Friday, July 30, 2010

Ranting, Part 2

The China Post is a rag. Sure, it prints a wider variety of wire service articles, and has more comprehensive coverage of Major League Baseball games, than the Taipei Times, and its ineptly translated local news stories can put a smile to one’s face (when was the last time you read the word “ruffian” in an article?). But that grin can quickly dissipate once the Post’s editors turn their attention to politics. First published in 1952, the China Post served as the English-language mouthpiece for an authoritarian regime that arrested, imprisoned and executed tens of thousands of people. Taiwan and most of the rest of the world have since moved on, but the people behind the Post struggle at times to keep with the times. They still believe in the Nationalist 中國國民黨 ideology, and in their world, the word “mainland” isn’t an adjective, but a part of a capitalized proper noun (“Mainland China”). When it comes to Japan, the newspaper’s commentators, particularly Joe Hung and Dr. William Fang, can’t seem to write about contemporary events in that country without slipping in completely irrelevant references to the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere 大東亜共栄圏.

Ah, Japan. With the exception of the Taiwan localization movement and former president Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁, there’s nothing that the China Post’s editorial writers despise more than Taiwan’s former colonial ruler. At times, it seems the paper is still waging the Second Sino-Japanese War, instead of trying to make sense of what’s going on in the 21st century. Wednesday’s editorial was a prime example of the head-scratching nonsense the paper can spew out when the wrong buttons get pressed.

Why try to rock the boat?” starts out thusly:

“Japan seems to have made a truly incomprehensible decision, which can only be interpreted as an inane attempt to rock the boat in the East China Sea. If implemented, the decision would make it necessary for Japan to deploy its soldiers on two of the Ryūkyū Islands 琉球諸島, which are administered as the prefecture of Okinawa 沖縄県.”

The editorial was written in reaction to the announcement made last week by Japan’s Defense Minister 防衛大臣, Toshimi Kitazawa 北澤俊美, that the government is considering deploying personnel from the Self-Defense Forces 自衛隊 to Miyako 宮古島 or Ishigaki Islands 石垣島 in the next five to eight years, and stationing a 100-member coastal surveillance unit on Yonaguni Island 与那国島, the closest island in the Ryūkyū chain to Taiwan, in response to growing activities by China’s navy. This comes on top of Japan’s unilateral extension last month of its Air Defense Identification Zone 防空識別圏 from Yonaguni westwards to overlap with parts of Taiwan’s zone.

From a Chinese nationalist’s point of view, it’s understandable why these actions could get someone riled up. Both China and Taiwan claim the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島, which would also be covered under Kitazawa’s proposal. But the Post’s editorial (inadvertently?) lays out the reasonable justifications for Japan to consider such action:

“The PLA Navy certainly is very active in the East China Sea. It wants to show its flag in the Western Pacific, and one way to reach its waters is through the southernmost part of the Ryūkyū chain. That is cause of concern to the Japanese…”

It what follows the “…” that starts to raise eyebrows for this reader:

“…who boasted one of the world's strongest navies prior to the Second World War. China is building a blue water fleet including an aircraft carrier, which even when combat ready in years, cannot match the Imperial Navy that destroyed the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and secured air and sea supremacy in the Pacific during the first year of what the Japanese used to call the Great East Asian War.”

In one long sentence, the China Post has managed to reference the Imperial Navy, Pearl Harbor and the Second World War! Actually, the Japanese didn’t destroy the entire fleet at Pearl Harbor, but what does that have to do with the announcement made by Kitazawa?

It gets worse (or funnier, depending on how you look at it):

“Beijing never even tries to match the American sea power.”

Let’s see – annual double-digit increases in the Chinese defense budget every year for the last 20 years, combined with purchases of modern vessels and weaponry from Russia, have turned the 225,000-strong People’s Liberation Army Navy into Asia’s biggest fleet. Most defense analysts would agree that China is concentrating now on expanding its naval power further out into the Pacific, and thus poses a challenge to the US’ long-standing supremacy in this area. Countries like Singapore and Vietnam are worried, but not the editorial staff of the China Post, it seems.

After acknowledging that Japan has the right to station troops anywhere it wishes on its territory, and noting that following the end of the Cold War, Japan’s main threats in this region are China and North Korea, the editorial nonetheless questions why the country wants to station troops in Okinawa 沖縄:

“To guard against Chinese missile attacks, a surveillance unit may be necessary, but not foot soldiers either on Miyako or Ishigaki. Incidentally, both islands are far off any possible route of North Korean missile attacks. So why should Japan positively consider a troop deployment on either of the islands?”

In its own schizophrenic manner, the newspaper answers its own question:

“The only serious dispute between Tokyo and Beijng is over the natural gas and oil reserves in the East China Sea. Japan does not like any Chinese show of force that may affect the long, almost interminable, negotiations to solve the dispute over the overlapping exclusive economic zones, but the assertion of the determination to defend the Sakishima chain 先島諸島 and deploy personnel on Yonaguni to keep an eye on Chinese naval activities makes no sense whatsoever.”

