiers, victims of the heartless students and civilians:
"Photos have helped sustain the Tiananmen massacre myth. One showing a solitary student halting a row of army tanks is supposed to demonstrate student bravery in the face of military evil. In fact, it shows that at least one military unit showed restraint in the face of student provocation...Photos of lines of burning troop carriers are also used, as if they prove military mayhem. In fact, they prove crowd mayhem."
Unless I'm reading this wrong, Clark is suggesting that the demonstrators in essence got what they deserved. And the well-meaning Chinese government is the victim of:
"U.S. and British black information authorities ever keen to plant anti-Beijing stories in unsuspecting media...Damage from the Tiananmen myth continues. It has been used repeatedly by Western hawks to sustain a ban on Western sales of arms to Beijing, including refusing even a request for riot-control equipment that Beijing says would have prevented the 1989 violence."
Clark is a product of the 1960's, so perhaps he's still suffering from the drug-induced paranoia so prevalent among many baby boomers ベビーブーマー. After all, JFK was killed as part of a massive government conspiracy to prevent him from revealing the truth about Roswell ロズウェル事件. Uh, wasn't he?
On a more positive note, it seems that ASUS is doing pretty well these days in Japan ("A cheap belt is tightened" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20080720t3.html):
"When ASUSTeK Computer アスーステックコンピューター of Taiwan introduced a bare-bones notebook PC for the rock-bottom price of ¥50,000 ($464 or NT14,110) in Japan in January, consumers snapped up the entire stock of 10,000 units in three days. Since then, the company has struggled to keep up with demand, moving a total of 70,000 units by the end of May. Meanwhile, domestic (Japanese) makers, whose portable PCs were all priced at ¥200,000 ($1860 or NT56,440) or higher, scrambled to follow the Taiwanese lead."
No black information here, just cheap computers.
but they were all passable. The real damage was on the No. 8 trail. About halfway down from the top, a section of the wooden steps had been washed away by what appeared to be a large mudslide:
I was still able to cross at this point, but soon afterwards, the trail came to a sudden end, blocked by dirt and fallen trees. Retracing my steps, I took an alternate route and made it down to the end of the trail, only to soon find that the road beyond was completely impassable due to a series of large storm-caused earth movements. The view on the left is what forced me to turn around, and make my back to the No. 7 trail. The photo on the right was taken from the approach to the No. 8 trail (from the other side of the landslide), when I stopped to have a look on my way home:
Considering the fact the No. 1 trail is still officially closed almost a year because of storm damage (hikers still use it, however), it looks like it's going to be a long time before the No. 8 gets cleaned up.
Despite not being able to walk my intended route, I was able to see a lot of wildlife on the paths today. No doubt this was due to the relatively little human foot traffic, being a weekday afternoon on top of the damaged trails. The snake on the left was one of two I came across today. This one was long, and in the bushes off to the side of the trail - I wasn't able to get a very clear picture of it as it slithered away:
Speaking of calamities, it seems that some in the ruling Kuomintang (Guomindang) 中国国民党 are beginning to wake up to the fact that the administration of Mr. Ma (Ba Eikyū) 馬英九 has so far been a disaster for Taiwan ("Taiwan official bemoans bad Japan relations" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080723a5.html):
"A failure to maintain political ties and a lack of senior Japan-savvy Taiwanese envoys has caused 'fault cracks' and misunderstandings to emerge in bilateral relations, ruling Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (Go Hakuyū) 呉泊雄 said Tuesday. 'In these past few years, fault cracks in the Taiwan-Japan relationship have appeared, and because of neglect in maintaining contact . . . many misunderstandings have been generated,' Wu said...Referring to senior Nationalist Party diplomats with links to Japan, he said, 'Right now we lack this kind of talent.' Wu made the comments to a visiting delegation of Taiwanese living in Japan who...said Japanese officials had expressed concern to them over Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's attitude toward Tōkyō 東京. Wu received them at his party's headquarters in T'aipei (Taibei) 台北. His remarks are the strongest indication since Ma took office May 20 that Taipei's ties with Tōkyō are wobbling, despite what some pundits said were 'sugar-coated' assurances Monday by Ma that relations were on track."
The same Taiwanese delegation apparently received more "sugar-coated assurances" later on Tuesday from Wang Jin-pyng (Oū Kimpei) 王金平, Speaker of the Legislative Yuan 立法院, according to an article in today's Taipei Times ("Wang affirms Japan’s importance to Taiwan" http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/07/23/2003418289). As the story notes:
"...many in Japan are skeptical about Ma’s stance toward the country because he failed to mention Japan in his May 20 inaugural address and played an active role in Taiwan’s campaign in the 1970s to claim sovereignty over the disputed (Senkaku islands) 尖閣諸島."
Of course, Gregory Clark would probably find some reason to excuse Ma and the KMT, and put the blame for any problems squarely on the Japanese government. In his most recent column in the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ ("Birth of a massacre myth" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080721gc.html), however, Clark avoids Taiwan and focuses on finding excuses for the Chinese government over the Tiananmen Square Massacre 天安門大虐殺. While trying to make his case that there was no massacre in Tiananmen Square on the night of June 4, 1989, Clark grudgingly admits:
"True, much that happened elsewhere in Beijing that night was ugly. The regime had allowed prodemocracy student demonstrators to occupy its historic Tiananmen Square for almost three weeks, despite the harm and inconvenience caused. Twice, senior members of Deng Xiaoping's (Tō Shōhei) トウ小平 regime had tried unsuccessfully to negotiate compromises with the students. Unarmed troops sent in to clear the square had been turned back by angry crowds of Beijing civilians. When armed troops were finally sent in, they too met hostile crowds, but they kept advancing. Dozens of buses and troop-carrying vehicles were torched by the crowds, some with their crews trapped inside. In the panicky fighting afterward, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of civilians and students were killed. But that was a riot, not a deliberate massacre. And it did not happen in Tiananmen Square."
Oh, those poor soldiers, victims of the heartless students and civilians:
"Photos have helped sustain the Tiananmen massacre myth. One showing a solitary student halting a row of army tanks is supposed to demonstrate student bravery in the face of military evil. In fact, it shows that at least one military unit showed restraint in the face of student provocation...Photos of lines of burning troop carriers are also used, as if they prove military mayhem. In fact, they prove crowd mayhem."
Unless I'm reading this wrong, Clark is suggesting that the demonstrators in essence got what they deserved. And the well-meaning Chinese government is the victim of:
"U.S. and British black information authorities ever keen to plant anti-Beijing stories in unsuspecting media...Damage from the Tiananmen myth continues. It has been used repeatedly by Western hawks to sustain a ban on Western sales of arms to Beijing, including refusing even a request for riot-control equipment that Beijing says would have prevented the 1989 violence."
Clark is a product of the 1960's, so perhaps he's still suffering from the drug-induced paranoia so prevalent among many baby boomers ベビーブーマー. After all, JFK was killed as part of a massive government conspiracy to prevent him from revealing the truth about Roswell ロズウェル事件. Uh, wasn't he?
On a more positive note, it seems that ASUS is doing pretty well these days in Japan ("A cheap belt is tightened" http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20080720t3.html):
"When ASUSTeK Computer アスーステックコンピューター of Taiwan introduced a bare-bones notebook PC for the rock-bottom price of ¥50,000 ($464 or NT14,110) in Japan in January, consumers snapped up the entire stock of 10,000 units in three days. Since then, the company has struggled to keep up with demand, moving a total of 70,000 units by the end of May. Meanwhile, domestic (Japanese) makers, whose portable PCs were all priced at ¥200,000 ($1860 or NT56,440) or higher, scrambled to follow the Taiwanese lead."
