Coming soon to a department store floor near you

I took Amber out for a walk in the hills above Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park 中正公園 this morning. Actually, I did all the footwork, while my daughter happily sat in the child carrier perched on my back, but we both had a good time. The carrier is designed to bear weights up to 22 kilograms (48.5 pounds). Amber is currently about 12 kilos (26 pounds), so she's going to be spending a lot more time on my back in the months to come:

On the way home, I noticed these banners strung along the circle road that loops around central Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原:

The local Pacific Department Store will be hosting a Tottori Week from September 5-10. For those of you for whom the name means nothing, Tottori 鳥取 is one of Japan's 47 prefectures (in fact, it's the least populous one, with only 620,000 residents). I'm assuming the store will be featuring food products from there (Tottori is apparently known for nashi pears ナシ, nagaimo yams ナガイも, an edible plant called rakkyō ラッキョウ, negi or welsh onion ネギ and watermelon スイカ). There also appears to be some kind of connection to a manga 漫画 artist, according to the banners. I made my first visit to Tottori-ken 鳥取県 back in June, when I stayed a night in the city of Kurayoshi 倉吉, and used it as a base to visit the Nageire-dō 投入堂. I also climbed Mt. Daisen 大山, which sits in Tottori (the prefecture's most famous sightseeing spot is the Tottori Sand Dunes 鳥取砂丘, but I didn't go there). I intend on visiting the department store next weekend to see what Tottori Week is all about.

Fengyuan is a small city in central Taiwan, with a population of 165,000. By local standards, it's a nice enough place to live, with convenient transportation connections (bus, car and train) to places up and down the west coast of the island. The presence of the Pacific Department Store, combined with a street called Miaotung (Miaodong) that is lined with food stands, serves as a magnet for people living in the smaller cities and towns of T'aichung (Taijhong) County 台中県, but most city residents head to nearby T'aichung 台中 city in search of excitement. Basically, not a whole lot goes on in Fengyuan, so Tottori Week is actually something you could almost get excited about, along with the MOS Burger モスバーガー and Carrefour outlets due to open soon.

In other words, T'aipei (Taibei) 台北 it ain't. But Taiwan 台湾 it most certainly is.

Snakes Alive!

I knew something like this would happen. My wife went out for lunch this afternoon with a friend, and took the camera with her. So I knew that when I went to Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park 正中公園 today to get some much-needed exercise, I was going to see something that would make me wish Pamela hadn't taken the camera with her. Sure enough, while I was walking along one of the trails, I came across a long, brownish-grayish snake stretched across the path. At first, I thought it might have been dead as it didn't move when I approached, but then I saw its head poking around in the brush. I watched it for a few seconds, all the while wishing I were able to record the moment, and post the picture here. Then, not wanting to step over a possibly poisonous creature (I hear conflicting information all the time about which snakes in Taiwan are deadly, and which are not), I stomped my feet a couple of times on the ground, which in turn caused the snake to quickly slither away. It truly was a beautiful beast, but as Pamela later pointed out, had I had the camera with me, the snake would not have been there in the first place. I couldn't argue with logic like that.

Speaking of snakes, the reptilian KMT 中国国民党 features in another Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ article by Max Hirsch of Kyōdō News 共同通信社, "Ties sour but will sweeten: Taiwan speaker":

"Taiwan's relations with Japan have regressed since the Nationalist Party came to power, but they are likely to rebound, parliamentary speaker Wang Jin-pyng 王金平 said in an interview. 'Relations were at their highest because of the government of the Democratic Progressive Party 民主進歩党 . . . and suddenly the (Nationalist Party) came to power and so many problems have emerged — it's like relations relapsed significantly in an instant,' Wang told foreign media after returning from Japan on a fence-mending visit earlier this month. His comments mark the second time a top Taiwanese politician has openly warned of deteriorating relations between Taipei and Tōkyō. Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung 呉伯雄 said in July 'cracks' had begun to appear in the relationship."

It is pretty rare for any KMT official, particularly one as high up in the party as Wang, to credit the DPP with anything, especially in comparison with his own party's performance. Sending two party heavyweights in consecutive months on fence-mending tours to Japan seems to suggest there might be a schism developing among the ruling Nationalists over how to approach relations with Tōkyō:

"'The purpose,' (Wang) said, 'was to clear up some misunderstandings with Tōkyō.' A longtime backer of Japan, Wang met with some 40 Diet 国会 members and government officials who 'all have the impression President Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 is anti-Japan and pro-China.' Japanese power brokers, Wang said, are also worried over why Ma had stalled in appointing the de facto ambassador to Japan. 'Almost all those whom I had met asked about this problem,' he added...Fueling worries that Ma had neglected Japan was his failure to quickly appoint an envoy after Taipei's last top representative to Tōkyō quit in mid-July. Only last week did the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry announce the appointment of former Ambassador to the Dominican Republic John Feng to the Japan post. The move is seen as underscoring Ma's emphasis on healthy relations with Japan because Feng is a senior diplomat and Nationalist Party heavyweight."