There are other, equally serious disputes between Japan and China, with the Senkakus being the most notable. The Post makes no reference to this or to the increasingly aggressive actions by Chinese military forces towards Japanese vessels that have occurred in the area in recent months. It makes perfect sense for the Japanese to want to keep an eye on China’s growing naval belligerence, but the editorial writers bizarrely retreat into the irrelevance of events that took place a couple of centuries ago:

“The PLA does not even dream of conquering either Ishigaki or Miyako, whose fishermen massacred in Taiwan after a shipwreck gave Meiji Japan 明治時代 a handy excuse to attack and occupy Hengch’un 恒春 in 1874. Beijing does not want a revenge for the (Mutan) Incident 台湾出兵, for which US$500,000 was paid to Japan as ‘indemnity’ and no condemnation of aggression was declared as a concession which implied recognition of Japan's claim to sovereignty over the former Kingdom of the Ryūkyūs 琉球王国, a vassal state of China for hundreds of years. Moreover, islands are hard to defend. And if ever an invasion were considered, Okinawa rather than any of the Ryūkyūs would be attacked. Well, the United States did just that in May of 1945, and at the last leg of General Douglas A. MacArthur's island-hopping campaign, thousands of innocent Okinawans, regarded as second-rate citizens, were slaughtered by the retreating Japanese troops. Japan annexed the Ryūkyūs in 1872 as a prefecture, where the people still remain a disadvantaged ethnic minority group.”

Like the earlier references to the Imperial Navy and Pearl Harbor, the Mutan Incident has zero relevance to the topic at hand. Neither do the attempts to bring up the tragedy that befell the people of Okinawa from April-June 1945. All of this is a somewhat lame attempt at reminding the readers of some of the things that Japan did in the years before World War II in an attempt to prejudice their views regarding Japan’s legitimate modern-day security concerns. And notice the remark about the Ryūkyūs being a vassal state of long-gone Chinese empires. Japan may have formally annexed the kingdom in 1872, but it had been under its control since 1609, when troops from the Satsuma domain 薩摩藩 in Kyūshū 九州 took over the islands. In the eyes of the China Post, though, once a Chinese vassal state, always a Chinese vassal state.

The editorial concludes in this manner:

“Hard as it may be to understand why, we do not object to the Japanese deployment of troops on either of the two islands, particularly at Miyako where there is a coastal guard command. Probably it is aimed at boosting the local economy. But we do not feel comfortable with the surveillance unit on Yonaguni. Though we do not believe it will keep an eye on our air traffic, Taiwan needs no foreign military air surveillance at the door. Japan has to remember Taiwan is no longer its docile colony.”

I think I can safely assume that the writers on the editorial staff of the China Post never took college courses on expository writing or logic. Sad to say, however, that these are probably heady days for them. China is a rising, resurgent power, eager to assert its claims to islands in surrounding waters, and no longer shy about backing up its claims with shows of strength. Taiwan may no longer be a docile colony of Japan, but it is turning into a docile junior partner to the authorities on the mainland, which should warm any Chinese nationalist’s heart. For the Japanese, the China Post seems to be implying that now that the Middle Kingdom is on the rise, the Little Dwarves need to remember their proper place in the old, er…new order that’s about to be restored, I mean established. Put up and shut up, and everything will be fine.

In its defense, the China Post does do a good job of cleaning my windows.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Ranting, Part 1

In the world of blogging, one link leads to another, which is how I came across an article on cultural hybridization in Taiwan, and the following lines:

“Most short and long term visitors to Taiwan will comment on its unique characteristics, culture and style. Taiwan has an identity that makes it clearly different from all its neighbors…”

The writer and his blog shall remain nameless as I generally like and agree with the majority of his postings. The idea that Taiwan is somehow uniquely different from its neighbors, whom I take to mean the two Koreas and Japan, is what bothers me. Is the writer implying that the other countries of Northeast Asia are somehow difficult to distinguish from each other and Taiwan? Aren’t all cultures and societies unique in their own special ways, and if so, wouldn’t that then render the sentences above meaningless?

The article in question is mainly concerned with the external influences that have shaped modern Taiwanese society. While I’m not that familiar with Korean history, I do know that Japan’s “unique” and “different” culture is also the result of centuries of (Asian) continental and Western influences, framed by a long period of self-imposed isolation that allowed it to develop many of those things that we think of when we ponder what makes Japan so Japanese (a process which also occurred in Korea, but not here in Taiwan). So just what is it that makes Taiwan so “different from its neighbors”? Certainly Korea and Japan have been heavily influenced over the centuries by the behemoth next door, China (and Taiwan even more so, of course). Nonetheless, the Koreans and the Japanese have managed to take these initially foreign inputs and turn them into things that are now truly national. I’m not sure it can be argued that Taiwan has done the same. With the noticeable exception of the aborigines 台灣原住民族, what aspects of present-day Taiwan can be held up as examples of products of a different or unique Northeast Asian culture? Many bloggers point to the lasting effects of 50 years of Japanese colonial rule, but the cultural influence of that period mostly exists on a surface level – the taking off of shoes indoors, the love of hot springs, the popularity of oden おでん (which ICRT last week, while admitting its Japanese origins, nevertheless insisted was a “unique part of Taiwanese cuisine”!) and so on. At its core, this is still a Han Chinese 漢族 culture, with practices, traditions and, most importantly, the “Middle Kingdom” mindset not very dissimilar to those that exist in China.

