Monday, Monday 月曜日

I got up at usual this Monday morning, and while eating breakfast, noticed that Gregory Clark was back with another column in today's Japan Times. Entitled "Hope for peace in partition?", he mentions Taiwan in several places:

"Taiwan is a good example. Separation from mainland China in 1949 gave the embattled anticommunist Chinese minority the chance to regroup, regain confidence and even do much to educate the dominant majority during the latter's periods of ideological madness. Hong Kong, too, has played a crucial (role) in educating and helping its Chinese parent to revive economically. True, those partitions only came about through historical and geographical accident. And Taiwan's refusal today to accept some reconciliation with the mainland creates problems. But they are significant all the same, today especially."

Clark has long been sympathetic to dictatorial regimes like the ones in Beijing and Pyongyang. He once wrote something to the effect that China's claims to Tibet date back 2000 years, and in a recent column he tried to paint the Serbs as the victims in the Kosovo situation - a classic piece of Clarkism (ever hear of "Greater Serbia", Greg?). Here, he naturally assumes that Taiwan is a part of the greater Chinese nation, and puts the blame for cross-strait tensions squarely on Taipei, conveniently ignoring the fact that Beijing refuses to deal with a democratically-elected government. It's obvious Clark has no conception of Taiwanese history. Later, he writes of how partitioning Kosovo relates to Taiwan:

"...if satisfying Serbian historic nostalgia is important, then the concept of residual sovereignty can also be used — a concept that the international community has used very successfully to ease tensions over Taiwan."

"Residual sovereignty" is a concept that was developed during the American occupation of Okinawa, and eventually paved the way for its return to Japanese rule. It has also been suggested as a possible solution to Japan's dispute with Russia over the Northern Territories 北方領土, though so far without any success. Clark favors the status quo that says "Taiwan is a part of China, though for the time being it is under an administration separate from that which governs the mainland". He has never shown much sympathy towards the idea of self-determination, especially when it comes to his beloved Chinese empire, so it comes as no surprise that Gregory Clark doesn't entertain the thought that perhaps the majority of the people on Taiwan might have different ideas.

There was also this bit:

"In the early stages of Australia's Vietnam War some of us in Canberra pushed for what was called the enclave solution. This said that if it was clear the anticommunist Vietnamese could not prevail against their pro communist enemies, the U.S. and its allies would move to create a protected enclave — a little Taiwan — where the anticommunist forces would be able to regroup and recover.

Our idea got to the top levels of the then-opposition Labor Party. But it was ridiculed by both the right and the left, and went no further. Both were certain their side would prevail.

Eventually one side did prevail, but only after 10 more years of napalm, Agent Orange, B-52 bombings and some 2 million deaths. The other side was then left cruelly to fend as best for itself as it could."

Gregory Clark had the solution to the dilemma of the Vietnam War all along, and no one listened! When will we ever learn? At least we still have our little enclave called "Taiwan".

On a different note, today was the middle of Ghost Month 鬼月, and the section of Fengyuan's (Fongyuan) 豊原 main street, Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Road 中正路, was closed so that hundreds of people could make offerings in front of the main Matsu (Mazu) Temple in town. The result was chaotic traffic and smoky air.

While trying to get away from the heat and the smoke, I noticed this sign for a clothing store.

The name of the shop is "Dorobo Nikki" 泥棒日記, a "Thief's Diary", and underneath it reads "Nihon zenkoku de kyou ninki" 日本全国できょう人気. The problem with this sentence is the word きょう. Something is popular all over Japan, but unless きょう can be replaced with a kanji, that something is not clear. Babel Fish suggests it might be "present" or "today" 今日, but who knows for sure what the owner wants to say?

What's there to do in Taihei?

Not much, apparently. The family and I went for a drive in the nearby city of T'aip'ing (Taiping) 太平 today. Unfortunately, driving was about all we did there. The city itself is nothing out of the ordinary - the usual ramshackle collection of buildings crammed together on narrow roads. The mountains behind the city are much more scenic, but we failed to find anyplace that was worth stopping and getting out of the car for. That's what I get for relying on a Taiwanese guidebook (as opposed to a Taiwan guide like Lonely Planet or Rough Guides).

With the afternoon getting late, and an antsy child in the backseat, we gave up on Taiping (日本語で Taihei という町), and drove over to the Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑 area. There, we stopped off at the Chunkung (Jungong) Elementary School 軍功小学校 earthquake memorial, which I had visited two weeks earlier with Michael Turton. Here, at last, Amber had an opportunity to stretch her legs, which she did most enthusiastically.