Ma is "anti-Japan" and "pro-China"? Where would anybody get that kind of idea?:

"Asked what had sparked the sudden downturn in bilateral ties, Wang cited a boat collision in disputed waters in the East China Sea 東シナ海. On June 10, a Japan Coast Guard 海上保安庁 vessel chased and rammed a Taiwanese fishing boat near the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島, an uninhabited chain of Japan-administered islets also claimed by Taiwan...No serious injuries were reported, but the collision touched off a diplomatic row that led to Ma recalling Taipei's then-envoy to Tōkyō Koh Se-kai 許世楷. And Taiwanese Prime Minister Liu Chao-shiuan 劉兆絃 threatened 'war' to solve sovereignty disputes over the Senkakus."

War. The prime minister, the head of government in Taiwan, threatened to go to war with Japan, apparently unaware that doing so would get the United States involved, thanks to a little piece of paper known simply as the "Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan" 日本国とアメリカ合衆国との間の相互協力及び安全保障条約, which obligates the U.S. to come to the aid of Japan in the event any territory under the jurisdiction of the Japanese government comes under attack. And that includes the Senkakus, which should not be a surprise to Liu as it was the United States that administered the Senkaku Islands between 1945 and 1972, and included them in the reversion of Okinawa 沖縄. And if the Chinese Nationalists thought they could depend on their comrades in China, the response from Beijing was muted during the crisis. Instead, the Chinese carried on with business as usual with Japan, even allowing a port call by a Japanese warship. Which is why people like Wang now feel the need to make visits to Taiwan's former colonial rulers in an attempt to fix the damage caused by some of their fellow KMT members:

"Further hurting the relationship, Wang said, is the widespread perception in Japan that Ma failed to address issues pertaining to Tōkyō soon after taking office. In fact, Ma's May 20 inaugural speech turned heads for its lack of a reference to Tōkyō, even though a government insider told a reporter before the inauguration there would be a significant mention of the U.S.-Japan Defense Alliance in the speech. Supposedly, Ma removed the reference before taking the podium."

Me thinks Wang's got his work cut out for him back home.

Amber does Toyohara (or should that be Hōgen?)

The family spent the afternoon at the Pacific department store in downtown Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原, eating lunch and doing a bit of window shopping. With four hours of free parking at the store, we certainly made good use of the time. Afterwards (but still with time remaining for parking), we walked over to the Fengyuan branch of a well-known Taiwanese bakery. You would think that a store in Taiwan using the characters 小林 as its name would be called "Hsiaolin (Siaolin)", but then you would be wrong. The name is actually "Kobayashi", the Japanese reading of the same characters (and a common surname in Japan). You might think then the company is Japanese in origin, but apparently it started in T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中. Whatever the background, they make some pretty delicious cookies and pastries. We picked up a box of one kind, the name of which escapes me at the moment - it's a soft cake shaped like a hanging bell with custard cream on the inside. Here's a picture of Amber doing her best imitation of an affluent Japanese shopper:

On the way back to the car from Kobayashi, we made a brief stop at the busy Matsu (Mazu) 馬祖 temple downtown. The shrine-style lanterns 灯籠 in the front, and the stone torii 鳥居 in the back lead me to believe the current Taoist temple occupies a site that used to be a Shintō shrine 神社 during the Japanese era, but I haven't found anyone who could corroborate this.

After getting home, Amber and I went up to the rooftop of our apartment building, where we caught the last rays of the setting sun, while bats were flying about on their evening hunt for insects.

Great minds think alike

 

I took Amber out in the child carrier this morning for a sweaty walk in the hills overlooking Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park. As always, there were a lot of insects out and about, including this red one on a yellow flower.

The Beijing Olympics are continuing, but I still can't be bothered much with what's going on, other than a brief look at the headlines in the morning newspaper. I disagreed from the beginning with the IOC's selection of Beijing (too similar to giving the games to Berlin and Moscow), and the torch relay fiasco only served to reinforce the thuggish image I hold of the Chinese government (it didn't do much either to make me feel reassured about the great Chinese public). I didn't see the opening ceremony due to work, but what I've read about it (the fake fireworks, the fake singer and the fake nationalities) certainly hasn't convinced me that the Olympics have acted as a catalyst to "change" or "open up" China. And I'm not the only one who feels this way, either. Hiroyuki Sugiyama of the Yomiuri Shimbun 読売新聞 is none too pleased in "World felt cheated by ceremony. But lip-synching, CG viewed as par for course in quest for 'perfection'", that appears in today's Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売:

"Sadly, the Opening Ceremony is only one example of China's disregard for facts and truth. Observers have said the 2008 Summer Games are a political show performed in a 'disguised Beijing.' '[China] should apologize to the world,' a professor at a Beijing university said. Renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou 張芸謀, who directed the Opening Ceremony, gave his own work full marks. However, the ceremony was no more than a betrayal of the trust of people around the world who believed what they were seeing was genuine."