Acknowledging that Taiwan is a Chinese culture is not the same as insisting that this island is a part of China, and must be “reunified” with the “Mainland”. Due to historical reasons (not to mention moral justifications), Taiwan has developed into a separate political entity, and this writer hopes it remains one. I would love nothing more than to see a Republic of Taiwan come into existence some day, recognized as a sovereign nation by countries around the world and welcomed into the UN and other important international organizations. I just don’t see the need to either trumpet a so-called “unique Taiwanese identity” that doesn’t exist in the first place, or to blow out of proportion the differences that are actually there today.

Perhaps it has to do with something I’ve noticed over the years I’ve spent living in Japan and Taiwan. There is a tendency among some Westerners who have resided in an Asian country like Taiwan or Japan (but not in both) to assume one of two things: a.) the country of residence is “unique” in relation to its Asian neighbors; or 2.) what is true in the Asian country of residence must be true in its neighbors as well. This can be manifested in the observation by my best friend Steve, a long-term ex-pat resident of Taichung 台中, of how a certain TV program featuring a panel of Mandarin-speaking foreigners is demonstrative of how Taiwanese view outsiders, when in fact the show in question is basically a copy (or rip-off) of an old Japanese program hosted by Beat Takeshi ビートたけし, aka Takeshi Kitano 北野武 (the only thing being unique about Taiwanese TV, in fact, is how imitative it is of Japanese programming). It can also be seen in the surprise expressed by the British owner of the school I managed in Yokkaichi 四日市, Japan when I told him that him that, no, Taiwanese kids did not sit cross-legged on floors like our Japanese students, but used desks and chairs. It seems that living for too long in one Asian nation while spending very little time in its neighbors can turn your host country into a very deep well, and you into a very large frog. It’s no wonder some people are able to convince themselves that Taiwan Beer 台灣啤酒 is great to drink. :-)

So, is Taiwan “unique” and “different”? Yes, but no more so than any of its neighbors. Taiwan in definitely not like Japan, for example, but at the time same time, Japan does not much resemble Taiwan. To say otherwise demonstrates naivety at best or a sense of cultural myopia at worst. Apples and oranges, anyone?

Besides, when it comes to plain-out weirdness, no society in Northeast Asia can top North Korea.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Everything but the Buddha

Instead of hiking this Tuesday afternoon, I rode the train to the nearby city of Changhua 彰化 to do a bit of sightseeing. Good thing, too, for it rained all day long, and being in the mountains would no doubt have been a less-than-pleasurable experience. Changhua is noted in Taiwan for its Great Buddha Statue, but having visited it several times already (the last occasion being a few weeks ago when I walked along some rural roads for two hours and eight kilometers/five miles in order to reach it), I decided to give Sakyamuni a pass. Besides, being only a couple of years older than myself and made of concrete, Changhua's Buddha can hardly compare to the Kamakura Daibutsu 鎌倉大仏 in Japan, not to mention many similar historical examples in China. So today I went to have a look at some of the other attractions the city of 230,000 people has to offer.

Changhua isn't far from Fengyuan 豐原 by train. Going there, the Tzuch'iang limited express took roughly 25 minutes, while even the local train got me back in just over half an hour. Exiting Changhua Station 彰化車站, I walked over to narrow Ch'enling Road, and begin checking things out. First up was Cat Mouse Noodles 猫鼠麺, an establishment in these here parts for noodles that having nothing to do with felines or mice (the name apparently comes from a Taiwanese-Mandarin pun). An intrepid travel writer would have naturally stopped here to see what all the fuss is about, but I was quite content to have eaten at the Fengyuan MOS Burger モスバーガー branch before catching the train.


Further along Ch'enling Road, where it meets Minsheng Road, was what should have been my next destination, the Yuanch'ing Temple. However, the front area of the temple was in the midst of some large-scale digging project, and as a result, only one wing was open to the public. Fortunately, the nearby Confucius Temple 孔子廟 wasn't being disturbed by any construction or road-work, so I quickly headed there. Dating from 1726, Changhua's Confucius Temple is one of the nicest in all of Taiwan, and is worth a look if you're walking from the train station up to Pakuashan to see the big-ass Buddha. Like all Confucius temples, the interior is devoid of any representation of the venerable master, just admiring plaques with inscriptions from Chinese emperors.


From the temple, it was a short walk along K'ungmen Road to Chungshan Road, and the route leading up to the top of Bakuashan and the Buddha. Instead of walking up, however, I went inside the new Museum of the War of 1895. Set up in a converted bomb shelter, the museum details the resistance to the Japanese takeover of Taiwan following the end of the First Sino-Japanese War 日清戦争 and the Treaty of Shimonoseki 下関条約 in 1895. Though free to enter, the displays lack any English explanations. In fact, other than a pamphlet giving a rough outline of the museum, the only English inside consisted of the words "Republic of Fomosa" (sic) projected onto a wall and a copy of the proclamation made by the Japanese governor-general of Taiwan 台湾総督府, Kabayama Sukenori 樺山資紀, on the takeover of the island.


