Taiwan - February 8, 2008

This morning we went to a temple to pray for a prosperous new year. I was particularly frustrated this morning, mostly over being tired and lacking a clue in general.

Note: I was mostly frustrated at my non-understanding of Taiwanese Buddhist/Ancestor worship rituals. Instead of telling me what was going on, or why we do certain things, I was just told to do something. I really wanted to learn more about my Taiwanese heritage on this trip, and being told to "just do it" without getting any background irritated me to no end.

Sometime in the afternoon we were picked up by an old classmate of my mom's and we went to his house for dinner. His new son-in-law is a pilot for China Airlines and is very happy with Boeing planes, saying they were more reliable than those made by Airbus. (There was a big scandal involving a commercial plane during this time, and I remember it was interesting to get his perspectives on that)
After dinner we went to Lugang where the entire town was decked out in red lanterns. The night market was very crowded and we ended up going through the historical part of town instead.
Returning to my mother's friend's house, we hung out with their family. Their four kids (all adults older than me) interact very harmoniously and it's easy to envy their close relationships. It was definitely a lot of fun watching them play hearts. (Actually it wasn't hearts, I'll have to look it up)

Taiwan - February 7, 2008

Today we usher in the year of the Rat. According to some online horoscope, this year is supposed to be especially auspicious for me (a pig), with 11 favorable months and 1 unfavorable. With the Taiwanese being particularly superstitious, I think I should at least keep it in mind even though I don't particularly believe in it. Besides, I like the idea of having an awesome year!
I went to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant with my cousin and his wife. I had "French smoked duck breasts" on noodles in a cream sauce. Western food Chinese-style is overly rich, and slightly strange.

After the restaurant we went to a tea house with a group of my cousin's friends. They ordered a tea latte for me, although others ordered more traditional teas. I did get to sample a couple of the more herbal/medicinal teas, and I think I preferred those to an average tea latte I could get in the States.

One of the teas I sampled (ordered by a guy) was supposed to be very good for women. "That's because my friend is a girl", my cousin teased. It was a good-natured joke.

The photo is of a cup of tea and a "suncake" from Taichung.

Taiwan - Update

I wrote this on February 13, 2008, en route to Los Angeles after my trip:
I have to admit I've been lazy in keeping this up-to-date; I'm not sure where I should start. Looking back at what I've done I realize I've seen a lot, even though throughout my trip I felt like I wasn't doing anything most of the time.
I feel awful about that. All my life I've been wanting to know, to see, what happens next. I need to appreciate the present. (Note - I'm starting to realize that I need to do this with my life in general; I suck at appreciating the present.)
The next time I travel, I need to do a few things differently.
1) Bring a travel towel. While not necessary, it would be nice to not rely on the towels of hosts.
2) Bring "real" travel clothes. A few companies make great quick-drying clothes, which would have been nice here considering no one has a clothes dryer (but everyone has a clothes washer?).
3) I need to be a little more organized with where I want to go and what I want to do. I think this caused one of my biggest frustrations.
4) Along with #3, I need to learn to communicate more effectively, and to be more patient when I get "lost in translation". Often we would go to do something and this wouldn't get communicated to me for whatever reason and I would get frustrated. Alternatively, I need to learn to be OK with not knowing what's going on.

One of my recurrent frustrations with the "tourist sites" in Taiwan, with the exception of Taipei 101, is the lack of postcards (and stuff in general) promoting the site in question. Taipei 101 and the National Palace Museum both have places to leave mail; Taipei 101 having a cute mail/postcard drop-off point and the museum having a full-fledged post office (Yet the museum didn't have "normal" postcards. What gives?). (Note - Photos are from the Taipei 101 postcard drop-off on the observation deck. There was a Chinese drop-off and an English one.)

Also, I need to petition the contact lens fluid people (Alcon at the time, now it's Clear Case or something like that. As long as it's not basketcase!) that they need to make 3 oz. containers of their products. I ended up throwing out over a half bottle when I went through security in Taipei because I guess they are on the "security theater" gel-and-liquid-bandwagon too.

Restaurant Review - Din Tai Fung Dumpling House

There is nothing quite so satisfying as a soup dumpling, garnished with soy sauce, black vinegar, and ginger.

My sweetheart surprised me with a trip to Din Tai Fung, which is a Taiwan-based, international chain of dumpling restaurants. The menu, which you order from before you are seated, is bilingual, and the hostesses are very nice.

The soup dumplings are their specialty, but they have a variety of other dumplings and buns you can order. Their soup is very authentic, and for dessert they have a just-right size of 8 treasure rice pudding for two!

The prices are fairly reasonable, although they do get quite busy and sometimes you have to wait a bit for a table.

Din Tai Fung Dumpling House
1108 South Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, California 91007
(626)574-7068

Taiwan - February 6

Yesterday my aunt and uncle took my parents and myself to Changhua and Lugang. There is a famous Buddha in Changhua and Lugang is famous for its oyster omelets.

This morning we went to a morning market - wow was it crowded! We also tried to go to the art museum here, but it's closed today and tomorrow for the New Year holiday.