On the way home I took this picture of a Taiwanese chain store. Although the characters in the store's name 松青 would be pronounced "Sungch'ing (Songcing)" in Mandarin Chinese, everyone knows it by the Japanese reading "Matsusei". Using a Japanese name is one method by which local businesses can make their establishments and/or products seem more upmarket.

Upon returning home, Pamela didn't feel like cooking, so she picked up a fried rice bento チャーハン弁当. On the outside of the box was written お食事, so that I would know the contents contained an honorable meal.

Japanese about town 日本語

三民路（台中市）

It's Pamela's birthday on Monday, so this morning I rode into T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中 to search for a suitable birthday present. Every year it seems to get harder and harder to decide what to give my wife as a gift - this time I decided to buy a couple of CD's by a Japanese singer she likes: Rimi Natsukawa 夏川りみ. After some looking around, I was finally able to locate some discs, but it wasn't easy. I have no idea how Taiwanese CD stores sort their JPop sections. With Western music, it's done alphabetically, but with Japanese artists, they don't go by あ・か・さ etc., as you would find in Japan.

The section of Taichung where I found the CD's is in the area around the Chungyo (Chungyu/Jhongyou) Department Store 中友百貨店. As it's something of a hip place, I wasn't surprised to find Japanese being used on some shop signs. Here are some examples:

These are from a restaurant called "Buma Buma" that serves spicy hotpot, a favorite of many Taiwanese (including Pamela). The Japanese reads "Kyo mo, ashita mo, nabe ga suki" 今日も明日もなべが好き, meaning one likes nabe both today and tomorrow. I don't know why it was put on the signs, as the hotpot that's dished out all over Taiwan is like nothing you would ever find in Japan (except, perhaps, at a Taiwanese restaurant!), but I guess it looks cool.

On the left is Katsuya, which pretentiously describes itself as a パン工房, or a "bread workshop". What's wrong with being a "bakery" パン屋? On the right is a clothing store, on the sign of which is written 藤原本鋪, which I interpret to mean "Fujiwara Main Store", though I would've thought 本店 would've been more suitable. In smaller writing underneath it says しなやかな洋服屋（ようふくや）, "the pliant tailor shop". It's all a little strange.

Not to be outdone by its much larger neighbor to the south, Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原 served up some examples of its own as I was walking around in the late afternoon today:

The photo on the left was taken in front of a nabe restaurant near the Pacific Department Store 太洋百貨店 called 六條龍, a name that should be written as ろくじょうたつ in hiragana, but which says ろくじゅうけつ on the sign out front. I've blogged on this before, so I won't bother with the same photo again, but today I noticed the words in small print for the first time: 事前に電話にて預約可能, which is trying to inform the public that it's possible to telephone in advance, presumably regarding orders. Who do they think actually reads the sign?

The people in the picture on the right are not part of a sign, of course. Rather, they were a friendly trio of senior citizens enjoying a game of gateball ゲートボール, which is very popular among retirees in Japan, and thus is in keeping with the overall Japanese theme of today's post.

Finally, there's these two pics:

Please excuse the poor quality of the photograph on the left. I took it as quickly as I could, from as far away as possible, as it was posted on the outside of a video game arcade. In Taiwan, entry into arcades is prohibited to those under 18, with the result being that many such establishments cater to older men, are staffed with women wearing short skirts and are run by gangsters 暴力団組員. Best not to be seen doing something suspicious in front of one of these places. The sign is no doubt for one of the games, 闘神雷電 "The Fighting God of Thunder and Lightning". According to my wife, この男、豪にして快 means something like "This man is strong and fast". Yar!

The other picture was taken in front of a convenience store コンビに. The sign is supposed to read ケシゴム, which means "eraser" (or perhaps "rubber", judging by some of the toys inside). However, it looks like ケツゴム instead. It's hard to tell - not only is my English getting worse the longer I stay in Taiwan, but so is my 日本語!

China Airlines チャイナエアライン

By now you've probably read the news and seen the pictures of the China Airlines jet burning up at Naha 那覇 airport in Okinawa 沖縄. Both the Daily Yomiuri and the Japan Times featured yesterday's incident among their leading stories in today's online editions. It was fortunate that no one was hurt, but once again the poor safety record of Taiwan's national flag carrier has been put in the spotlight.