It seems Beijing has become one, giant Potemkin village:

"China's hidden agenda is to make the Games appear perfect. Many foreigners visiting Beijing to attend the Olympics are surprised by immaculate green zones and gleaming skyscrapers. However, few have had a chance to witness people evicted from their homes, migrant workers whose wages are being withheld, beggars, activists calling for democracy and people visiting Beijing to appeal to the government about rural hardship. In a park where the government says people can hold demonstrations, protesters are conspicuously absent. The authorities weeded out those people they suspected would harm their 'perfect Olympics' and secreted them far from locations associated with the Games, by forcing them out of the city, placing them in custody, or other means. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and many other committee members have said the well-crafted event was excellent. However, a Chinese Communist Party 中国共産党 member--citing a Chinese proverb meaning that truth cannot be hidden--said: 'The Olympic torch is designed like a paper roll. You can't wrap fire with paper.'"

Just as in the old days of the "Workers Paradise" that supposedly existed in Stalin's USSR, when it comes to modern China, some Westerners only see what they want to see. The article closes out by stating:

"China's priority vis-a-vis the Olympics is to boost the government's leadership by exhibiting the strength of a superpower, while satisfying a patriotic public. The Opening Ceremony is only a small part of China's political self-aggrandizement. The nation's ostentation is founded on this philosophy. A Beijing citizen said, 'Chinese weren't surprised by lip-synching [at the Olympics] as we are constantly surrounded by phony stuff.'"

Here in Taiwan, it is the 50th anniversary of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis 金門砲戦, and the Daily Yomiuri has a short story entitled "Jinmen Island bridge to link Taiwan, China":

"Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of China's bombing of Chinmen Island 金門 off the coast of mainland China. Under Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's 馬英九 open policy toward China, the small island has been changing from a military outpost to an experimental field for friendship between China and Taiwan."

Right away, this article gets off to a bad start, because it was the previous independence-minded presidential administration that opened up the so-called "mini three-links" between Chinmen and the Chinese mainland. What the Ma government is doing is:

"...boost(ing) the so-called three (links) --commerce, navigation and communication--that directly connect the island and mainland China. This strategy has enabled Taiwanese and foreigners to directly commute between mainland China and the island on the ferry."

But wait, there's more:

"...construction of a bridge connecting the island and Xiamen is planned. The islanders...consider the bridge a turning point in the island's development. (Chinmen) county will lobby for construction of the bridge to begin next year. In addition to the bridge, plans to build a water pipeline and a harbor tunnel are under discussion. Chinmen's population is about 80,000 and the island is not home to any major industries. The islanders hope to work with China to make Chinmen an international tourist resort...The Ma administration intends to remove a ban on an influx of Chinese capital, and Chinmen County 金門県 hopes to construct tourist facilities using investment from Chinese businesses."

The story concludes by saying:

"Fifty years have passed since Chinmen was bombed by China, heightening fears that a war would break out between China and the United States. The island, which used to be an outpost against a Chinese threat during the Chiang Kai-shek 蒋介石 era, is changing to become symbol of reconciliation."

Or of the brave new world the KMT 中国国民党 is building for Taiwan. The thing about Chinmen is that, officially at least, it is part of Fujian Province, and not Taiwan proper. Should that day come when pigs take to the air, and figure skating becomes a popular activity in Hell, (in other words, when China recognizes the existence of Taiwan as an independent state), what would happen to Chinmen (and Matsu 馬祖)? Would the islands remain part of a Republic of Taiwan, or would they be returned to China as part of a negotiated settlement? Back in the real world, the more correct question might be to ask if Chinmen and Matsu are going to be some sort of test case (or dry run) for the KMT's long-range plans for Taiwan. And I think we all know what those are.