Close to the 1895 Museum is the Changhua Arts Museum, located in the former Changhua Convention Hall, an attractive Japanese-era building dating from 1933. Also free of charge (Changhua is a bargain to visit!), the exhibition on the first-floor consisted mainly of watercolors of idyllic rural Taiwanese scenes. I was more interested in the map of Changhua dating from 1935, on the second floor. The old Shōka Shrine 彰化神社 could be clearly seen, along with the commemorative tablet that the Japanese erected on the site of the present Great Buddha. Kudos once again to those who preserve these fine old buildings, and put them to good use.


Just behind the art museum was the last of Changhua's non-Buddha sights, a 300-year-old well built by the Dutch. It was hardly worth seeing, as it has been cemented over, with an Earth God Shrine erected behind it for good measure. My Lonely Planet guidebook says the well still pumps out drinkable water, but I didn't give it a try.


And so ends the story of what to do when in Changhua on a rainy afternoon, and you don't feel like visiting the Great Buddha Statue. The middle of the town where the sights are located is easy to get around, and it only took me a couple of hours to see everything at a leisurely pace.
  

Monday, July 26, 2010

Happy Anniversary to us

This Tuesday will be our eighth wedding anniversary, so to celebrate we went out with Amber to have lunch this afternoon at Zion here in Fengyuan 豐原. The restaurant is located in a beautiful wooden building dating from the Japanese period. I believe it originally housed the headquarters of a local textile company, but now it has been converted to an establishment serving Western-type meals. Good ones, too, judging from the pork and squid set I enjoyed today. It's great to see these grand old buildings being preserved (and not just as museum pieces), instead of being torn down in order to erect yet another of those concrete monstrosities that blight Taiwan's urban landscape.


Following our celebratory lunch, we drove into the Fengchia 逢甲 area of T'aichung 台中 to do some shopping at the Carrefour hypermarket there. Now I've been accused at times by certain anonymous cowards (as judgmental jerks almost always are) of being some kind of "neo-colonialist". These trolls can think whatever they like, but it seems to me that a great many Taiwanese harbor both a nostalgic look back at the colonial past and an envious eye towards their former colonial masters. Either that, or Japan is just plain cool in the eyes of many people here, especially the young. It certainly isn't me that's exhibiting "neo-colonialist" tendencies!

In the wake of the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement 海峽兩岸經濟合作架構協議 between Taiwan and China, the government is making a push to sell the benefits of the ECFA to its neighbors, according to this AP article from today's Japan Focus ("Taiwan, Japan to develop broadband technologies"):

"Three big Japanese corporations may join Taiwan in developing cutting-edge broadband technologies that will allow them to jointly tap China’s vast telecommunications market. Fujitsu Ltd 富士通, NEC Corp 日本電気 and Mitsubishi Corp 三菱商事 have expressed an interest in the offer to develop WiMax technologies together with Taiwanese firms, said Yiin Chi-ming, a Taiwanese state minister. Yiin said he expects to sign a memorandum of understanding with the three Japanese firms to set up a company involved in WiMax system integration when he leads a trade mission to Japan next week. WiMAX - short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access — expands broadband wireless access over longer distances of up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) and reduces the cost of implementing broadband. Taiwan has sought foreign investment in the wake of a landmark trade deal the island signed last month with China, under which the mainland would slash tariffs on goods produced in Taiwan. The trade pact, known as Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, will also cover a broad range of services, Yiin said. 'Foreign firms can benefit from Taiwanese companies’ knowledge of the Chinese market and their strengths in product innovation and commercialization,' he said. The trade group will also visit other Japanese firms to discuss joint projects in electric car, electronic components and energy-related technologies, he said."

The Taipei Times has a similar, and more detailed, article here.

In one final bit of Taiwan-related news from Japan's English-language media, Wayne Graczyk, in his weekly Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ column "Baseball Bullet-in" had this to say today:

"Retired but keeping a Japan connection, former Seibu Lions 埼玉西部ライオンズ and Hiroshima Carp 広島東洋カープ third baseman Scott McClain is now working as a scout for the Chicago Cubs, helping to cover the Pacific Rim with Steve Wilson. A one-time pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers who was on the 1993 Dodgers postseason tour to Fukuoka 福岡, Wilson later played in Taiwan, married a Taiwanese woman and decided to settle there."

Wilson is (was?) the owner of Willy's Second Base, a bar and grill in T'ainan 台南 that's listed in both the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides Taiwan guidebooks. His Wikipedia entry can be found here.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Short but sweat

I got back a short while ago from a late morning walk on the Hsint'ien 新田 trails in T'antzu 潭子. The humidity level was high, but the walk was relatively uneventful, except for the many caterpillars out and about. The future butterflies and moths were everywhere on the trails, crawling on leaves and wooden posts, hanging by threads from tree branches and ending up on my clothing. I was also kept company by a trio of geckos on the ceiling of a pavilion where I stopped for a Pocari Sweat ポカリスエット break. On the way home, the rice fields were full of egrets looking for insects and small frogs.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Three strikes, yer out!