This afternoon my parents and I went to a bookstore not far from my Grandmother's. I would have liked to buy some children's books so I could improve my reading ability but all the books are in traditional characters (I was learning the simplified format). I did see a peanuts comic anthology that had a Chinese translation that I thought would have been funny. I also found a "How-to-Strip" primer that I thought was hilarious.

Tonight we had dinner in the same restaurant we went to for Grandma's birthday. Afterwards my mom gave out red envelopes (hong bao) and my uncle and cousin Wei-Chien gave me red envelopes too.

Right now my aunt's family is playing a family gambling game with dice. You roll 4 dice into a bowl; only rolls with a "pair" (like two dice that rolled a six) count. You discard the pair and add up the other two die rolls. If you roll two pairs, your score is the higher pair added together (if you rolled a pair of three and a pair of six, your score is 12). Whoever rolls the highest score wins the round. Ties don't count.

I would have liked to see a parade or something, but I think that's going out of style and neither my aunt nor uncle know of a parade we could see. I know last night there were a lot of firecrackers going off.

Taiwan - February 3

Today there was a Japanese taiko drum demonstration at the grocery store near my grandmother's. It's similar to the group that was in the Japanese car commercial. It was very cool to see live and they attracted a huge audience.
I also tried sun cakes for the first time - they're a perfect accompaniment with tea. They're a rich, flaky pastry with a slightly sweet, honey filling. Sun cakes are Taichung's specialty pastry and you can't get them anywhere else. Or maybe you can, but it's kind of cool to try food in it's place of origin. If you're not careful when you eat them, you will get flaky pastry everywhere!Tonight I went to play badminton with my cousin and his friends. Afterward we went out to eat fried food and drink ginger milk tea. Fried food is bad for you in any country, but I've never seen a place where you get to pick out the food you want to eat like in the prepared food stalls in the markets. I think I was very fortunate that my cousin invited me to do a lot of stuff with him and his wife. I probably could have gone touristing on my own, and left my parents to hang out at my grandmother's house, but it would have been very rude and my cousin was astute enough to know I needed to spend time away from them and hang out with people closer to my own age every once in a while.
One of my favorite dishes from the food stalls here is sweet potato fries dusted with a pickled plum powder. I can't find it here, so I have to beg my mom to look for it in Taiwan before she comes back or find a way to make my own pickled plum powder.

Taiwan - February 2

Today I went to the hair salon to get my hair straightened! What an ordeal that was!

First they rub a chemical to relax your hair, then wrap your head in saran wrap and put it under a hair steamer. When the hair is sufficiently relaxed, it's then washed and dried. Then small sections are smoothed with a special ceramic flat iron. When all the hair has been smoothed, it's then combed through with a heavy conditioner (that also acts as neutralizer) and left to sit for 30 minutes.

After the hair is conditioned, it's again shampooed, rinsed and dried. After it's been finally styled, the client is allowed to go home, with one caveat: the hair can't be washed for three days and it can't be pulled back or put up for a week.
Tonight was my grandmother's birthday. My uncle hosted a party at a restaurant. There was a lot of great food served! One of my favorite dishes was shrimp in a dollop of butternut squash topped with melted cheese in a seashell. The photo above is of "long life noodles", which is a traditional birthday dish. The photo below is a fancy version of stinky tofu.I'm really fond of the traffic in Taiwan. It's almost like the line on the roads are suggestions only, and when making left turns it's okay to hold up traffic. Scooters can pretty much go anywhere, and parking wherever you can find space seems to be the norm, even if you end up parking on the wrong side of the street!

I'm noticing I'm getting quite a few mosquito bites. That's no fun. I should have brought bug spray.

Taiwan - February 1

Today I went to the Museum of Natural History with my parents. We saw some interesting exhibits there. I think my favorite exhibit was the "Collection & Research" Gallery, but I also found the "Chinese Science & Technology" and "Chinese Medicine" Exhibits interesting too.

Some of the exhibits are quite interactive, most especially the "Journey of Human Life". I found the aging and medical diagnostic parts of that exhibit most interesting, although they also had an "after death" section with a real Egyptian mummy and sarcophagus! Unfortunately no flash photography was allowed in that section and the light wasn't good enough to take photos. There was a special exhibit on aging and the body at each decade of life. Apparently after 100, all the organs are withered and the body is "ready for death". Kind of morbid and definitely doesn't make me want to die of old age! Another exhibit had an eyeball tracking demonstration; to simulate what it would be like to be immobilized from the neck down. After messing with that I decided I'm much too impatient to live like that!

A few of the exhibits had English explanations or commentary but most of them did not. I did notice one audio commentary that was not only in English and Chinese, but in Taiwanese too!

There was also a dinosaur exhibit that I enjoyed; they had an animatronic T-rex and velociraptors, which I thought were a lot of fun.

I'm also thoroughly convinced that if we forced people in the United States to start using the squat toilet it would help our obesity and related health problems.
Tonight I went to a night market which was a lot of fun! I thought most of the vendors were selling a lot of crap though. However, the crowded atmosphere was great and the food was good. I also noticed they were playing a lot of Western music, which I found amusing.(I'll blog later about all the great food!)