No black information here, just cheap computers.
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
A Thirty-minute Journey to Jade Emperor's House
“Can I bring my camera and take photos there?” I asked. “No, you can’t,” my mom replied firmly. “Why not? Why can’t I do that?” I tried to get an answer I might know but was unable to explain by word. “You just can’t. Behave yourself,” she looked serious. The conversation took place right before we left for Jade Emperor Temple today.
The guy was in 20s and wore white shirt and blue jeans. His hair was a bit long but clean and tidy. There was no way to tell he was a weird man by his appearance. But in fact he acted so strangely that I couldn’t help watching him and could not pay attention to my mom when she was telling me how to pray. The man crouched beside me with pieces of paper in the left hand and a pair of divining blocks in the other. He kept throwing the blocks onto the ground over and over again for thousands of times. Usually people ask “yes-no questions” to gods and then cast divining blocks on the floor to get an answer. It takes about five times or so. But the strange guy lowered his body closer to the ground and dropped and picked them up again and again. It seemed he couldn’t get an answer he wanted all the way. He wouldn’t stop until it showed “yes.” After praying on the main hall, I followed my mom up to the second floor. All the gods up there were unfamiliar to me except one. I call the one “God of Tests.” Most examinees and students place their admission papers for taking a test on the god’s worshiping table for good luck. I did encounter a young man holding his paper and incense prayed there. As soon as we finished bowing at all the gods, we returned to the hall. My mom took the paper money to the huge burner. (I guess the fire in the burner never goes out in the daytime.) When I was about to take off the rubber bands binding the paper, my mom said we didn’t have to do that and cast all the stuff into the hot burner. I uttered without thinking about it: “But it’s bad not to….” “It’s GOOD. It’s definitely GOOD. It’ll be GOOD all the way,” she interrupted me. When she said “GOOD,” she looked pretty upset as if I ruined everything GOOD. This is usually how my mindlessness works. I’d better shut up in temples or any rituals next time.
My mom has brought me to the temple worshiping Jade Emperor for three times. It was not so crowded today. After entering the gate, Mom asked me to burn the incense while she put the fruits on the worshiping table. When we got the knees down in front of all the statues, a man crouching next to me attracted my attention.
On our way home, all the taboos had me think about the situations. What if I take foreign friends to visit a Taiwanese temple? Would I stop them if they use a camera there? What would I do if they ask or say something which is not allowed? If Taiwanese violate the taboos, unfortunate things happen to the violators. What about foreign people? Do people from different cultures or those who believes in other religions survive?
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
David is on holiday. The shared items will not be updated until
David is on holiday. The shared items will not be updated until after 20 August 2008. To keep up with the Taiwan blogosphere have a look at Taiwanderful's Taiwan blog directory. It also has an RSS feed.
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
CNN interviews Mr. Ma Ying-jeou
How 'bout if we just call you "Mr. Pony"?
Over the past weekend, CNN's Anjali Rao interviewed Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on the program TalkAsia.
CNN got it halfway right and called Ma "Taiwanese president" (he's "Taiwan's" president, but he's not "Taiwanese") in the interview and in on-screen descriptions, but their web page messed up his job description supremely:
A ministerial mess-up from a "premier" news source
(Click to enlarge)
The text version of the line highlighted in the image above says [emphasis added]:· Taiwan's premier, Ma Ying-jeou, elected by biggest margin in historyCan't make up their minds
Check out the other inaccurate description below the video on that page [emphasis added]:CNN's Anjali Rao talks with popular new Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou about [...]Whoa, horsie! Numbers in the 30s -- Ma's numbers in just the second month of his presidency -- were called "low approval ratings" by CNN when applied to George W. Bush in the sixth year of his term in office.
What say you, readers, about a 30-ish percent popularity rating? Hot or not?
UPDATE: That sentence about Ma being "popular" disappeared from the CNN page between the time I wrote this post and the time I published it. [/UPDATE]
Watch it!
See the video of the interview (in pieces) here.
We've seen some unusual things in just this brief look. Watch carefully for more fawning by Rao and for the outright lies you'll find within -- even though there may be a glimpse of truth to be seen if you don't blink.
Some screenshots from the end of the interview
Maybe it was there for "balance"
I only caught the tail end of the program on Sunday night, but if you've been keeping up, you wouldn't be surprised to know that the program described above was followed immediately by a promo for another CNN special: Sights & Sounds of Beijing. Could it be a subtle attempt to confuse viewers about which country's president they were just watching an interview of? Y'think?
Perhaps I'll have a more detailed post on the interview content later, but I can't promise anything.
(Im)mutable monikers: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, media, 媒體, CNN, TalkAsia, Anjali Rao
Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!
Over the past weekend, CNN's Anjali Rao interviewed Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on the program TalkAsia.
CNN got it halfway right and called Ma "Taiwanese president" (he's "Taiwan's" president, but he's not "Taiwanese") in the interview and in on-screen descriptions, but their web page messed up his job description supremely:
A ministerial mess-up from a "premier" news source
(Click to enlarge)
The text version of the line highlighted in the image above says [emphasis added]:· Taiwan's premier, Ma Ying-jeou, elected by biggest margin in historyCan't make up their minds
Check out the other inaccurate description below the video on that page [emphasis added]:CNN's Anjali Rao talks with popular new Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou about [...]Whoa, horsie! Numbers in the 30s -- Ma's numbers in just the second month of his presidency -- were called "low approval ratings" by CNN when applied to George W. Bush in the sixth year of his term in office.
What say you, readers, about a 30-ish percent popularity rating? Hot or not?
UPDATE: That sentence about Ma being "popular" disappeared from the CNN page between the time I wrote this post and the time I published it. [/UPDATE]
Watch it!
See the video of the interview (in pieces) here.
We've seen some unusual things in just this brief look. Watch carefully for more fawning by Rao and for the outright lies you'll find within -- even though there may be a glimpse of truth to be seen if you don't blink.
Some screenshots from the end of the interview
Maybe it was there for "balance"
I only caught the tail end of the program on Sunday night, but if you've been keeping up, you wouldn't be surprised to know that the program described above was followed immediately by a promo for another CNN special: Sights & Sounds of Beijing. Could it be a subtle attempt to confuse viewers about which country's president they were just watching an interview of? Y'think?
Perhaps I'll have a more detailed post on the interview content later, but I can't promise anything.
(Im)mutable monikers: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, media, 媒體, CNN, TalkAsia, Anjali Rao
Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Manthorpe on Ma, Washington, and Tokyo
Veteran Canadian journalist Jonathan Manthorpe has an in-depth look at what a Ma presidency means to Tokyo and Washington in the Vancouver Sun:
An unforeseen effect of the coming to power in Taiwan in May of president Ma Ying-jeou and the Kuomintang (KMT) party is an apparent loosening of relations with Japan and the United States, traditionally the two guarantors of the island's independence.
Ma's victory in the March presidential election following the KMT's gaining of control of the parliament, the Legislative Yuan, in January elections has been broadly welcomed, especially in Washington.
The campaign pledge by Ma to improve relations with China, which claims to own the island, was seen as welcome relief after nearly a decade of tension during the presidency of the arch Taiwanese nationalist Chen Shui-bian.
