Bookending the Christmas weekend, I was able to take a few personal days off for a mini-vacation. Peter, who somehow managed to take off from his job at Lehman, came to visit me over the holiday. Together we toured some of the places I've been meaning to see but haven't had the time for. Some of the highlights: the view from Taipei 101, scootering through Taroko Gorge, and finally seeing the sunset in Danshui (every other time I've been has been cloudy).
Although I've been in Taiwan for almost five months now and my apartment in Ilan is what I call home, I felt uncomfortable introducing Taiwan to Peter. I had to acknowledge a sense of superficiality and ineptitude: there are still so many aspects of life that are foreign to me--the language being foremost. I think this is the nature of living abroad for an extended period of time. You begin to settle into a comfortable routine, you have wonderful friends (both American and local), you find your favorite places to eat and relax, and yet, the experience can ultimately be lonely. The characteristic comfort and familiarity of a true home is still missing. Perhaps it's the knowledge that my time here is temporary; I've built my life here to last only one year. I know my own parents, having established their lives in the States, call Taiwan home only in the past tense.
Saying good bye to Peter, I felt very homesick for the suburbs of Philadelphia and for New York City (my second home always). This opportunity is once in a lifetime, and I am so thankful for what I've been able to do here in Taiwan. At the same time, as this year comes to a close, I can't help but think about the life I can begin to build when I return to the East Coast. 2005 was an especially meaningful, but difficult year. I am looking forward to the first half of 2006, to see what will be in store for the remainder of my time here in Taiwan. I am also looking forward to the second half of 2006, when I can return home.
This past Saturday, I went back to Guanxi to catch my Uncle Scott's two-week long art exhibit at one of Hsinchu County's culture centers. Culture centers in Taiwan are often places for local artists to display their work. The artists are professionals as well as amateurs, like my uncle, who is actually a doctor by day. He's a talented painter, and you can tell from his paintings that he loves his hometown very much. Many of them feature local scenes from Guanxi in his own style, which is heavily influenced by French impressionism. I'm proud of my Uncle Scott and of the Chen Family's natural artistic talent (that unfortunately didn't get passed down to me despite my dad also being quite talented...).
Uncle Scott next to his exhibit's bulletin
me, Uncle Scott, Sister Gabrielle, and Aunt Emily in front of a painting of our house in Guanxi (Sister Gabrielle belongs to Guanxi Church featured below)
Guanxi Church, a very distinctive building in town
Hsinchu Train Station, painted on the spot
In case you didn't believe me, I really am teaching (hopefully):
the first picture I've put up of me in the classroom
From grades 3 to 6, English class takes up two 40-minute periods once a week. Take 5 minutes away from each period just to get things quiet and settled down, and that's a total of 70 minutes per week of English. That's how much exposure two-thirds of the kids receive.
The other third attends cram school (補習班, buxiban) two to three times a week on average, for at least one hour after school. That's about 190 minutes per week of English for them. And that is why there is such a discrepancy in proficiency for each class (in not just English, but often times in math and Mandarin too).
On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons after lunch, I give a phonics workshop for twelve sixth graders. The kids I teach barely know their consonants. One student doesn't know the ABCs past N; half don't know lower case letters; and at least two have learning disabilities (these two still don't know bopomofo, the phonetic system for Mandarin that Taiwanese students learn in first grade!). I love teaching this class, despite it being really difficult to make phonics interesting (for sixth graders no less). They are (almost) all good kids, and it's amazing to see how much they open up in these workshops--compared to regular class periods, when they are shy and silent, overshadowed by kids like Betty and Kitty. While I doubt I will make any lasting contribution to their overall education, it's nice to think that through these workshops, these 12 kids are getting their 190 minutes too, at least for a little while.
For the first time in 10 weekends, I stayed put in Ilan. After getting dinner with friends on Friday, I didn't know what to do with myself. As usual, I sat down and made myself a to-do list for the weekend: chores, work, shopping, running... It's good to catch up on aspects of my life that I've been neglecting. Yesterday was a good day.