We Live in Interesting Times

Taiwan may File Lawsuit in World Court for UN Membership

U.S. Mixes Taiwan Message

I'm all for Taiwan being recognized as its own country.

That would rock the casbah.

Just Say No

The United Nations wants to abolish the use of the Traditional Chinese writing system.

Let me back the Firefly-class starship up just a little.

Back in the day, there was only the Traditional Chinese writing system. During the 20th Century (especially during the Cultural Revolution) the writing system was 'simplified' (or 'modernized', depending on how you look at it) to increase literacy. Today, traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and ex-pat communities whose settling residents left China before the language reform.

For the record, I'm learning the Simplified Chinese writing system, although most Chinese speakers (especially those who travel internationally) end up learning both. I don't really feel there is much of a difference between the two - there are many characters (even difficult ones) that are the same in both writing systems. Because I want to travel more in Taiwan than in China, I probably should learn the Traditional system as well (my Chinese teacher has given us the choice), but I feel that, since the Simplified writing system is more widespread that it will help me more than the Traditional writing system right now.

Besides, if my mother can read my notes to her, that's all that really matters to me.

Go here to Just Say No.

Moral Duty

Best Government Ever

Most days I get to class a couple hours early and study. There's a fellow in my Chinese class who shows up about a half hour before class. He's one of those I-have-no-life-so-I-throw-the-curve types. I alternate between thinking he's an alright guy and thinking he's an arrogant jerk. In a lot of ways, he's embodies the worst stereotypes of engineers. Last night I had to leave the classroom twice before class began because I did not want to resort to beating the crap out of him. That never changes opinions, especially ones that are already set in stone.

Basically, he said: (none of which I agree with)
-all Taiwanese-American girls he had met were "screwed up", and that this was the fault of their parents
-it's OK for China to go ahead and take over Taiwan whenever they feel like it and there isn't anything the United States can do about it
-the United States would sit and do nothing if China decided to invade Taiwan

I have no words for how inane I find his opinions on this matter.

He's not the only racist, sexist engineer I've come across, but I find it difficult to believe that you can live a substantial portion of your life in a major city and still come out of the experience a bigot. Granted, his girlfriend, who he wants to marry, is a Chinese immigrant, as is her family.

Does democracy mean nothing to Americans anymore? Does honor?

The United States' foreign policy regarding Taiwan is quite clear. Congress passed an act to "resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan." (Taiwan Relations Act) That may or may not involve military action. It also means we won't sit silently and let China have free reign.

It's our moral duty to uphold democracy and freedom in the world. The United States doesn't have a great track record with that, but that doesn't mean you can't start somewhere. Taiwan is a very visible example of an autocratic-government-turned-democratic. If we let that go I think I would have a hard time identifying (and relating) myself as American. It runs against what I believe the U.S.'s moral obligations are.

Maybe that's just an arrogant American wanting-to-convert-the-world-to-democracy typing. 我不知道。

Update: Any government that censors information to the extent that China does (see Great Firewall of China) has issues. For the record, my blog is banned in China. I've had a few hits from China in the past, but apparently I'm too pro-independance for communist tastes.

Daily Adventure - Bubble Tea!

When I found out I was moving to California I told everyone the first thing I would do is get myself some Bubble Tea.

Turns out that "first thing" takes a month for me to accomplish!

I ended up going to BobaLoca on the corner of Sepulveda and Crenshaw because Boba Paradise on the corner of Crenshaw and PCH had a "B" food service rating (and I was told to never, ever go to a place that had anything less than an "A"). I must also add that BobaFind isn't completely accurate; there is no Lollicup on Crenshaw (unless it's hidden near Izakaya Yuzen Kan, which is completely possible because I *have* driven past a Home Depot here before and not know it).

I must say I was very happy with my large cup of Bubble Milk Tea with chewy boba in it. Unfortunately they don't have Passionfruit juice, which next to milk tea is my favorite beverage to have floaties in.

Maybe I'll have to go on another quest to find the Passionfruit Juice. Unfortunately West L.A. is where the closest Volcano Tea is located, which is just too far for me. Maybe I'll have to explore the shopping center Izakaya Yuzen Kan is located and hope that Lollicup will magically appear and satisfy my exotic juice craving.

Note: Also check out FuRaiBo on Redondo Beach Blvd. in Gardena. Excellent fried chicken there.

The Cross-Cultural Implications of This Just Slay Me

I've been spending quite a bit of time at Doubting To Shuo, and found an ancient blogpost about his discovery of a Chinese version of Madonna's "Material Girl", or 拜金女郎 for those who get the Chinese characters. (I'm don't think it's actually Madonna singing . . . anyone want to clarify that for me?)

While I love listening to Chinese, both spoken and sung, this sort of cross-cultural ("Asianification", if you will) translation of popular Western songs really bothers me. It's like the little kid on Engrish with the teddy bear t-shirt that says "Fuck off!". Even with the literal translation of Madonna's lyrics into Chinese, I wonder if they get the meaning of the song.

But I digress. The song is catchy, in either language.