An "unforeseen" effect of a Ma presidency was moving closer to China and distancing itself from Tokyo and Beijing? Lots of people spotted that one! Including this blogger, on many occasions.
Manthorpe's article is a good review with plenty of background -- often lacking in the international media. The meat of the piece says:
But although Ma pledged not to seek political unification between Taiwan and China, there are indications the pro-China stance of his administration is going further than his campaign promises indicated.
Most startling was a comment earlier this month by KMT vice-chairman Kuan Chung during a visit to China that Taiwan's unification with China remains the party's goal.
The flip side of this cozying up to Beijing is the new Taipei government distancing itself from its traditional allies, especially Japan.
This came to the fore last month when a Taiwanese fishing boat sank after an accidental collision with a Japanese coast guard cutter off the Japanese-held Senkakou Islands, which the Taiwanese call the Tiaoyutai.
Taiwan claims to own the islands, but successive governments in Tokyo and Taipei have not allowed the dispute to get out of hand or taint economic and political relations.
Ma, however, took the belligerent course of dispatching nine Taiwanese naval vessels to the waters around the Tiaoyutai.
The last section talks about the arms freeze:
A dramatic contrast to Washington's initial welcoming of Ma's election is the Bush administration's decision to freeze arms sales to Taiwan.
This decision is especially odd because for eight years the Bush administration has been urging Taipei to take more responsibility for its own defence and to buy $16 billion-worth of American arms, including anti-missile systems, warplanes and submarines.
Former president Chen's administration wanted to take up the offer, but was constantly blocked from doing so by the KMT control of parliament.
Now in power, Ma wants the package, but the Bush administration is saying no.
This may in part be a gesture of thanks to Beijing for its help in pressing North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
But there are also influential elements in Washington's military establishment that mistrust China's military modernization and who fear selling arms to Taiwan these days is tantamount to giving Beijing American military secrets.
It is often said that China would have US military secrets if they got their hands on US equipment from Taiwan, but I have also heard experts say the threat is overblown. It reads to me like more rationalization for the Bush Administration's positions.
No, I expect that Washington will send out some feelers that it is displeased, and Ma will make a move to placate Washington. Temporary happiness will bloom inside the Beltway, and meanwhile the KMT will continue to move the island towards China.
[Taiwan]
An unforeseen effect of the coming to power in Taiwan in May of president Ma Ying-jeou and the Kuomintang (KMT) party is an apparent loosening of relations with Japan and the United States, traditionally the two guarantors of the island's independence.
Ma's victory in the March presidential election following the KMT's gaining of control of the parliament, the Legislative Yuan, in January elections has been broadly welcomed, especially in Washington.
The campaign pledge by Ma to improve relations with China, which claims to own the island, was seen as welcome relief after nearly a decade of tension during the presidency of the arch Taiwanese nationalist Chen Shui-bian.
An "unforeseen" effect of a Ma presidency was moving closer to China and distancing itself from Tokyo and Beijing? Lots of people spotted that one! Including this blogger, on many occasions.
Manthorpe's article is a good review with plenty of background -- often lacking in the international media. The meat of the piece says:
But although Ma pledged not to seek political unification between Taiwan and China, there are indications the pro-China stance of his administration is going further than his campaign promises indicated.
Most startling was a comment earlier this month by KMT vice-chairman Kuan Chung during a visit to China that Taiwan's unification with China remains the party's goal.
The flip side of this cozying up to Beijing is the new Taipei government distancing itself from its traditional allies, especially Japan.
This came to the fore last month when a Taiwanese fishing boat sank after an accidental collision with a Japanese coast guard cutter off the Japanese-held Senkakou Islands, which the Taiwanese call the Tiaoyutai.
Taiwan claims to own the islands, but successive governments in Tokyo and Taipei have not allowed the dispute to get out of hand or taint economic and political relations.
Ma, however, took the belligerent course of dispatching nine Taiwanese naval vessels to the waters around the Tiaoyutai.
The last section talks about the arms freeze:
A dramatic contrast to Washington's initial welcoming of Ma's election is the Bush administration's decision to freeze arms sales to Taiwan.
This decision is especially odd because for eight years the Bush administration has been urging Taipei to take more responsibility for its own defence and to buy $16 billion-worth of American arms, including anti-missile systems, warplanes and submarines.
Former president Chen's administration wanted to take up the offer, but was constantly blocked from doing so by the KMT control of parliament.
Now in power, Ma wants the package, but the Bush administration is saying no.
This may in part be a gesture of thanks to Beijing for its help in pressing North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
But there are also influential elements in Washington's military establishment that mistrust China's military modernization and who fear selling arms to Taiwan these days is tantamount to giving Beijing American military secrets.
It is often said that China would have US military secrets if they got their hands on US equipment from Taiwan, but I have also heard experts say the threat is overblown. It reads to me like more rationalization for the Bush Administration's positions.
No, I expect that Washington will send out some feelers that it is displeased, and Ma will make a move to placate Washington. Temporary happiness will bloom inside the Beltway, and meanwhile the KMT will continue to move the island towards China.
[Taiwan]
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Do you think you're better off alone?
In case anyone was wondering about Ma Ying-jeou's likely education policy, don't forget this:
Thursday, Apr 13, 2006, Page 3
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wants to cut back on English and Taiwanese classes to add more Mandarin classes to the curriculum in Taipei elementary schools, according to local media reports.
According to local newspapers, Ma has requested that the Taipei City Department
of Education boost the number of weekly hours of elementary Mandarin to between
seven and eight. This will result in the scrapping of one English class per week
in Taipei's elementary schools. In response to Ma's request to also cut
Taiwanese classes to make room for additional Mandarin classes, Taipei City
Department of Education Commissioner Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said that Taiwanese
classes have already been cut back to one per week, and could not be reduced
further, the China Times reported.
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Survey Data (4)
Some more raw data from our "attitudes and perceptions" survey part [current number of surveys: Taipei (389), Taichung (195), Tainan and Kaohsiung (426 combined) - results converted into percentages from five-point Likert scale - written questionnaire offered in Chinese to equal cross-sections of respondents aged 16 to 70].
1. Children with Taiwanese as first language must attend Kindergartens where teachers use Taiwanese, not Mandarin.
Agree: 13.6 Disagree: 60.5 No opinion: 25.9
2. Children with Taiwanese as first language must attend Kindergartens where teachers use Mandarin and English, not Taiwanese.
Agree: 43.4 Disagree: 24.2 No opinion: 32.4
3. Primary schools should teach in Taiwanese and Mandarin. Agree: 5.7 Disagree: 72.9 No opinion: 21.4
4. Primary schools should teach in Mandarin and English. Agree: 45.6 Disagree: 25.1 No opinion: 29.3
5. Primary schools should teach in Taiwanese, Mandarin, and English. Agree: 74.6 Disagree: 6.2 No opinion: 19.2
6. Primary school pupils with Taiwanese as first language will learn faster and better if teachers use Taiwanese to explain all courses. Agree: 44.7 Disagree: 28.9 No opinion: 26.4
7. Primary school pupils with Taiwanese as first language will learn faster and better if teachers use Mandarin to explain all courses. Agree: 36.7 Disagree: 25.1 No opinion: 38.2
8. I agree with the current situation in most primary schools: one weekly lesson in Taiwanese for Taiwanese first-language pupils is sufficient. Agree: 53.2 Disagree: 17.3 No opinion: 29.3
9. The Taiwanese language is doing fine; it is not threatened by other languages. Agree: 30 Disagree: 39.7 No opinion: 30.3
10. My parents speak/spoke better Taiwanese than I do. Agree: 77.4 Disagree: 9.2* No opinion: 13.6* mainly in 50 to 70 age-group
1. Children with Taiwanese as first language must attend Kindergartens where teachers use Taiwanese, not Mandarin.
Agree: 13.6 Disagree: 60.5 No opinion: 25.9
2. Children with Taiwanese as first language must attend Kindergartens where teachers use Mandarin and English, not Taiwanese.