Morning: Clio and I took two of our sixth grade students to an English speech competition. With just two weeks of preparation, they rocked the competition. The topic was "My Favorite Cartoon Character," and the speeches were supposed to last between 2.5 and 3 minutes. Kitty talked about Snoopy; Betty talked about Conan (from the Japanese cartoon Case Closed). Out of about fifty students, they are certain to be among the top 10. I am extremely proud of them, and it's good to feel validated as a teacher.
Clio and me with Kitty (left) and Betty
Afternoon: Together with a few of the other Fulbrighters, we attended our friend Vicky's engagement banquet. It was good to spend time with friends and to experience something traditional. It was also an opportunity to try something new...
Guess what this is? I took a tiny nibble, which was probably worse than what Sarah did, which was swallow hers whole. (But hers wasn't quite as manly as mine)
Sarah and me in the middle, with our advisors Joanne (left) and Anita
I met up with Sarah at a coffeeshop near Ilan University after the party. I got some homework done, caught up on some reading, and gave Sarah some feedback on essays for graduate school applications. It felt good to be productive.
Evening: Last night, I got some Christmas shopping out of the way. I also ran for a good while around the perimeter of the Culture Center and had some important alone time with my ipod.
AND it didn't rain yesterday. A good day all around.
This past Tuesday, I accompanied the third graders on a fieldtrip to the National Center for Traditional Arts in Ilan. Aside from Taiwanese opera, which apparently began in Ilan, the Center also exhibits budaixi (puppetry), calligraphy, shoe making, ceramics, etc. In my opinion, the Center is more commercial than informational. The displays double as shops to buy handcrafted products. Also, the only Starbucks in all of Ilan is at the center. It's a worthwhile experience overall, and I understand why it's a hub for school field trips.
Before we got to the Center, we stopped at a honey company and a kumquat company. Both are Ilan specialty products. The kids and teachers tasted honey teas and dried and candied kumquats. Not knowing that we were stopping at these places first, I was beginning to think I went on the wrong fieldtrip. The fourth graders also had a hiking fieldtrip on the same day.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my toughest days at school because I teach six classes with Clio (almost a full day's schedule). But after the fieldtrip on Tuesday, I was ten times more pooped from being dragged around by third graders. This group of girls claimed me as theirs, and with two on each side of me clutching my arms and hands, they tugged me from place to place. And as usual, out came the snacks: pringles, peanut butter puffs, gummi drops, cookies, spicy cheese puffs, poki sticks, and more.
learning about honey
Confucian temple honoring scholars at the Traditional Arts Center. According to the guide, you're not supposed to enter the temple through the middle door because the two guards on each side will chop your head off. gruesome.
traditional hand puppets 
part of the landscape of the Traditional Arts Center
My dad was in Taiwan for the past two weekends to support my mom and visit my grandmom, who is still critical and in the hospital. Before my parents left on Sunday, my dad took my mom and me to his hometown of Taifu (in Hakka, Dahu 大湖 in Mandarin ) in Miaoli 苗栗 County. Miaoli is about an hour south of Guanxi by car, in the central western part of Taiwan. The main purpose of our visit was to pay respects to my father's parents and paternal grandmother. Their ashes are laid in a tower just outside of Taifu, in an offshoot of a local Buddhist temple.
I visited Miaoli when I was eleven and six. I have vague memories of the tower from when I was eleven, and of being afraid of the tub in my dad's old house when I was six. I have no memory of my dad's parents; both passed away before I was old enough to remember meeting them. In the tower, urns are stored in mini cupboards that line the walls from top to bottom, and old pictures of the deceased are pasted onto the doors. My dad located my great-grandmom's and grandparents' urns by a red silk rose tied around the knobs of each (the only roses in the tower). As we bai-bai'ed--bowing with incense in our hands--my parents updated my grandparents on everything that's happened in the past year and asked them to watch over our growing family.
After my parents and I paid our respects, we did a short loop (literally, five minutes) around Taifu, a very small and remote town that sits under the mountains. Although we were pressed for time, the opportunity to see Taifu with my dad was just too important for such a cursory glance. We pulled over, and my dad and I walked around for about 15 minutes. I saw my dad's old house, his elementary school, and 100+ year old houses built during Japanese occupation (Miaoli is an old county, various colonists since the Dutch have explored the area for its natural gas). Even though we spent less than a half hour in Taifu, this was probably one of the most meaningful moments I've ever shared with my dad.