Teamwork

The current administration running the show here in Taiwan has done a lot in just a short period of time to muck things up in the key relationships with the United States and Japan. However, in at least one area, the three countries have found common ground. From the Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売 comes "Japan seeks WTO solution to EU tariff issue Taiwan, U.S. also to request world trade body to abolish duties on IT products". Some excerpts:

"Japan, Taiwan and the United States will ask the World Trade Organization on Aug. 29 to set up a panel charged with resolving the dispute over high tariffs imposed by the European Union on information technology imports to the EU market...Tōkyō, Taipei and Washington have insisted that the EU's tariff policy toward IT equipment imports, which they consider to be unfairly high, violates a WTO agreement...Japan, Taiwan and the United States have been at odds with the EU over its tariffs on three import items: liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors for computers, which can also be used for watching TV programs; all-in-one printers, which function as photocopiers, fax machines and scanners; and set-top boxes, which are used for converting signals for TV such as cable TV programs. Tōkyō, Washington and Taipei have imposed no tariffs on these three items under the WTO accord, which treats IT-related equipment imports as nontariff items. However, the EU has imposed a 14 percent tariff on imported LCD monitors, a 6 percent tariff on all-in-one printers and a 13.9 percent tariff on set-top boxes. The EU's tariff policy is based on its own assumption that LCD monitors are comparable to TV sets, and all-in-one printers to copying machines. The EU treats the three import items as home electrical appliances, meaning considerably higher tariffs are imposed on them...The WTO is expected to establish a panel, as sought by Tōkyō, Taipei and Washington, as early as September. But it likely will take the panel about two years to settle the dispute..."

No matter what else happens, the Europeans will always be there to gang up on!

And it looks like Mr. Ma has finally settled on someone to take over the post of Taiwan's top representative to Japan (rom the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ"Taiwan appoints Feng top envoy to Japan"):

"The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday the appointment of John Feng, an experienced diplomat and ruling Nationalist Party 中国国民党 heavyweight, as the island's top representative to Japan. The appointment of 62-year-old Feng to head the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office 台北経済文化代表処 — Taiwan's de facto embassy in Tōkyō 東京 in the absence of formal bilateral relations — ended weeks of speculation as to who would fill the post and when. The post has been vacant since Koh Se-kai 許世楷 resigned last month following a diplomatic row between Taipei and Tōkyō over the sinking of a Taiwanese fishing boat after it was struck by a Japan Coast Guard 海上保安庁 vessel near the disputed, Japan-controlled, Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 in the East China Sea."

About bloody time.

Eat the Young

A gold medal for China's star hurdler Liu Xiang 劉翔 eludes, following his withdrawal from the Men's 110-meter hurdles at the Beijing Olympics. It's bad enough his dream of another Olympic gold medal has been shattered, but the poor guy now has to face the wrath of a disappointed nation, according to this article ("Hurdler Liu faces cyber-wrath in China") that appeared in the Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売. Nationalism is an illness, and the Chinese version of it is a particularly nasty strain, but apparently it also exists in parasitical form, and can begin to devour its host, at least judging from some of the comments directed at Liu from Chinese bloggers:

"...runaway soldier...cowardly act...1.3 billion people hurt--a new world record...Was this his last race after becoming rich?...You're finished!"

Hell hath no fury like a Chinese nationalist denied the chance to bask in his/her nation's glory. As one commenter noted:

"It [China] is an unusual society. Many Chinese like to shift responsibility and duty to others. If that person succeeds, he is revered. If the opposite happens, he will be condemned."

Is it any wonder I have little interest in these Games?

One clued-in, the other clueless

Two articles in the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ today, one by a writer who gets it, the other by someone who appears to have a tenuous grip on reality (no, it isn't Gregory Clark).

The always insightful Max Hirsch of Kyōdō News 共同通信社 writes of how "Taipei's next Tokyo envoy eludes in wake of Ma's handling of row":

"More than a month after Taiwan's envoy to Japan resigned his post, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 faces a dearth of candidates he can trust to appoint as de facto ambassador to Tōkyō, revealing yet another stumbling block in bilateral relations..."

Hard to believe, yet the appointment process has so far failed to yield a replacement for the last representative, who was forced out by hardline elements in the ruling KMT 中国国民党:

"Koh Se-kai 許世楷, the last top envoy, resigned July 10 in the midst of a diplomatic row between Taipei and Tōkyō over a boat collision in disputed waters. Koh slammed Ma for his 'impulsive' handling of the row, which included recalling Koh and permitting a phalanx of Taiwan Coast Guard vessels to foray back into the waters to accompany a local protest boat. Prime Minister Liu Chao-shiuan 劉兆玄 threatened war on Japan over the disputed area in the East China Sea 東シナ海 that includes an uninhabited, Japan-administered chain of islets rich in fishery resources and possibly natural gas reserves."

The incident described above certainly did not get the Ma administration off on a good footing, and the president has been scrambling ever since to try and repair the damage he and his underlings have caused. Not only has a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 needlessly been allowed to disrupt relations between Japan and Taiwan, but:

"...the incident also reignited suspicions in Japan that at worst he is anti-Japan, or at best indifferent toward Tōkyō. Reinforcing those fears is his alleged dithering over whom to appoint as top representative to Japan — a post Ma has made little mention of since taking office May 20. In fact, Ma's inaugural speech raised eyebrows for its complete lack of reference to Japan, the island's second-biggest trading partner after China and a potential security benefactor."