I've flown with China Airlines on a couple of occasions, and both times those flights went off without a hitch. But according to this Wikipedia article , the airline has averaged 6.44 fatal events per million flights, while the worldwide average is under 1.0. Just looking at the list of accidents involving China Airlines planes is unnerving (I remember seeing the wreckage of Flight 605 sitting on the tarmac in a corner of the old Kai Tak Airport when I flew to Hong Kong in December 1993). What is it about the apparent lack of concern regarding safety that seems so common in Taiwan? Or perhaps I'm being too harsh. After all, Taiwan's other major international airline, EVA Air エバー航空, seems to reach its destinations without its planes falling out of the sky, or bursting into flames on the runway.

There was a time when China Airlines was the only international airline still flying into Tokyo's much more convenient Haneda Airport 羽田空港, but now that it (along with EVA) uses Narita International Errport 成田国際空港, it's hard to think of a good reason why I should put my life at greater risk when flying.

UPDATE: The Japan Times has an editorial on Monday's incident from today's edition (Thursday).

Newspapers 新聞

News in English isn't hard to find in Taiwan, even in a small city like Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原. The local cable provider shows CNN, and most of the convenience stores stock at least one of the three English-language newspapers. In fact, compared to Japan, it's much easier to find an English newspaper. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the quality of the papers. Perhaps it's because of the relatively small size of the market (there being fewer ex-pats, for example), but none of the three newspapers here (China Post, Taipei Times and Taiwan News) can be favorably compared to the Japan Times, or even the Daily Yomiuri. True, they all provide a good overview of international events provided by the major wire services like AP, AFJ and Kyodo News 共同通信社. But the quality of their local news coverage varies. The China Post is probably the worst in this regard. Domestic news stories are often poorly translated, and betray a pro-KMT 中国国民党 bias. The Taiwan News is better, but that paper is closely allied to the Democratic Progressive Party 民主進步黨 (DPP). The Taipei Times is by far the best of the lot, and generally pretty consistent, but even it screws up once in a while. Take today for example...

On Page 2 in today's issue, there was an article by one Loa Iok-sin entitled "`Comfort women' protest in Taipei". The writer shows a clear bias in favor of the comfort women 慰安婦, and in one paragraph the following is written:

"During World War II, an estimated 200,000 Asian women were forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to serve as "comfort women," or sex slaves.

Tokyo has not apologized, but set up the Asian Women's Fund in 1995 to issue compensation."

Now the plight of the comfort women is one deserving of both support and sympathy, and the Japanese government's handling of the issue has been rightfully condemned by many. But Loa apparently didn't bother to do any research for this story, because it seems as if he/she has never heard of the Kono Statement. Back on August 4, 1993, Yohei Kono 河野洋平, who at the time was the Japanese government's Chief Cabinet Secretary (i.e. it's official spokesman), issued a statement in the name of the Japanese government on the comfort women. In it, he clearly stated

"The Government of Japan would like to take this opportunity once again to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those, irrespective of place of origin, who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women."

It may not have satisfied many of the former comfort women and their supporters, but it clearly is an apology. The Japanese government has stood by the Kono Statement ever since - even Shinzo Abe 安倍晋三 has refused to refute it. It seems Loa got his/her background information for the article in question from the people that he/she interviewed, and didn't bother to crosscheck any of the facts.

The Japan Times has a commentary today by Tom Plate on Taiwan's recent failed UN 国連 bid, "Taiwan sets itself up for yet another fall". It's a sympathetic piece in general about Taiwan and its situation, but critical on the way the Chen government has gone about trying to gain admission to world bodies like the UN and WHO 世界保健機関, basically saying it's a waste of time due to China's objections. Perhaps he's right, but hopefully Taiwan's persistence will keep attention fixed on the situation. A better way for Taiwan vis-a-vis the matter of its representation in international bodies might be to coordinate its actions with sympathetic friends, like Japan and the United States, instead of trying to go it alone.

How do say "Chinese stooge" in Korean, Ban Ki-moon? Is it 중국 조연 (according to Babel Fish, not the most reliable of translators)? Just wondering :)

Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑

Good timing this morning. Despite threatening skies, I went ahead and met Michael around 7:45 to do some hiking. Due to a typhoon that had skirted the east coast of Taiwan, we caught only a glimpse of the sun today. There were the occasional drops, but the rain for the most part refrained from falling until I was on my way back home.