From Taifu we stopped in Miaoli City to visit my dad's oldest sister, whom my dad hasn't seen in years and I've never met before. I was surprised by how young she looked (just like my dad) and how much she resembled my grandmom. Our visit was short, but I'm glad they were able to see each other and that I was able to meet another family member. It's so hard to describe what it's like to meet aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time in Taiwan. You realize that they are such an important part of your parents' lives, and yet, they are such an unimportant part of your own.
I'm sure if you've read my previous posts, it's obvious how proud I am of my parents. My dad was the first person out of the entire town of Taifu to become a doctor (no exaggeration). His younger brother was the second. My dad's accomplishments are a testament to his parents and his own hard work. I am so thankful for the life he and my mom have created in the States for my siblings and me. Going back to my dad's hometown with him, I realize just how much he's left behind.
the tower where my paternal grandparents and great-grandmother's ashes are laid
Dahu Elementary, my dad's alma mater
a street in Taifu
strawberry fields, what Taifu is famous for (and rightly so, they were delicious)
my dad and his older sister
Election Results:
KMT: from 9 seats to 14
DPP: from 9 seats to 6 (this includes losses in all of the tightest races, including Taipei County and Ilan)
My mom's family, all DPP supporters, is very disappointed. Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)--the KMT party chairman, current Taipei mayor, and likely KMT presidential candidate in 2008--stated in his congratulatory speech that the DPP beat themselves in this local election. This is a pretty telling statement. To me, it betrays a sense that the KMT candidates are no better than the DPP candidates. Rather, the DPP failed to meet the standards expected of them by the Taiwanese people. The DPP is held to a higher moral code than the KMT, whose history is fraught with corruption, nepotism, and vote-buying. While the DPP is often portrayed as the less effective of the two parties, the DPP's reputation for being creative, honest, and hardworking is a draw for undecided voters. However, the recent scandals involving DPP officials, including a close aide to the President (sound familiar?), have caused much of the electorate to lose faith in the party. Compounded by an aggressive strategy by the KMT to paint the DPP as ineffective, loose on their promises, and corrupt, the KMT crushed the DPP in this election.
I don't really know what DPP supporters are going through right now, although I can draw from my own feelings after the 2004 US presidential elections. The only thoughts I can offer is that these are tough growing pains for the DPP and for Taiwan's democracy overall. There was no substantive debate in this election as far as I can see. DPP candidates spent a significant portion of their time defending themselves from allegations brought against them by KMT candidates and supporters. This is largely due to how extraodinarily bad Taiwan's TV news is and the rumor mills they fuel. But lets hope the DPP can take control of the debate the next time around. Next year is the Taipei City and Kaohsiung mayoral elections. 2008 are the presidential elections. 加油.
The night before the election: a rally in the middle of a street in Guanxi
And down the block, another rally. Yes, that's a stripper and a pole. I couldn't believe it, that's the type of thing that could get an official impeached in the States.
I remember asking Aaron, a Canadian who has lived in Ilan county for the past three years, what he thought about elections in Taiwan, particularly since he experienced the 2004 presidential elections. His reply: "It's a gong show." The comparison he makes is to an old game show where amateur performers would demonstrate a talent before a group of B-list celebrity judges. If the act was horrendous beyond comment, the gong would sound to signal for the performer to get off stage. I remember thinking to myself at the time, "Wow, that's a pretty condescending comment for a foreigner to make."
Which is not to say that it's entirely off-base.
Local elections for city and county magistrates, city and county councils, and township and county mayors are this Saturday. Ilan is a particularly hot place to be since the contest for county magistrate between the DPP-green candidate 陳定南 (Chen Ding-nan, former Ilan magistrate from 1981-89) and KMT-blue candidate 呂國華 (Lu Kuo-hwa, current Ilan mayor) is very tight. Ilan has been a DPP stronghold since 1981, and for 24 years, Ilan has been "green" in more ways than one. Whenever I tell people I live in Ilan, the county is often complimented for its uniquely farsighted environmental and city planning. Ilan has a reputation for valuing democracy (as an early base for the Dang-wai Movement, which challenged KMT one-party rule and whose members went on to form the DPP) as well as for sustainable development. The eventual and much delayed opening of the Taipei-Ilan highway, which will cut the commute from 1.5 hours to 45 minutes, is both a blessing and concern for Ilan residents. Economic and infrastructural expansion are inevitable consequences to the opening of the highway, and like all progress, Ilan residents are excited by the prospects but wary of the hazards of development. These are the issues at hand.