Sources in Ma's government claim there are not enough qualified Japan experts to choose from, but considering the close historical and commercial ties between the two countries, this is really hard to swallow. There are plenty of knowledgeable Taiwanese when it comes to Japanese affairs, but I suspect most of them do not share the China-centric focus of the mainlander-dominated KMT. As Koh puts it in the conclusion to the article:

"...Ma's policy focus on Beijing over Tōkyō is causing many senior Japan experts to get cold feet in considering the position...'The representative needs to have mutual trust with Ma, so that's why this has become a fairly difficult search,' (Koh) said."

None of this would make any difference to UCLA professor Tom Plate, whose hero worship of Ma just gets more and more embarrassing to read with each article he gets published. Seriously, this guy comes across as a teenage girl with posters of the ROC 中華民国 president adorning her bedroom walls. Check out some of these quotes from "Ma goes for Taiwan gold in matters of trust" (even that headline says something):

"A true winner came to Los Angeles earlier this month...a refreshing breeze in Chinese politics. He is smart (educated at the best university in Taiwan before earning a law degree from Harvard), good-looking and charmingly modest...he translated his own Chinese into English. He was measured and casually precise."

Isn't he just dreamy?! All this hero-worship on Plate's part has apparently blinded him to the realities of Taiwan, and its position vis-a-vis China:

"He (Ma) is Chinese, but he has had nothing to do with the Beijing Olympics."

It could be argued that Ma isn't Taiwanese, so perhaps Plate has it (unintentionally) right here after all, but I haven't come across any other Western writers referring to the man as being Chinese.

"...Ma — a former mayor of the capital city — is a refreshing breeze in Chinese politics..."

And here I thought that Ma had been involved in "Taiwanese" politics all this time. Silly me, I'm not an academic at a prestigious West Coast school.

"At a dinner (in Los Angeles) in a downtown hotel, speaking mainly to professionals with strong ties to Taiwan, he outlined an approach to relations with China that deserves enthusiastic U.S. support. The key to improving the special relationship between Beijing, T'aipei and Washington, he said, is to maintain and practice 'high-level trust' — adding that 'mistrust will only breed more tension' and possible conflict. Beijing's leadership doesn't 'like surprises' any more than the average American CEO. Cross-strait conflict is something that the U.S. absolutely doesn't want, China itself probably doesn't want, and Taiwan certainly should not want."

None of this represents any new or profound thinking on the situation between China and Taiwan, yet Plate seems to think some kind of great breakthrough has occurred. The Taipei Times had an editorial today suggesting otherwise, which we will get to in a moment. Meanwhile, Plate is on a roll:

"Ma hasn't yet visited China as president, but when the invitation comes, he looks ready to handle it. He respects Beijing and its achievements, and wishes their Olympics every success. For its part, Beijing needs to respect the people of Taiwan, whose hard work and dedication have turned the little island into one of Asia's pre-eminent economic Tigers. Taiwan, he said, must accept China's rise to the budding status of a superpower, though without humiliating kowtowing. That means its policy must have both 'wisdom' and 'flexibility' — rooted in basic principles of decency and humanity, while recognizing China's own special problems and special interests."

And do those "special interests" include the annexation of a for-all-intents-and-purposes sovereign state? Plate doesn't say, but he appears to have found someone else to share in the Ma lovefest:

"A former U.S. diplomat still active in the Taiwan-U.S. relationship breathed a sigh of relief while listening to Ma, whom he clearly regarded as a godsend. The previous Taiwanese president — from the island's opposing pro-independence political party — had practically ground him and Washington down with his confrontational policy toward Beijing. Pushing the envelope — or baiting Beijing — can work only if you don't fly over the edge while doing so. Ma would rather use an envelope to send a serious adult message than push it into a hazardous area merely for political effect. And his main message would be: Let us make peace, not war. Let us proceed as adult Chinese, with mutual admiration and trust. In the language of the Olympics, the degree of difficulty for this trick is very high. But if Ma can pull it off, he will have gone far and gotten the gold."

So the last president, in the view of Plate and the unnamed diplomat, was a childlike warmonger who was borderline insane. Thank goodness we have an "adult Chinese" like Ma to put everything right. I guess there is no such thing as an "adult Taiwanese", because such a person would not be very trustful of a regime that has committed untold numbers of human rights abuses on its own peoples, while continually threatening to bring death and destruction down on a "little island".