Our destination were some hiking trails in the hills behind the Kuanyin (Guanyin) Temple 観音寺 that overlooks Chungt'ai (Jhongtai) University 中台大学. The rain and accompanying winds ensured both the air and the views were very clear.

We didn't see too many insects during our walk, but those we did encounter were very cooperative when it came to having their pictures taken.

At the end of the path, we had an unobstructed view of the mountain that contains the Nos. 1-5 hiking trails.

It was all downhill from there, as we walked down a narrow road back to the parking lot where we had parked our scooters. On the way back, we passed through a farmer's market.

After hiking, we stopped off to look at what's left of the Chunkung (Jungong) Elementary School 軍功小学校. The school was badly damaged in the Sept. 21, 1999 Great Chichi (Jiji) Earthquake 集集大地震, and has been preserved as a memorial. Publicly-constructed buildings such as schools fared worse than privately-built structures in the quake, which doesn't inspire confidence in the government's contract-awarding system. It was a good thing the earthquake struck in the early morning hours, or the death toll among students might have been very high.

I'd write more, but it's getting late and I want to watch "Letters from Iwo Jima" 硫黄島からの手紙.

In the news ニュース

Once a month, I sacrifice my one day off a week in order to clean our apartment from top to bottom, which also gives Pamela time to take care of things she otherwise wouldn't be able to do. Today was that Sunday, so I don't have anything to write about in regards to places visited and things seen. However, there were some Taiwan-related articles in the English-language Japanese media this week, so here's a brief roundup:

From last Sunday (7月29日）the Japan Times carried a letter to the editor from Wen Ching-chu, of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei (Taiwan's de facto embassy in Japan). Entitled "Striving for a place in the U.N.", Wen argued that Taiwan's application for admission to the United Nations 国際連合 had the support of the majority of Taiwan's populace. Nonetheless, Taiwan's application was dismissed out of hand by the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon バン・キムン, in what was most likely a violation of UN procedures. According to this Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_Ki-moon:

"...Ban Ki-Moon has been noteworthy as accepting of many Chinese positions, especially those vis-a-vis Taiwan."

I guess human rights violations in general, and suppression of self-rule movements in Tibet チベット and Xinjiang 新疆, are less objectionable to Ban than the desire of a democratic nation of 23 million people to seek its rightful place in the world body of nations.

Today, the Daily Yomiuri had a story about China protesting over the playing of the Republic of China national anthem 中華民国の国歌. It seems that the anthem was played after at least five games during the course of a basketball tournament being held in Tokushima 徳島. In the words of the Chinese Foreign Ministry:

"China expresses strong protest and demands the Japanese side to immediately take effective measures to remove this vile influence and avoid similar events from happening again..."

"Vile influence"? If one country is having a "vile influence" on the rest of the world, it would be the one with its capital in Beijing 北京, which is causing otherwise decent human beings to abandon their principles and overlook abuses against their fellow human beings, all in the name of making a buck in the China market. 1.3 billion potential consumers make for one giant collective ass to be kissed by people the world over, doesn't it?

Finally, there was this review in today's Japan Times of a book entitled "JAPAN'S CONTESTED WAR MEMORIES: The "Memory Rifts" in Historical Consciousness of WWII", by Philip A. Seaton. While this book isn't related to Taiwan, it's refreshing to see a writer trying to get beyond the stereotypical views many Asians and Westerners have of Japan and how the latter views the Second World War. Which is exactly the author's point, that there is no "Japanese" view of things as war memories are a point of contention within Japan. The reviewer, Jeff Kingston (a director of Asian Studies at Temple University's Tokyo campus), states at the end:

"Although Seaton claims that Japan boasts "probably the most contested memories of any of the major WWII combatant nations," this perspective does not seem to matter in China and Korea where the "orthodoxy" of an unrepentant Japan in denial goes unchallenged.

In looking at the future of war memory, it is hard to avert our eyes from the competing selective gazes of state-centered war memories that bedevil relations in East Asia. Translating this book into Chinese and Korean might help."

This sounds like a book I should add to my reading list.

Video ビデオ

Here's a short film I shot with my digital camera from the summit of Sanjo-ga-take 山上が岳 (elevation 1719 meters), when I hiked up Omine-san 大峰山 in Japan last month. The picture quality isn't very good, but it was a great view of the surrounding mountains.

https://youtu.be/BwclVZlqLwM