The strong showing by Lu is a concern for the DPP as a party. Ilan County possesses a symbolic status for the DPP, and a loss here would be traumatic. President Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁 himself campaigned in Ilan this week, alleging in his speech that the KMT Ilan mayor is dubiously connected with gangsters.
It's true. Elections here are a Gong Show. There are street processions, trucks blaring soundbites all day, flags everywhere, banners hanging across roadways, and giant posters of candidates in awkward poses (fists in the air, thumbs up) lining the sides of buildings. The campaign up to this election has been very much an act--lots of glitter and firecrackers--literally. Most locals complain that substance is absent from the debate. Instead, there is an increase in traffic jams, loud interruptions (during school and yoga for me), and a maze of flags on the sidewalk to navigate through.
While not as greatly inconvenienced by campaigns, Americans offer the same criticism of elections in the States. Political shows and stump speeches are repetitive and tiresome. And what's the point of Democratic and Republican conventions? It's not like we don't already know who the candidates will be. It's a ritualistic act (as my professor would say). But Taiwan's democracy is young. Both the DPP and KMT are struggling to learn how to be political parties; the rhetoric of both describe each election as if it were their last. I think this belies a lack of confidence in Taiwan's maturing democracy, and this is probably due to the tense issues that China's threatening economic and military growth pose for Taiwan. It may also be due to the mindset of the current generation of leadership, whose memory of authoritarian rule makes the necessary compromise of power (for the KMT) and ideals (for the independence-minded DPP) difficult to swallow. What's needed above all is patience, from the current political leaders of both parties, from the next generation standing to inherit them, and from Taiwan's citizenry.
(And a thorough reform of journalism in Taiwan, but more on that later...) I'll have more to add after the weekend. I'll be observing the election from Guanxi.
This candidate came knocking down my alley. She caught me just as I was about to get on my scooter. Too bad I can't vote (and thank god cause I was running late).
A procession for candidate #8, didn't catch the man's name.
Cleaning up after tonight's rally for Lu Kuo-hwa, heard from my apartment. 
A political cartoon from a Taiwanese magazine: the sign says 3 in 1 Election (the name for Saturday's elections). The bubble says: "Aside from those two roasting each other, there's simply no 'beef.'" The shirts refer to the colors of the parties.
When Yenju, Chiajen, and I were in Tienmu (a ritzy neighborhood in Taipei) a few weekends ago to look at dresses for Yenju's upcoming wedding photos, there was a promo going on for a cosmetic company outside a major department store. The woman on the left is a famous Taiwanese model. I'm not sure what her real name is, but her nickname roughly translates to 1:9-Head to Body-Ratio Beauty. I know those are the proportions a model is supposed to have, but you'd think people could have come up with a more flattering name.
This is an east-facing view taken near Guanxi's day market. In my opinion, the mountains look different in Guanxi (Taiwan's northwest) than they do in Ilan (Taiwan's northeast). They tend to come in layers when viewed from the northwest.
This was taken from the passenger seat of Yenju's car. We took a trip to Hsinchu last weekend to watch Harry Potter 4. Traffic on Saturday night in a major city--near a movie theater and department store-- is already bad, but adding to the chaos was a procession held by a local temple. Cars were backed up for several blocks. No permit necessary?
I won NT$200 in Taiwan's receipt lottery! (about US$6). Every two months on the 25th, the government releases lottery numbers that (hopefully) correspond with an 8 digit number on one of your receipts--which you are supposed to diligently collect. These lotto receipts are issued by all major convenience stores, department stores, chain restaurants, etc. The idea is to encourage customers to demand receipts from vendors, forcing them to keep a more accurate account of their sales for tax purposes. The last 3 digits of my receipt matched with the last 3 of one of the three numbers announced on 11/25. If all 8 of your numbers match in the correct order with the grand prize lotto number, you can win NT$2 million! (before taxes) Rumor has it that an illegal Thai immigrant couple won the grand prize a few years back, but they couldn't claim the money. Bummer.
Posts