As far as I can tell, Tom Plate is not of an ethnic Chinese background, so I don't know why he seems so enthusiastic about delivering a country that, in his own words, has "their own democracy" into the hands of an autocratic dictatorship promoting the idea of a "Greater China". I doubt he will ever read the Taipei Times' take on the present administration in Taiwan, but even if he did, it probably wouldn't change the homo-erotic attraction he feels towards Ma Ying-jeou. The editors of the TT, however, are less than impressed by the government's "achievements" so far. In "A newer KMT method of torture", they compare the present state of affairs to the Chinese water torture:

"Nowadays, it seems like those drops of water are being applied to Taiwan’s forehead, with each droplet taxing the nation’s identity a little more each time. What’s worse is that — like a real victim of torture — Taiwanese appear to be strapped to a chair and fated to a long period of suffering. And the torturer is a tag team: the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

Drip: 'Chinese Taipei.' Drop: 'Chunghwa Post.' Drip: No WHO or UN application under the name 'Taiwan.' Drop: Our elected president is but a 'Mr.' Drip: The possible renaming of National Democracy Memorial Hall, after the murderous dictator the monument was built for."

So, Professor Plate, are renaming Taiwan Post to Chunghwa Post 中華郵政, applying for international organizations under the Olympic moniker "Chinese Taipei" (instead of as "Taiwan", or even the "Republic of China"), and the eventual restoration of the name of Chiang Kai-shek 蒋介石, a man responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Taiwanese, examples of a mature, responsible "Chinese" leader who will preserve Taiwan's "dignity"? Or are they the acts of a child bent on gradually handing over the fate of 23 million people to what, for many of them, is an alien regime? The Taipei Times concludes by writing of:

"...a blurring of the lines the Ma administration has undertaken and the confusing signals that make it increasingly difficult for the rest of the world to tell the difference between Taiwan and China. If those signals continue, the world could very well reach the conclusion that Taiwan just doesn’t care whether people can tell the difference between the two countries, which can only result in further isolation for Taiwanese."

Tom Plate apparently reached that stage a long time ago.

Amber does Taichū

I had been promising my daughter a train ride for the past week, and this Sunday I delivered on my promise. My wife has a cold, so she elected to stay home and rest this afternoon, leaving Amber and I to wander the streets of downtown T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中 for several hours. We began by catching the 12:20 local train 各駅停車 from Fengyuan (Fongyuan) Station 豊原駅. This being Taiwan, the train naturally arrived around 12:30. Here is Amber excitedly looking at the train as it is pulling into the station:

Amber enjoyed the train ride, but I wasn't too happy about the gauntlet she had to run through to get to a seat. People were reaching out to touch her as she walked by, and I sensed that it bothered her somewhat. However, daddy's lap made for a safe refuge, and she was able to enjoy the trip into Taichung. Exiting the station, we crossed over to Chungcheng (Jhongjheng) Road, and started walking north, pausing to have lunch at a Japanese restaurant with a Hida-Takayama 飛騨高山 theme (there were posters of Takayama all over the restaurant). Amber and I shared some pork cutlets and rice, then headed back outside.

Chikuang (Jiguang) Street is a supposed pedestrian mall filled with clothing stores and food stalls. Trouble was many of the shops were closed, and plenty of cars and scooters were driving along the allegedly vehicle-free lane. It seems to me that many in Taiwan just don't get it - if you truly want a better quality of life, a good start would be to actually respect the intentions behind setting up places like Chikuang Street. Instead of enjoying a pleasant stroll down a vibrant market road, Amber and I had to stick to dirty sidewalks, walking by shuttered storefronts and hundreds of parked scooters.

From Chikuang Street, we made our way over to Minch'uan (Mincyuan) Road, and turned right to visit a pair of old government buildings dating from the Japanese era. First stop was Taichung's original city hall and later Bureau of Transportation and Tourism building, dating from 1920. It's now an exhibition hall, and inside was a display of Peking Opera 京劇 costumes. It was too bad photography wasn't allowed indoors, as the building's interior was beautiful, and the opera exhibit was pretty good too (Amber especially liked the dragon motifs). Nonetheless, it's great to see an old structure like this one being put to good use, instead of being torn down and replaced by something more "modern". Across the street is the current City Hall, which was built in 1924. The Taichung city government has had long-standing plans to move to a location further north in the city. If that does happen, I hope something will be done to preserve the attractive structure, just like its neighbor.

Next, we walked along Tzuyou (Zihyou) Street, an area known as Taichung's "cake street". Amber wanted to go into one bakery, which we did, and emerged with a couple of pastries. The thing I couldn't understand was, while there were plenty of bakeries to choose from, none of them (at least from what I could see) had any tables where you could enjoy what you had just purchased, so we ended up taking our treats to a branch of 85°C Coffee. Amber didn't seem to mind much:

Following a brief detour through Herbal Medicine Street, we reached the final destination of our walk, Taichung Park, a city landmark laid out by (who else?) the Japanese back in 1903. It was here that Pamela picked us up in the car for the drive back to Fengyuan (Taichung Station would have been pretty hectic around 5pm on a Sunday). While waiting for my wife, Amber and I walked through part of the park. Or at least I walked, as Amber was running everywhere. Taichung Park is a popular meeting place on Sundays for Taichung County's Southeast Asian community, who generally have only this day of the week off, and use it to get together with their compatriots at the park. Several of them were quite interested in Amber, and my daughter enjoyed the attention. Who wouldn't?