Strike One: I rode over to Dia, the biggest swimming pool in Fengyuan 豐原, after lunch in the hope of cooling off on this hot and humid summer afternoon. Unfortunately, being summer vacation, the place was full of children. As I pulled into the parking lot, a large tour bus had just finished disgorging the last of its kiddie occupants, all lined up and ready to go inside. A look through a window confirmed that a quiet swim was going to be out of the question, so I gave up. Unless I'm with Amber, being a hairy barbarian in the midst of a throng of unsupervised screaming little shits isn't my idea of summer fun.

Strike Two: Seeing as swimming is out of the question until September (after the ガキ are back in school), I rode off in search of the elusive Nank'eng Hiking Trail 南坑登山歩道, somewhere in the hills of Fengyuan behind Chung-cheng Park 中正公園. There were signs on the road pointing the way to this:


"Coffee", "simple meals" and, worst of all, "karaoke" 卡拉OK hardly conjure up images of trekking in the great outdoors, and truth be told, I'd been here a couple of times before. On the first occasion, I was chased off by a pack of dogs, and on the other, by a middle-aged woman who insisted there was no hiking trail despite what the sign on her building said. Today there were no dogs or people around, and I found the "trail". Or rather, I discovered a small paved road leading up to a clearing that at one time had picnic tables and, presumably, a nice view of Fengyuan below. Presumably, because it was hard to see anything through the bushes, reeds and weeds that Nature had been using to reclaim the clearing.

Strike Three: On the way home, I stopped off at the city hospital. Not to visit any sick friends or relatives, fortunately, but to buy English muffins from the convenience store there. It's the only place in town that I'm aware of that carries these welcome treats from home, but on a day like this one, I wasn't too surprised to find that they were no longer in stock.

Oh well, the great thing about baseball is that even the best teams lose ⅓ of their games, and the best hitters fail at the plate 70% of the time. I did enjoy riding around on some back roads that I hadn't been on in quite a long time. One route took me to the public mausoleum, overlooking the city below:


One thing I'll never understand about the local culture is why the dead are given what would be considered prime real estate in the West, while the living cram themselves into barely habitable urban areas:


I'm sure I'll get on base the next time I head out.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Following the signs

My wife went to see a specialist in T'aichung 台中 this afternoon, and my daughter and I went along for the ride. While Pamela was cooling her heels in the clinic, Amber and I took a long walk around the neighborhood, which included a Carrefour hypermarket with a Gordon Biersch brewpub.

My wife was at the doctor's for a long time, so daughter and Dad had a couple of breaks while waiting for Mom to finish up:

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Say it ain't so, Shin

Baseball is the national sport of Taiwan. Having been introduced to America's pastime by the Japanese, the Taiwanese have done well at the game, from their champion Little League teams which dominated play throughout the 1970's (even if the rules weren't always strictly adhered to) to the handful of local players who have reached the Major Leagues, most notably Wang Chien-ming 王建民 and Kuo Hong-chih 郭泓志, who was selected for today's All-Star Game (he pitched ⅔ of an inning, giving up an unearned run and walking a batter). There is a professional league in Taiwan consisting of four teams - Brother Elephants, La New Bears, Sinon Bulls and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions. Unfortunately for the Chinese Professional Baseball League 中華職業棒球大聯盟, there has also been a long trail of gambling-related game fixing scandals which has dogged the league from time to time (see Wikipedia). The most recent of these came to light at the end of the 2009 season, and has ensnared a former Japanese manager, as this Kyōdō News 共同通信社 article in Japan Today documents:

"The Japanese former manager of a Taiwanese professional baseball team pleaded guilty Tuesday to game-fixing and fraud. Appearing at the Panch'iao 板橋 District Court in T'aipei County 台北縣, Shin Nakagomi 中込伸 pleaded guilty to five counts of game-fixing after confessing on June 25 to the offenses, which took place in 2008 and 2009 and led to the prosecution of some of Taiwan’s most prominent baseball players. Prosecutors are seeking an 18-month prison term for Nakagomi. Nakagomi, 40, admitted in April to one count of game-fixing, but he told the court Tuesday that he hoped his full confession will allow him to return to Japan as soon as possible to care for his daughter. But he may also face a substantial fine after the Chinese Professional Baseball League and two participating teams, the Uni-President Lions and the Sinon Bulls, said they would seek a combined NT$370 million (about $11.5 million/¥1.02 billion) in compensation from those convicted. Nakagomi pitched for the Hanshin Tigers 阪神タイガーズ in Japan and Taiwan’s Brother Elephants before taking up managing with the Elephants in 2008. Judgment is due to be handed down on Aug. 17."