Agree: 43.4 Disagree: 24.2 No opinion: 32.4
3. Primary schools should teach in Taiwanese and Mandarin. Agree: 5.7 Disagree: 72.9 No opinion: 21.4
4. Primary schools should teach in Mandarin and English. Agree: 45.6 Disagree: 25.1 No opinion: 29.3
5. Primary schools should teach in Taiwanese, Mandarin, and English. Agree: 74.6 Disagree: 6.2 No opinion: 19.2
6. Primary school pupils with Taiwanese as first language will learn faster and better if teachers use Taiwanese to explain all courses. Agree: 44.7 Disagree: 28.9 No opinion: 26.4
7. Primary school pupils with Taiwanese as first language will learn faster and better if teachers use Mandarin to explain all courses. Agree: 36.7 Disagree: 25.1 No opinion: 38.2
8. I agree with the current situation in most primary schools: one weekly lesson in Taiwanese for Taiwanese first-language pupils is sufficient. Agree: 53.2 Disagree: 17.3 No opinion: 29.3
9. The Taiwanese language is doing fine; it is not threatened by other languages. Agree: 30 Disagree: 39.7 No opinion: 30.3
10. My parents speak/spoke better Taiwanese than I do. Agree: 77.4 Disagree: 9.2* No opinion: 13.6* mainly in 50 to 70 age-group
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Studying Spanish to learn Chinese
I had never attended anything longer than a news conference as a lone foreigner among Taiwanese or Chinese, with all of us on the same level looking for the same results. That was until March, when I took a four-month refresher Spanish course one night per week in Taipei. I was the only white guy among 20 students.
The teacher singled me out at least once per two-hour class due to my race and relative newness to Chinese, the official source language of our instruction. He'd ask me whether I followed his Chinese-language cliches and once asked how mainland Chinese would say a particular word that Taiwanese say differently. So I became the only student who ever got a chance to speak in class, in any language, without raising a hand. This treatment was expected: Teachers usually single out someone, leaving everyone else quiet. A broader Spanish-language dialogue wouldn't work at our class's level, the maestro said when I asked him about it once after class.
The teacher, a man of about 60 who had lived in Argentina, focused every lesson on grammar and sentence patterns as if Spanish were a science. Also not uncommon in the Taiwan classroom, I'm told. So when the first-time, non-refresher students go to Latin America, they'll be able to read simple stuff but push no more than a word or two out of their mouths. It's a typical China-Taiwan approach to language instruction.
To rub that in, the maestro gave us all Spanish names so we'd feel like native speakers. But as English-speaking foreigners know in Taiwan or China, just because a local goes by Michael doesn't mean he can speak a Michael-like language. Same goes for a local guy named Miguel. Assigning feel-good names in foreign-language classes is simply another common practice.
But some of us kids, ages 20 through more than 70, were onto these education system defects. They wanted their US$27 worth. One student told me she was taking the course just to "avoid getting stupid". Another said she revered the teacher for his unflinchingly systematic grammar lessons. Others raised their hands to seek details or clarifications where the science failed.
A final first for me: Despite teaching for more than four years in China and knowing students personally, only in Spanish class did I plug into to the quiet but ever-present scuttlebutt that the maestro wasn't supposed to know about. Flirty glances shot around the room. Jokes were told. E-mail networks were formed. Complaints about the instruction were expressed.
In addition, I failed to graduate. I didn’t bring in a certificate-sized photo, so I didn’t get a certificate. If I really wanted to work the system, I could probably pay someone off to get it anyway.
The teacher singled me out at least once per two-hour class due to my race and relative newness to Chinese, the official source language of our instruction. He'd ask me whether I followed his Chinese-language cliches and once asked how mainland Chinese would say a particular word that Taiwanese say differently. So I became the only student who ever got a chance to speak in class, in any language, without raising a hand. This treatment was expected: Teachers usually single out someone, leaving everyone else quiet. A broader Spanish-language dialogue wouldn't work at our class's level, the maestro said when I asked him about it once after class.
The teacher, a man of about 60 who had lived in Argentina, focused every lesson on grammar and sentence patterns as if Spanish were a science. Also not uncommon in the Taiwan classroom, I'm told. So when the first-time, non-refresher students go to Latin America, they'll be able to read simple stuff but push no more than a word or two out of their mouths. It's a typical China-Taiwan approach to language instruction.
To rub that in, the maestro gave us all Spanish names so we'd feel like native speakers. But as English-speaking foreigners know in Taiwan or China, just because a local goes by Michael doesn't mean he can speak a Michael-like language. Same goes for a local guy named Miguel. Assigning feel-good names in foreign-language classes is simply another common practice.
But some of us kids, ages 20 through more than 70, were onto these education system defects. They wanted their US$27 worth. One student told me she was taking the course just to "avoid getting stupid". Another said she revered the teacher for his unflinchingly systematic grammar lessons. Others raised their hands to seek details or clarifications where the science failed.
A final first for me: Despite teaching for more than four years in China and knowing students personally, only in Spanish class did I plug into to the quiet but ever-present scuttlebutt that the maestro wasn't supposed to know about. Flirty glances shot around the room. Jokes were told. E-mail networks were formed. Complaints about the instruction were expressed.
In addition, I failed to graduate. I didn’t bring in a certificate-sized photo, so I didn’t get a certificate. If I really wanted to work the system, I could probably pay someone off to get it anyway.
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
"A Borrowed Voice" Book launch Thursday
Press Conference and Book Launch
24 July 2008 (Thurs) 2:30 PM
Room 5117, Soochow Univ. Downtown Campus
No. 56 GuiYang Street Section 1, Taipei (near MRT XiMen Sta.)
貴陽街一段56號 東吳大學城中校區 5117會議室
Newly Published Book Gives Inside View of International Support Network for Human Rights in Taiwan during Martial Law Era
A Borrow Voice - cover
In the late 1960s, Li Ao 李敖, Peng Ming-min 彭明敏, and Roger Hsieh 謝聰敏 made the acquaintance of several foreign friends that had long-reaching international implications: Martin Ennals, Milo Thornberry 唐培禮, Robert Ricketts, Miyake Kiyoko 三宅清子 and Lynn Miles 梅心怡.
Visiting Taiwan twice in 1969-70, Amnesty International General-Secretary Ennals asked Li and Hsieh to help secret ROC political prisoner information to AI. Thornberry, Ricketts and Miles, all Americans, were deported from Taiwan in 1971 for acting to facilitate the plan, and for helping Peng to escape to Sweden the year before. A network was set up to run information to AI and other concerned groups abroad, with Miyake remaining in Taiwan as the main liaison with the political prisoners’ families. She escaped detection until 1976.