And thus a father-daughter Sunday afternoon outing came to an end. If the route we took sounds familiar, it's outlined on pages 238-239 of "The Rough Guide to Taiwan". Had it been just me, I would have been pretty disappointed with the suggested course. Despite all the pronouncements of the city government, downtown Taichung is still pretty rundown and decrepit in parts, and doesn't seem to be getting any better. Amber, however, really enjoyed herself, and never tired, despite all the walking around we did (though she did fall asleep in the car on the way back to Fengyuan). So let me pass along my thanks to the editors at RT.

大坑でマイケルとハイキングをしている

I joined up with Micheal Turton this morning for a short walk on a couple of trails in the Tak'eng (Dakeng) area. Starting out from the parking lot for Trails 6, 7 and 8, we first went down to a cemetery. Being Ghost Month 盂蘭盆, I would've thought the graveyard would have been a busy place, but Micheal pointed out the spirits were probably out wandering the earth at that time in the morning. Being an eminently practical fellow, he decided the quickest route was to walk through the cemetery, rather than on the road going around it:

The weather was the clearest I've seen it in ages. The view stretched all the way to the foothills of Nant'ou (Nantou) County 南投県, approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) away. T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中, it goes without saying, looked great under the blue skies. Here's a view into the city courtesy of the zoom lens:

The hot weather (in addition to the morning walkers) kept most of the local lifeforms hidden away, but there a lot of dragonflies out and about. I unintentionally got a shot of this one in "Star Trek" lighting mode. You know, whenever Captain Kirk met an attractive woman, she would always be backlit in soft light:

A last glimpse towards the city down below, before the trail turned inward, and eventually back down to the parking lot:

いろいろな事

Several articles have appeared in the media in recent weeks lamenting the damage being done to Taiwan's relations with the United States and Japan by the administration of Mr. Ma 馬英九. Today's Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ has one such story, entitled "Taiwan's Ma in damage control over Japan ties", which points out how:

"Japan (is) increasingly worried over Ma's attitude toward Tōkyō and his handling of ties with rival China. Increasingly acute, those concerns have prompted Ma to scramble, albeit quietly, for damage control before T'aipei-Tōkyō ties deteriorate beyond repair."

In the wake of his government's ridiculous handling of the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 incident, and therefore:

"Eager to calm nerves in Japan, Ma has assigned Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng 王金平 to articulate his policies and lead a delegation of lawmakers on a goodwill visit. Taipei's top envoy for China, Chiang Pin-kun, is also scheduled to visit Tōkyō later this month. Unlike Wang's trip, news of Chiang's upcoming Japan mission has been subdued, with few officials commenting on his itinerary and objectives."

Regarding the latter envoy, the article notes that:

"...Chiang is also a Japan affairs expert and ruling Nationalist Party 中国国民党 vice chairman, and is thus uniquely positioned to soothe Tōkyō over what seems to be its greatest concern — that Ma is moving Taiwan too close to China. For regional security, the stakes are high, with the (Taiwan) strait representing a buffer zone between the U.S.-Japan alliance and a rising China, whose growing military, economic and diplomatic clout poses challenges to the balance of power. As chairman of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation — the semiofficial agency in charge of direct contact with Beijing — fewer Taipei officials are better versed in cross-strait relations than Chiang, who...received instructions from Ma to portray those warming relations as beneficial to Japan."

After pointing out how the last sentence above is the basically the kind of lip-service Ma pays when he meets Japanese officials (has the JT got this guy pegged, or what?), the story concludes by observing that:

"Domestically, behind-the-scenes damage control measures have also emerged, with a Cabinet meeting last month focusing on ways to improve relations with Tōkyō. The flurry of activity comes after ties were sent reeling in June after a Japanese patrol boat rammed a Taiwanese fishing vessel."

It's too early to tell how much of this is genuine, and how much is for the sake of superficiality, but in any case, Ma has no one but himself to blame for the current mess. Not that he has accepted any responsibility. Not coincidentally, perhaps, former president Lee Tung-hui 李登輝 has decided now would be a good time to pay another visit to Japan ("Ex-President Lee reportedly to visit Japan"):

"Lee is scheduled to visit Okinawa Prefecture 沖縄県 from Sept. 22 to 25 and deliver an address at the University of the Ryūkyūs 琉球大学 on the second day of the visit...It will be the 85-year-old Lee's fourth visit to Japan since stepping down as president eight years ago."