In the USA, there was the infamous Black Sox Scandal during the 1919 World Series, and the game of 野球 in Japan suffered through the Black Mist Scandal 黒い霧事件 of 1969-1971, but baseball in both countries has long since recovered, and the sport remains as strong as ever. In Taiwan, however, the corruption seems more deep-rooted, and despite the vows to clean up the game every time new allegations of match fixing are raised, the scandals keep on occurring. Attendance is down, teams have disbanded and the interest of local fans is drawn increasingly toward the Majors. No wonder professional baseball in Taiwan is in a (permanent?) state of crisis, with its very future in doubt.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Amber, meet Nature. Nature, this is Amber.

Amber and I went for a walk this morning in the hills behind Chung-cheng Park 中正公園. The route we went on wasn't too strenuous for a four year-old, the heat wasn't too oppressive and there were plenty of examples of local flora and fauna to check out. A few photos from our outing:

We parked the car at a small Taoist 道教 temple. According to Amber, the censer doubled as a DVD vending machine.


Behind the temple, a stone-lined path led up the hill a short distance to a road (the same one, in fact, we drove up on). Along the way, Amber and a local lizard formed a mutual appreciation society.


Once at the road, it was a leisurely stroll back down to the temple and the car. Amber was fascinated by a struggle between a beetle and a swarm of ants. The black dot to the right of my daughter is the unfortunate Coleoptera, which eventually lost the battle and no doubt ended up as lunch for the ant colony.


Later, Amber was excited to see a small green caterpillar being carted off by another group of ants (my daughter is clearly a fan of the social insects). There were also a lot of butterflies to chase after, and some pretty flowers to sniff, plus the view of Fengyuan 豐原 far down below. Being a suburban kid doesn't mean having to be cut off from the wonders of nature, even in a place as densely populated and urbanized as Taiwan.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Getting hot 'n' humid in Sekikō 石岡

As the subject heading above says, it was pretty hot and humid today. That didn't stop me from hitting the trails, though I did choose an easy route this afternoon. Following lunch, I rode out on Fengshih Road 豊勢路 to the Shihchung Temple 石忠宮 in the town of Shihkang:


The walking trail begins to the side of the temple. It's an easy stroll up wooden steps, not much of a challenge even in the humidity, but pleasant nonetheless. It doesn't take long to pass by the various fruit orchards before reaching the top, though there are a couple of spots along the way to stop and admire the view:


Taiwan and I don't always see eye to eye on many matters, but one thing we do share in common is an interest in things Japanese, as these carp streamers こいのぼり can attest:


The trail eventually comes to one of Shihkang's tourist "attractions", the "Divine Tree of Five Blessings". On weekends, this poor tree is literally overrun with unsupervised children crawling all over it, but today it was alone and therefore unmolested. Here's an old photo of the tree I took on a previous walk along the same trail:


From the tree, the path starts to work its way downhill, eventually reaching a rushing stream, where I watched, enviously, while some local kids had fun in the water:


A short walk along the waterway leads to another of Shihkang's artificial "sights", the Lover's Bridge. Having no cultural or historical significance whatsoever, it was built a few years ago to give people a reason to stop on the road running between Fengyuan 豐原 and Tungshih 東勢. Later, an overpass was constructed over Fengshih Road, linking the bridge to the Tungfeng biking route. This means on weekends the entire area is a veritable cacophony, the result of karaoke 卡拉OK machines, mini-race cars, food stands, souvenir stalls etc., in competition for the leisure time New Taiwan dollar 新台幣. This afternoon, however, all was quiet on the tourism front:


Ah, Taiwan - from Monday to Friday, it's the respectable Dr. Henry Jekyll, but on Saturdays and Sundays the country's sightseeing spots are transformed into the sinister Mr. Hyde.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Happy Fourth of July

It's funny - the older I get, the more to the left my political views drift. Usually as one ages, their outlooks become more conservative, but my life experiences seem to be pushing me in the opposite direction, as those double-digit IQ believers in the (un)Holy Trinity of Beck, Limbaugh and Palin have learned after receiving the brunt of my (bitter) sarcasm (not that they can understand any of it :)) On the other hand, I'm also feeling prouder of my nationality than I have at any point in my life. I hesitate to use the word "patriotism" as the above-mentioned company have managed to remove any positive vestiges from the term, but for all the many faults of the United States and its society, I feel no shame or need to apologize for the land that spawned me. It's taken all these years living abroad, combined with the birth of a bi-cultural/dual nationality-holding daughter, to make the realization sink in that the USA, while certainly not the "greatest country in the world" (sorry Glen, Rush et al), is still a pretty good place.

All this is a rather long-winded and unnecessary introduction to say that today was the Fourth of July, and that we spent the afternoon at AmCham's America's Independence Day party at the Chingkuo Parkway in T'aichung 台中. This year's affair was much better than 2009's (which isn't saying much), no doubt due to the proximity of People's Park and the Park Lane/Eslite shopping mall. Clad in my Southend United jersey (all this Americanism can only be carried so far), we sampled some of the food on offer, including steak, chicken samosas and cheesecake. The highlight for me, however, was the discovery of another Made in Taiwan craft beer, a Pilsner, from the Deluxe Brewery in T'uch'eng 土城, T'aipei County 台北縣. We also had the pleasure of meeting up with my friend Steve and his family, as well as running into one of my former students, Roddick, and Joel, one of my coworkers at the kindergarten. Joel has a great rapport with kids, and Amber took to him immediately.