Presenting this and other details of the inner workings of an international information and rescue network spanning the globe is A Borrowed Voice: Taiwan Human Rights through International Networks. The 479-page compendium of personal accounts and documents was edited by two of the principals, Miles and Linda Gail Arrigo 艾琳達. Arrigo became involved in 1977, when she arrived to do field research for her thesis on women factory workers.
First-hand accounts by nearly forty participants tell what it was like to run great risks to expose how under martial law people were being routinely disappeared, tortured, executed, and driven insane from long years in prison. The story begins with the outwardly quiescent 1950s, when the martial law regime was able to pass itself off before the international community as free and democratic, and continues to 1980, when the Kaohsiung Incident forced the Taiwan Garrison Command and the Government Information Office to open its scourt proceedings to an indignant world audience.
Explaining the book’s title, the editors write this is “a story of borders challenged, crossed and erased. The boundaries to be broken were not limited to those defining the nation-state, but included the divisions of race, language, culture, and ideology…. [W]e lent our ease of passage and our voices to those who had neither. We provided a ‘borrowed voice’ that we could only hope would speak out against the tortured silence.” Transcending ideology meant joining together with pro-independence activists like Chen Chu 陳菊 and unificationists like Chen Ku-ying 陳鼓應.
Li, Hsieh, Shih Ming-teh 施明德 have been invited to the press conference, which will be moderated by Prof. Mab Huang 黃默, director of the Chang Fo-Chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights, Soochow University 東吳大學張佛泉人權研究中心主任.
Location & map DM Chapter summaries
Contact:
廖紫妃 0933-060003
Linda Gail Arrigo 艾琳達 0928-899931
Lynn Miles 梅心怡 0939-18882
[Taiwan]
24 July 2008 (Thurs) 2:30 PM
Room 5117, Soochow Univ. Downtown Campus
No. 56 GuiYang Street Section 1, Taipei (near MRT XiMen Sta.)
貴陽街一段56號 東吳大學城中校區 5117會議室
Newly Published Book Gives Inside View of International Support Network for Human Rights in Taiwan during Martial Law Era
A Borrow Voice - cover
In the late 1960s, Li Ao 李敖, Peng Ming-min 彭明敏, and Roger Hsieh 謝聰敏 made the acquaintance of several foreign friends that had long-reaching international implications: Martin Ennals, Milo Thornberry 唐培禮, Robert Ricketts, Miyake Kiyoko 三宅清子 and Lynn Miles 梅心怡.
Visiting Taiwan twice in 1969-70, Amnesty International General-Secretary Ennals asked Li and Hsieh to help secret ROC political prisoner information to AI. Thornberry, Ricketts and Miles, all Americans, were deported from Taiwan in 1971 for acting to facilitate the plan, and for helping Peng to escape to Sweden the year before. A network was set up to run information to AI and other concerned groups abroad, with Miyake remaining in Taiwan as the main liaison with the political prisoners’ families. She escaped detection until 1976.
Presenting this and other details of the inner workings of an international information and rescue network spanning the globe is A Borrowed Voice: Taiwan Human Rights through International Networks. The 479-page compendium of personal accounts and documents was edited by two of the principals, Miles and Linda Gail Arrigo 艾琳達. Arrigo became involved in 1977, when she arrived to do field research for her thesis on women factory workers.
First-hand accounts by nearly forty participants tell what it was like to run great risks to expose how under martial law people were being routinely disappeared, tortured, executed, and driven insane from long years in prison. The story begins with the outwardly quiescent 1950s, when the martial law regime was able to pass itself off before the international community as free and democratic, and continues to 1980, when the Kaohsiung Incident forced the Taiwan Garrison Command and the Government Information Office to open its scourt proceedings to an indignant world audience.
Explaining the book’s title, the editors write this is “a story of borders challenged, crossed and erased. The boundaries to be broken were not limited to those defining the nation-state, but included the divisions of race, language, culture, and ideology…. [W]e lent our ease of passage and our voices to those who had neither. We provided a ‘borrowed voice’ that we could only hope would speak out against the tortured silence.” Transcending ideology meant joining together with pro-independence activists like Chen Chu 陳菊 and unificationists like Chen Ku-ying 陳鼓應.
Li, Hsieh, Shih Ming-teh 施明德 have been invited to the press conference, which will be moderated by Prof. Mab Huang 黃默, director of the Chang Fo-Chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights, Soochow University 東吳大學張佛泉人權研究中心主任.
Location & map DM Chapter summaries
Contact:
廖紫妃 0933-060003
Linda Gail Arrigo 艾琳達 0928-899931
Lynn Miles 梅心怡 0939-18882
[Taiwan]
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Ma on CNN
A Ma fan in a local office.
Ma Ying-jeou was on CNN's Talk Asia the other day. PART 1, PART 2. The CNN text is a priceless mishmash of KMT talking points and erroneous information that is insulting to both Ma and its readers. Here is the header....
....which refers to "premier" Ma. In the text, after a short intro, come the KMT talking points:
With the backdrop of economic depression Ma's calls to reinvigorate the economy by freer trade and improved relations with China proved stronger than the fears that those ties could lead to a loss in independence.
In case you didn't notice, 5.7% growth last year and 6% growth in the first half of this year is "economic depression." And people wonder why Americans don't know anything about the outside world.
Of course, you know what follows on the heels of that nonsense: The Claim That Won't Die:
Born in Hong Kong in 1950, Ma studied at Harvard Law School and worked as a lawyer in New York in 1981 before returning Taiwan.
Was Ma a lawyer in NY? AFAIK he never passed the Bar there.
And then there is tourism...
Ma's administration hopes that Chinese tourists from the mainland will boost the sluggish tourism industry and talks are already underway to increase the number of weekly flights."Sluggish tourism industry?" Weren't the last three years all record breakers?
*sigh*
[Taiwan]
Ma Ying-jeou was on CNN's Talk Asia the other day. PART 1, PART 2. The CNN text is a priceless mishmash of KMT talking points and erroneous information that is insulting to both Ma and its readers. Here is the header....
....which refers to "premier" Ma. In the text, after a short intro, come the KMT talking points:
With the backdrop of economic depression Ma's calls to reinvigorate the economy by freer trade and improved relations with China proved stronger than the fears that those ties could lead to a loss in independence.
In case you didn't notice, 5.7% growth last year and 6% growth in the first half of this year is "economic depression." And people wonder why Americans don't know anything about the outside world.
Of course, you know what follows on the heels of that nonsense: The Claim That Won't Die:
Born in Hong Kong in 1950, Ma studied at Harvard Law School and worked as a lawyer in New York in 1981 before returning Taiwan.
Was Ma a lawyer in NY? AFAIK he never passed the Bar there.
And then there is tourism...
Ma's administration hopes that Chinese tourists from the mainland will boost the sluggish tourism industry and talks are already underway to increase the number of weekly flights."Sluggish tourism industry?" Weren't the last three years all record breakers?
*sigh*
[Taiwan]
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Baolai, in the mountains
On Saturday the fifth of July, a small band of intrepid adventurers set out on three motor scooters intending to travel from Tainan, the old capital of Taiwan, to Baolai in the lap of the mountains. Armed only with money, changes of clothes, some food provisions, maps, pre-booked tickets for the white-water rafting, pre-arranged accommodation, experience of having made the trip before, and a devil-may-care attitude towards the very real possibility of long-distance-travel-induced-sore-bottom-syndrome, these comrades in helmets mounted their 250cc steeds and headed out from their home base in search of that mythical land the Lonely Planet calls....