Now that Independence Day is taken care of, I'll be looking for opportunities to allow Amber to explore her English, Irish, Scottish and Canadian heritages.

Taichung's tallest building, as seen from the shopping mall's multi-story parking garage:


Immigration being one of the strengths of American society (are you listening, those of you on the right?), the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ has this week-old article on a Japanese legislator with Taiwanese roots:

"...when Upper House Diet 参議院 member Renhō 蓮舫 was appointed as minister for administrative reforms in Prime Minister Naoto Kan's 管直人 new Cabinet, the media took her background in stride. Renhō, age 42, was born Hsieh Lien-fang 謝蓮舫 with Republic of China 中華民國 (Taiwan) citizenship. Her mother is Japanese, and when Japan's Nationality Law was modified she opted for Japanese citizenship at the age of 18.

If she had so chosen, Renhō could have retained Hsieh as her surname even after acquiring Japanese citizenship. Instead, she opted for Saitō 斉藤, her mother's surname. Then upon marriage she became (Renhō Murata) 村田蓮舫. So while her original surname has changed twice following her choice to become a citizen and marriage, her given name — written with characters that mean 'lotus mooring' — has remained unchanged.

Renhō, minus her surname, is also the name she used when she emerged in 1988 as the 14th 'Clarion Girl' クラリオンガール for the eponymous manufacturer of car-audio systems. During its heyday (Clarion's campaign became defunct three years ago) such status served as a launch pad for many careers in show business or modeling, and, in this case, politics.

Perhaps because the post of minister for administrative reforms 内閣府特命担当大臣(行政刷新) is comparatively low in the Cabinet hierarchy, reaction to Renhō's appointment by the media has been considerably less clamorous than when Makiko Tanaka 田中眞紀子 was appointed minister of foreign affairs 外務大臣 in April 2001. The vernacular Yomiuri newspaper 読売新聞 and one magazine pointed out that people in Taiwan had affectionately referred to her as warera no banana musume われらのバナナ娘 ('our banana girl'), a reference to one of Taiwan's best-known agricultural exports to Japan. But most articles seem to have taken Renhō's half-Chinese ethnicity in stride, or made only passing reference to it.

Takeo Hiranuma 平沼赳夫, of the conservative Sunrise Party of Japan たちあがれ日本, stirred controversy last January by remarking, 'Before, she wasn't a Japanese,' but Tōkyō Sports 東京スポーツ (June 9) reported that while on the stump, Hiranuma's colleague and party cofounder Kaoru Yosano 与謝野馨 sensibly refrained from making a reference to Renhō's background, merely boosting his own party's candidate, Asako Ogura 小倉あさこ, by saying, 'Instead of a female candidate who just goes gyan-gyan-gyan-gyan ギャンギャンギャン ("yakitty-yak") on the TV, we should elect Ms. Ogura, a woman with real substance and a strong marrow.'

Along with the image of youth and competence that the (Democratic Party of Japan) 民主党 has been attempting to project, Kan may benefit from the glamour Renhō brings to his Cabinet, and she seems to be favored for re-election in the upcoming July 11 poll. In the long term, her non-Japanese roots may be less of a political hindrance than her lack of moneyed family connections or a regional power base.

Flash フラッシュ (June 29) ended its two-page feature on Renhō by remarking, 'Naturally, waiting in the wings is the seat of Japan's first female prime minister.' The phrase carries no tone of sarcasm, and one can only wonder if Flash's editors tacked it on to voice support, or merely to stir up controversy.

But politics can be a dirty business. Renhō wasn't in the Cabinet even a week before scandal arose. Her secretary, referred to in the media only as "Mr. M.," was accused of molesting a young woman, and as reported in Shūkan Bunshun 週刊文春 (June 24), during a meeting of political supporters a man reportedly stood up and demanded, 'You should resign both your minister's portfolio and your seat in the Diet.'"

One wonders if a person with a background similar to Renhō's could reach a similar political position here in Taiwan.

Happy Fourth of July!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Taichū, er, I mean T'aichung

Today was a very nice father-daughter kind of a day. As my wife had to work all day long, I drove Amber into Taichung for another of her modeling sessions. Afterward, we had a beef bowl 牛丼 lunch at Yoshinoya 吉野家, then drove over to the National Museum of Natural Science 國立自然科學博物館. After enjoying some strawberry ice cream and buying some English books for Amber at Caves Bookstore, we walked the grounds outside the museum before getting back into the car and driving off to my daughter's late afternoon swimming lesson. Amber really seemed to enjoy herself this morning and afternoon.

Amber shows off her Hello Kitty ハローキティ Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 福岡ソフトバンクホークス towel I picked up for her while I was in Japan back in May.

Friday, July 2, 2010

God Bless America


In celebration of the Fourth of July, the local Carrefour is once again promoting an odd selection of American products. In addition to buying a couple of boxes of Banana Nut Crunch and Trail Mix Crunch cereals, I picked up four bottles of Saranac craft beer, put out by the Matt Brewing Company of Utica, NY - an Adirondack Lager, a Black Forest black beer, a Pale Ale and a Pomegranate Wheat. Combined with the beers I bought last night at a 7-Eleven (see previous entry), it's going to a craft beer fest at the Kaminoge household for the next week!

Last year at this time Carrefour had a selection of microbrews put out the North Coast Brewing Company of Fort Bragg, CA. One year on, there are still bottles on the shelves. This means I'll probably be able to enjoy the Saranacs for some time to come. Let the Taike 台客 and their Western wannabes keep their Taiwan Beer 台灣啤酒 - their loss is my gain!

乾杯!

ECFA or Enema?


Stopping in at one of Taiwan's ubiquitous 7-Eleven's this evening on my to work, I was pleasantly shocked to find the four beers pictured above on the shelves and available for purchase. In the land where Taiwan Beer 台灣啤酒 reigns supreme, quality suds are often quickly pulled from the market, so I wasted no time in buying a Samuel Adams Boston Lager; a Longboard Island Lager and Wailua Wheat Ale, both brewed by the Kona Brewing Company in Kailua-Kona, HI; and a Kronenbourg 1664. And if that wasn't enough, in celebration of the Fourth of July, the local Carrefour from tomorrow will begin offering some Saranac line of beers from the Matt Brewing Company in Utica, NY. Taiwan Beer will eventually reassert itself, and (in)sanity will return to the local beer market, but I plan on enjoying this mini-revolution while it lasts. USA!

All this beer is arriving just in time to drown one's sorrows over the recent hoopla regarding the signing of an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement 海峽兩岸經濟合作架構協議 between China and Taiwan. The businesspeople and the economists are all singing the praises of the fruitful blessings this pact is supposedly going to bring down on the good people of Taiwan (these same folks also are offering some good deals on their own grandmothers if you happen to be in the market for one). Non-economist that I am, I'm having a hard time trying to understand why the Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 administration felt the urgent need to get this thing signed and imposed on this country. Hadn't Taiwanese companies already invested billions of dollars in China since the early Nineties, to the point where 40% of Taiwanese exports end up there? Instead of further entangling the Taiwanese economy with that of China's, wouldn't it have made more sense to pursue an ECFA-like pact with a more mature economy, say that of the US, European Union or Japan? Of course, if you look at ECFA as a political, rather than economic, agreement, it all starts to come together. If you're a believer in the glory of a Greater China 大中華地區, but don't wish to risk international condemnation by making aggressive, belligerent military threats, what better way to keep the Taiwanese independence movement under control while simultaneously paving the way for the eventual establishment of a Taiwanese Special Administrative Region than by making it all the more difficult for the Taiwanese economy to get rid of the Chinese monkey on its back? It's enough to turn a man to drink. Now where's that Sam Adams I just bought...?

Enough of my ramblings. For the Japanese take on things, the Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売 has this Yomiuri Shimbun 読売新聞 article ("China-Taiwan deal gives Japan firms pause"), which isn't quite as excited about the agreement as some stories that have appeared in other foreign media:

"The historic trade pact signed by China and Taiwan on Tuesday will force many Japanese companies to rethink their strategies for this key market--one that could evolve into a powerful economic rival. The economic cooperation framework agreement heavily favors Taiwan companies, cutting tariffs on 539 Taiwan export items to China as opposed to 237 items exported in the other direction. Japan's electronics industry has crafted close links with consortiums of Chinese and Taiwan companies by commissioning them to manufacture their products. But Tuesday's signing has made some Japanese electronics makers wary of a possible rivalry with the so-called Chaiwan alliance. 'We could end up competing against them now,' an executive of a major electronics maker said. Intensified price competition might not be the only headache for Japanese makers. The strong partnership between China, which has a huge market, and Taiwan, which has advanced technology, would be a formidable competitor. Japan's petrochemical industry has been competing with Taiwan companies for customers in China. But if tariffs between China and Taiwan are eliminated, Taiwan companies would be able to offer their products at more competitive prices than their Japanese counterparts. The free trade agreement will slash tariffs on auto parts, fueling concern among Japanese automakers that are planning to ramp up production at their China plants."

On the other hand...

"But the trade agreement could benefit some Japanese industries. Computers produced in Taiwan use many components made in Japan. If Taiwan products become more price-competitive in China--and therefore sell better--Japanese parts makers could reap the windfall."

Nonetheless...

"...a broader partnership between Chinese and Taiwan firms 'will certainly be a threat' to Japanese companies on the global market, a source in the trade industry said. The Japanese government will closely watch whether more items become subject to tariff cuts. It also will pull out all the stops to promote the joint study of a free trade agreement between Japan, China and South Korea, and to resume talks on an economic partnership agreement with South Korea, according to government officials."

If it means Taiwan Beer loses more market share to Tsingtao 青岛啤酒, then an ECFA can't be totally bad. :)