PAOLAI (photo shown above may not resemble Paolai)
Our posse, ready to rock outside Erin and Dave's apartment in Tainan. I was so pumped that immediately after this shot was taken I bit the head off a chicken. Note the tent attached to the back of the scooter that I shared with Andrea; it would not be used due to weather-related factors that I will discuss later.
Tea is the drink of choice in Taiwan and there are hundreds of variations, but probably fewer available from any one vendor. There's red (black) tea, green tea, barley tea, Oolong tea, other things I don't know the name of, and all of these are available with sugar or without, with milk or without, with tapioca balls or without, with gelatin chunks or without, with lemon juice or without, with grapefruit juice or without, and in combinations of all these and many more ingredients. Taiwan is truly home to a culture of tea and it grows on you. These days, a bit of travel soon induces in me an appentence for a large, cold, green tea of some sort. This photo looks too good to be natural but it was. It has only just occurred to me that we are wearing the four foundation colours blue, red, yellow, and green.
.....................................................................................
Baolai (sometimes Paolai). Population: 600. Location: southern central Taiwan. Claims to fame: western "gateway" to the south cross-island highway; hot springs; whitewater rafting.
We did go whitewater rafting but I couldn't take any photos as I had to leave my camera behind. I borrowed the photo above from Kaohsiung County website. We couldn't take our personal belongings on the rafts because you do get very wet and occasionally a raft will capsize. There were between twenty and thirty rafts each carrying between 6-10 people; that's a lot of rafters. After we were given the initial go-ahead, everyone took off in their raft and went crazy, splashing each other and racing down the river. However, it soon became apparent to me that there was real potential for danger in this activity. One of our crew-members fell overboard and was almost dragged under the raft. We saw others fall into the river. There were many stops along the way which became quite discomforting after a while. Being intermittently wet and dry and exposed to the wind caused a loss of body heat and after an hour or so I wasn't the only one feeling a bit cold and trying not to shiver. There were several other rafts fitted with outboard engines, each of these rafts being manned by two guys working for the rafting-tour company. These guys would basically do whatever they had to to prevent any serious injuries to their customers or to their rafts. This usually involved them ramming their raft into yours to knock you to where you should be and away from the more dangerous parts of the river. Nevertheless there were injuries and we saw the occasion customer being helped out of the river or being guided away from the river by rafting-tour employees. Overall the white-water rafting was an interesting and certainly exciting experience although I think the single best change that could be made to enhance the experience would be to remove all the other rafts and people and let us have the river to ourselves.
By the time we reached the end of the river-rafting ramble some of us were quite cold and hungry. The sky was quite overcast and the wind had picked up. We had 5 minutes to go to the bathroom before we needed to clamber on to buses which took us back to the rafting HQ in town. From there most of us headed down the road to the 7-11 where we got some hot, instant noodles and hot chocolate. By this time the heavens had opened and the sky was manumitting the lakes in the sky, most of which opted to fall straight to earth.
That night a barbecue ensued from which only a scant few vegetable kebabs, barbecued chicken wings, or barbecued bamboo (surprisingly good) escaped uneaten. From left: Jannie, Willy, John, me, and two of the people renting the room next door, returning to their den with bowls of instant noodles.
Scene 1: dogs belonging to friends at barbecue sleep in bed in room we rented.
Scene 2: I sleep in bed in room we rented. I have to admit that I was the first to go to bed and to sleep. Driving an unfamiliar scooter for hours on unfamiliar roads definitely contributed to my impuissance.
On Sunday we arose and found ourselves, not surprisingly, where we had been the night before. We proceeded to avail ourselves of one of the natural wonders of the Baolai area - the natural hot springs. Besides a couple of pools of different temperatures the "spa" is fitted out with some shower heads which deliver high-pressure jets of water. It's really good to be able to move your back (or head or other body part if you wish) around under the jet and use it to massage yourself. However, if you were to direct the high-powered jet of water to the wrong place you could possibly do some damage, for example, blowing your eardrum out. Not that anyone would be silly enough to do that. Surely.
After the invigorating hot spa DIY massage we went for a short walk into town. On the way we discovered where dragon fruit come from. We saw this plant and others like it bearing the odd fruit. I was surprised. The plant itself looks like a kind of cactus. Perhaps it is.
And then it rained some more. And more. And when the time to leave came, it was still raining. However, while rain-jackets were on our side, time was not and so we prepared ourselves as best we could and mounted our wet, motorised steeds and began the long journey home. This photo was taken as we stood in the rain-shadow of the arch in front of the main entrance of the resort and as we stood there we sought to master our collective resolve to start what was going to be a very wet and uncomfortable ride home.
Not only did it continue to rain: it stormed and thundered. In places along the road down from the mountain, small streams of water ran across the road. At one point the storm raged close by and the rain became torrential, forcing us to stop for a while at the local market in a small town on the highway. The amount of water pooling everywhere was impressive and John and I caved in the audience demand for some kind of rain dance, the rather unimpressive result of which you can see in this movie.
I was hugely relieved when we finally managed to get off the mountain and onto some more even countryside. And as the kilometres passed us by and the sun slowly ran its course across the grey and unhappy sky we drew slowly closer to Tainan where we would return to our always temporary lives and jobs, to our comfortably familiar, familiarly mundane day-to-day normality.
PAOLAI (photo shown above may not resemble Paolai)
Our posse, ready to rock outside Erin and Dave's apartment in Tainan. I was so pumped that immediately after this shot was taken I bit the head off a chicken. Note the tent attached to the back of the scooter that I shared with Andrea; it would not be used due to weather-related factors that I will discuss later.
Tea is the drink of choice in Taiwan and there are hundreds of variations, but probably fewer available from any one vendor. There's red (black) tea, green tea, barley tea, Oolong tea, other things I don't know the name of, and all of these are available with sugar or without, with milk or without, with tapioca balls or without, with gelatin chunks or without, with lemon juice or without, with grapefruit juice or without, and in combinations of all these and many more ingredients. Taiwan is truly home to a culture of tea and it grows on you. These days, a bit of travel soon induces in me an appentence for a large, cold, green tea of some sort. This photo looks too good to be natural but it was. It has only just occurred to me that we are wearing the four foundation colours blue, red, yellow, and green.
.....................................................................................
Baolai (sometimes Paolai). Population: 600. Location: southern central Taiwan. Claims to fame: western "gateway" to the south cross-island highway; hot springs; whitewater rafting.
We did go whitewater rafting but I couldn't take any photos as I had to leave my camera behind. I borrowed the photo above from Kaohsiung County website. We couldn't take our personal belongings on the rafts because you do get very wet and occasionally a raft will capsize. There were between twenty and thirty rafts each carrying between 6-10 people; that's a lot of rafters. After we were given the initial go-ahead, everyone took off in their raft and went crazy, splashing each other and racing down the river. However, it soon became apparent to me that there was real potential for danger in this activity. One of our crew-members fell overboard and was almost dragged under the raft. We saw others fall into the river. There were many stops along the way which became quite discomforting after a while. Being intermittently wet and dry and exposed to the wind caused a loss of body heat and after an hour or so I wasn't the only one feeling a bit cold and trying not to shiver. There were several other rafts fitted with outboard engines, each of these rafts being manned by two guys working for the rafting-tour company. These guys would basically do whatever they had to to prevent any serious injuries to their customers or to their rafts. This usually involved them ramming their raft into yours to knock you to where you should be and away from the more dangerous parts of the river. Nevertheless there were injuries and we saw the occasion customer being helped out of the river or being guided away from the river by rafting-tour employees. Overall the white-water rafting was an interesting and certainly exciting experience although I think the single best change that could be made to enhance the experience would be to remove all the other rafts and people and let us have the river to ourselves.
By the time we reached the end of the river-rafting ramble some of us were quite cold and hungry. The sky was quite overcast and the wind had picked up. We had 5 minutes to go to the bathroom before we needed to clamber on to buses which took us back to the rafting HQ in town. From there most of us headed down the road to the 7-11 where we got some hot, instant noodles and hot chocolate. By this time the heavens had opened and the sky was manumitting the lakes in the sky, most of which opted to fall straight to earth.
That night a barbecue ensued from which only a scant few vegetable kebabs, barbecued chicken wings, or barbecued bamboo (surprisingly good) escaped uneaten. From left: Jannie, Willy, John, me, and two of the people renting the room next door, returning to their den with bowls of instant noodles.
Scene 1: dogs belonging to friends at barbecue sleep in bed in room we rented.
Scene 2: I sleep in bed in room we rented. I have to admit that I was the first to go to bed and to sleep. Driving an unfamiliar scooter for hours on unfamiliar roads definitely contributed to my impuissance.
On Sunday we arose and found ourselves, not surprisingly, where we had been the night before. We proceeded to avail ourselves of one of the natural wonders of the Baolai area - the natural hot springs. Besides a couple of pools of different temperatures the "spa" is fitted out with some shower heads which deliver high-pressure jets of water. It's really good to be able to move your back (or head or other body part if you wish) around under the jet and use it to massage yourself. However, if you were to direct the high-powered jet of water to the wrong place you could possibly do some damage, for example, blowing your eardrum out. Not that anyone would be silly enough to do that. Surely.
After the invigorating hot spa DIY massage we went for a short walk into town. On the way we discovered where dragon fruit come from. We saw this plant and others like it bearing the odd fruit. I was surprised. The plant itself looks like a kind of cactus. Perhaps it is.
And then it rained some more. And more. And when the time to leave came, it was still raining. However, while rain-jackets were on our side, time was not and so we prepared ourselves as best we could and mounted our wet, motorised steeds and began the long journey home. This photo was taken as we stood in the rain-shadow of the arch in front of the main entrance of the resort and as we stood there we sought to master our collective resolve to start what was going to be a very wet and uncomfortable ride home.
Not only did it continue to rain: it stormed and thundered. In places along the road down from the mountain, small streams of water ran across the road. At one point the storm raged close by and the rain became torrential, forcing us to stop for a while at the local market in a small town on the highway. The amount of water pooling everywhere was impressive and John and I caved in the audience demand for some kind of rain dance, the rather unimpressive result of which you can see in this movie.
I was hugely relieved when we finally managed to get off the mountain and onto some more even countryside. And as the kilometres passed us by and the sun slowly ran its course across the grey and unhappy sky we drew slowly closer to Tainan where we would return to our always temporary lives and jobs, to our comfortably familiar, familiarly mundane day-to-day normality.
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Funky Frog Food
I've just got back from dinner with my students and had an experience that has to be shared.
These students, over the past month, have taken great pleasure in shouting me "2nd dinner" after class. They are always ordering stuff they think will make my stomach turn.
So far I have consistently disappointed them, by eating what ever they put in front of me.
The first week it was pig's blood pudding. That was nothing, it tastes a bit like liver.
Photo from Jas
The next week it was "four gods soup". Apparently all four gods take the form of intestines. Bah humbug, I had plenty of that in Thailand. They say it's good for you but it tastes as good as it sounds.
It was served as a side dish to a collection of delicacies including pig skin. I'm quite fond of pig skin - usually roasted and glazed with brown sugar; also known as "crackling". This pig skin however, seemed to have been boiled and reminded me of undercooked crackling. It was fine, the little hairs threw me a little though.
This week though it was frog. The direct translation from Taiwanese is "field chicken" which is pretty accurate, it tasted a lot like chicken.
It was just looking at the leg, dangling from the end of my chopsticks, that made me feel a bit cautious. All I could think of was "Kermit the Frog". The skin had this amazing colour: black with grey spots.
It was so... frog like.
You get that I suppose.
Anyway, it was another string to my culinary bow.
You never know until you give it a go.
Well, I have,
and if you don't want to:
the answer is - it tastes like chicken.
Quite tasty really.
Photo from here
These students, over the past month, have taken great pleasure in shouting me "2nd dinner" after class. They are always ordering stuff they think will make my stomach turn.
So far I have consistently disappointed them, by eating what ever they put in front of me.
The first week it was pig's blood pudding. That was nothing, it tastes a bit like liver.
Photo from Jas
The next week it was "four gods soup". Apparently all four gods take the form of intestines. Bah humbug, I had plenty of that in Thailand. They say it's good for you but it tastes as good as it sounds.
It was served as a side dish to a collection of delicacies including pig skin. I'm quite fond of pig skin - usually roasted and glazed with brown sugar; also known as "crackling". This pig skin however, seemed to have been boiled and reminded me of undercooked crackling. It was fine, the little hairs threw me a little though.
This week though it was frog. The direct translation from Taiwanese is "field chicken" which is pretty accurate, it tasted a lot like chicken.
It was just looking at the leg, dangling from the end of my chopsticks, that made me feel a bit cautious. All I could think of was "Kermit the Frog". The skin had this amazing colour: black with grey spots.
It was so... frog like.
You get that I suppose.
Anyway, it was another string to my culinary bow.
You never know until you give it a go.
Well, I have,
and if you don't want to:
the answer is - it tastes like chicken.
Quite tasty really.
Photo from here
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Featured Photographer: Poagao/TC Lin
TC Lin, aka Poagao, is no stranger to our group. His photos have delighted viewers on Flickr for years, and he is perhaps best known for his haunting night scenes of Taipei street life. Stop by and take a look around his website, Poagao's Journal, for his musings on life as an ex-American Taiwan national and his amazing artistry. A musician, a filmmaker, a martial artist and a brilliant photographer, there seems to be no end to the many hats he wears.Blogged with the Flock Browser
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Miscellany and the Gangshan Night Market
Camp is going well. We just finished the first day with our third group of campers. Only one more group and we’re done. Work will end on August 1, and then I will be traveling around Taiwan for a week or so before coming home on Tuesday, August 12. I can’t believe I only have three weeks left here….
On Thursday, July 3, Eddie (the teacher from Scotland) drove us down to Kaohsiung so that we could grab some dinner and go watch the movie Hancock. While I was waiting by the main gate for Eddie to pick us up, I snapped some pictures of one of the trees I particularly like. I just wish I knew what it was.
Instead of a ticket, you get a token when you ride the MRT (mass rapid transit) system in Kaohsiung.
Be sure to mind the gap!
The movie was quite entertaining, and though the theater was kind of hot, I didn’t mind so much, because I got to bring an iced Americano from Starbucks into the show! I wish I could do that in Frankfort!
The next night Kristen and I decided to go to the night market in Gangshan. However, we had about a forty minute wait for our train, so I suggested a visit to the goats. I hadn’t seen them since my first week in town. They were still as amusing (and hungry) as they were then.
After we fed the goats for a good twenty minutes, Kristen ran off to get something to eat at 7-eleven, so I took some pictures in the train station.
This is what the signs for the trains look like at most of the regular (non-MRT) train stations. Sometimes, if I am very, very lucky, the Chinese will morph into English, and I’ll be able to read the signs. I do know a few of the stations I use on a regular basis, so I’m not totally lost, but still, I do like when the English version pops up.
Sunset was quickly approaching, which was kind of disappointing, because I wanted to get some pictures of the night market in the daylight. I still have a hard time getting used to how early it gets dark here.
We finally arrived at the night market around 6:45 pm. Gangshan (I’ve spelled it Kangshan on here before, so it is the same city, but the street and train signs are all spelled with the G) is only two stops south of us, on the way to Kaohsiung.
We were both hungry, so we stopped and got a couple of grilled things on a stick from this guy. I have no idea what kind of meat I had (might have been cow, might have been pig, might have been something else entirely), but it was good, as were the grilled mushrooms (at least those I recognized) I purchased.
These were so cute - they looked like candy, but they were actually washcloths done up like candy. Pretty clever. They were well priced here. I’ve seen then in novelty stores at a much higher markup.
Now, I’ve seen these snails advertised as “Alcoholic Snails,” but I’m not sure what kinds of alcohol they are soaked in. A google search posits the possibility of wine, but I’m not 100% positive. I’m also not quite sure how they would be eaten, seeing as they are so tiny. I might need to investigate at some point. Either that or direct them to the nearest AA meeting.
The bakeries at the night markets have quite the selection. I always think that I’m going to grab something from them, but then something else grabs my attention and I wind up being too full for baked goods. Terrible shame. One day.
There was one stand dedicated to selling only tomatoes.
There were a lot of vendors selling shoes at this market. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any that I had to have.
In addition to shoes, there were a plethora of hair accessories being sold.
There were also fish and turtles (!!!) being sold. The turtles were about the diameter of a soda can, and were soooooooooo cute. They were only 70 NT$ / about $2.33 US, but I had no idea what I’d do with it when I left, so I refrained.
I was at this night market on July 4th, and I actually saw fireworks that night. They only lasted about one round, but it was kinda cool.
Up next: A little bit about English Camp….
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Two things that caught my eye today:
This from Taiwan News, which I'm reprinting here:
A nonprofit foundation yesterday selected Taiwan's 10 "best" and "worst" legislators based on their performances over the past three months.
President Chiang Kai-shek off the 10NT coin.
The Bank has been considering a plan to put the portrait of Zhang Wei-shui,
a prominent Taiwanese dissident during Japanese colonial rule, and a recent
local Chinese-language news report said it would move forward soon.
Central Bank governor Peng Huai-nan said that nothing's been decided
regarding whether to move forward with the new coin, adding even if minted
the current coin bearing the late president's portrait will not be taken
out of circulation.
Peng said before the new coin could be minted opinions would be solicited
from all sectors of society.
He also explained that any decision to mint a new coin would need approval
from the Executive Yuan.
According to the news report ... Bank officials were divided over whether to
go ahead with the new coin ... but agreed to go ahead because high-level
sources within President Ma Ying-jeou's administration were said to have
wanted it minted.
A nonprofit foundation yesterday selected Taiwan's 10 "best" and "worst" legislators based on their performances over the past three months.
The Congress Observation Foundation compiled its lists based primarily on lawmakers' "active participation rates" at legislative committee meetings between March 3 and June 24.
Among the 10 "best" were DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying and KMT legislators Chiang Yi-hsiung, Lin Cheng-er, Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), with active participation rates ranging from 35.48 percent to 97.67 percent, according to COF Executive Director Yao Li-ming.
The 10 "worst" included singer-turned-legislator Yu Tian and Chai Trong-rong of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party as well as Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and Lin Yi-shih (林益世) from the ruling Kuomintang.
They have had active participation rates ranging from zero to 20.93 percent.
The "active participation rate" used by the foundation is based on how often lawmakers both appeared and spoke in meetings held by their respective committees.
A lawmaker who attended every meeting but never voiced an opinion would still be scored a zero.
The foundation also used more general measures over legislators' performances in legislative committees and in their respective constituencies to gauge their effectiveness, Yao noted.
He insisted the criteria chosen by the foundation "can pass public scrutiny."
And this:
Plans To Take Chiang Kai Shek Off 10NT Coin
President Chiang Kai-shek off the 10NT coin.
The Bank has been considering a plan to put the portrait of Zhang Wei-shui,
a prominent Taiwanese dissident during Japanese colonial rule, and a recent
local Chinese-language news report said it would move forward soon.
Central Bank governor Peng Huai-nan said that nothing's been decided
regarding whether to move forward with the new coin, adding even if minted
the current coin bearing the late president's portrait will not be taken
out of circulation.
Peng said before the new coin could be minted opinions would be solicited
from all sectors of society.
He also explained that any decision to mint a new coin would need approval
from the Executive Yuan.
According to the news report ... Bank officials were divided over whether to
go ahead with the new coin ... but agreed to go ahead because high-level
sources within President Ma Ying-jeou's administration were said to have
wanted it minted.
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Where are English Blogs written by Taiwanese?
Many people in Taiwan have been learning English. As a major, I was wondering how many Taiwanese people keep a blog in English and what they usually write about. To my disappointment, I got none in my search on the Internet today.
In the first place, I tried some relevant key words on google search engine. Later, I typed some most frequently-used English words on Wretch website. Then what came out was "disguised" blogs. Almost all the blogs or the articles were titled in English. After I clicked into, the content was in Chinese.
There should be......
Thinking conversely, a question occurred to me: "How can one track down to my blog?" (If it counts...) Maybe it's really not easy to track down English blogs written by Taiwanese on my own. So please let me know if you guys have some on your reading list.
(More......)
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
Cha Xi contest - It's Summer, It's Tea Time
The summer season offers the chance to drink tea outdoors. What better place to feel in harmony with nature than among trees, grass, listening to birds...
To help you make this tea experience unforgetable, I propose a little Cha Xi contest. The goal is to brew a tea with a beautiful and proper tea setup. This will give you an opportunity to refresh your memory about the advices I have given in my blog, and then adding your personal touch.
To motivate you, I will give away a ceramic tea tray like this one on the left as first prize of this contest. The next prizes will be teas from my selection.
How to participate?
- Send me an e-mail with the 2 (and only 2) best pictures of your tea set up. These pictures will let me judge the aesthetic beauty of your Cha Xi.
- Add a short description of your tea accessories and why they match the tea you chose. Write also a brief description of how the tea tasted. This will let me judge the technical aspect of the Cha Xi.
Who? All readers of my blog are invited to participate once.
When? Before end of August 2008.
The best entries will be published!
To help you make this tea experience unforgetable, I propose a little Cha Xi contest. The goal is to brew a tea with a beautiful and proper tea setup. This will give you an opportunity to refresh your memory about the advices I have given in my blog, and then adding your personal touch.
To motivate you, I will give away a ceramic tea tray like this one on the left as first prize of this contest. The next prizes will be teas from my selection.
How to participate?
- Send me an e-mail with the 2 (and only 2) best pictures of your tea set up. These pictures will let me judge the aesthetic beauty of your Cha Xi.
- Add a short description of your tea accessories and why they match the tea you chose. Write also a brief description of how the tea tasted. This will let me judge the technical aspect of the Cha Xi.
Who? All readers of my blog are invited to participate once.
When? Before end of August 2008.
The best entries will be published!
Categories: Interesting Taiwan articles
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