On a completely different note, thanks to some great posts (and posters) on YouTube, I've been able to hear some great songs that I used to listen to on KDVS, 90.3 FM, out of UC Davis (my alma mater), back in the mid-late 1980's. Here is a sampling of tunes making this post-Baby Boomer/Gen Xer nostalgic (but not dismissive of today's music, either. I try to keep an open mind, a la John Peel):

"Last White Christmas" by the Basement Five

"Non-Alignment Pact" by Pere Ubu

"Across the Sea" by Salem 66

"Discipline" by God's Gift

The failures of a father in Kōri

I blew it today. All week we had been telling our daughter that she would have the opportunity on Sunday to ride a horse, and Amber naturally was very excited. So today we drove over to the Houli Horse Farm, in the neighboring town of Houli 后里. This day was also the last in the 2008 Musical Instruments Festival in Taichung County, not so coincidentally being held at the very same horse ranch. Houli, for some inexplicable reason, is the "saxophone capital of the world", so saxes were in abundance this afternoon at the festival (along with other kinds of instruments). Naturally, the place was packed with families, but everyone was in a good mood. Things were looking up, and Amber enjoyed feeding bread pieces to the carp, ducks and geese:

Then came time for the horse ride, and it was here that things went wrong. We bought tickets for Pamela and Amber to go a brief couple of laps around a small field on a horse, and while my wife got in line to wait for our turn, I took Amber over to some stables nearby to get a close-up look at the horses there. One horse walked over to get a closer look at my daughter. A young worker at the horse farm asked Amber if she would like to pet the horse, and Amber was happy to do so. So far, so good. Then the animal started to get closer to her, with the worker reassuring us it only wanted to "kiss" my little girl. And here was when I made a mistake in judgment. I should have realized the horse was getting too close, but I didn't, and the next thing everyone knew, it had one of Amber's fingers between its teeth! I managed to quickly get her finger out, but not quickly enough, as she was left with a bite mark and a bit of blood on the middle finger of her left hand. Worse of all, her mood had changed instantaneously from excitement to unhappiness. And sure enough, when we returned to Pamela, Amber was no longer very enthused about getting to ride a horse. We tried to put in her in the saddle, but after moving for only a few meters, the horse's attendant explained that a crying child only serves to make a horse nervous and upset, and so Pamela had to finish the ride on her own. Instead of getting to take pictures of a happy, smiling young girl enjoying her first ride on a horse, I instead had to comfort a scared child who wanted nothing to do with horses, at least on this day. Way to go, dad!

The rest of the afternoon wasn't a complete washout. Getting to go on the swings, not to mention the chance to beat up on 7-Eleven's mascot Open Chan...:

...can do wonders for the psyche of a traumatized child. Still, if I had only acted fast enough, all of us would have had a much better outing this afternoon, and my daughter would not now be so leery of horses (her finger is still a little swollen and red from the bite, but otherwise she's fine). Someday we'll try again to get her on a horse (and when we stopped off at a pet store on the way home to get some food for our cat, Amber wasn't afraid to pet some of the dogs there). If she's still afraid of the beasts then, I'll have only myself to blame. It's a good thing we don't observe the Taiwanese version of Father's Day, which always falls on August 8 - I certainly didn't do anything today that deserved thanks.

Trails, Dude

Another free Wednesday afternoon, another excursion to some of the hiking trails of Tak'eng (Dakeng) 大坑. The No. 8 Trail is still officially closed due to recent typhoon damage, but someone has dug out some makeshift paths to go over and behind the several landslides that have wiped out portions of the road. This was probably done to give farmers access to the fruit orchards in the area, but it also meant I was able to go up the No. 8 despite the crime scene-like yellow tape barrier. The main route to the top is still barred, as the wooden steps in one section were destroyed by a landslide, but there is another trail that hugs the side of the hill, and makes for an alternative path to the karaoke カラオケ joints up above (oh joy). From the summit (if you can call it that - it's a short walk up), I joined up with the No. 6 Trail, and took that to where it meets up with the relatively new No. 9. There were plenty of insects to see along the way:

After a couple of days of extreme low-visibility conditions, the views of the mountains and the city of T'aichung (Taijhong) 台中 were pretty good today:

While walking down the No. 9 Trail, I discovered a new trail, the No. 10 (もちろん), that appeared to be in the final stages of completion. I thus have a good excuse to return to the area soon to see what the new route is like (a quick note to the superstitious: the way leading from the No. 9 Trail back to the parking lot for Trails 6, 7 and 8 passes right through a cemetery. It is Ghost Month 盂蘭盆, after all).

Today's Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ has an article ("Japan-bred canines have leg up in Taiwan guide dog industry"), by Max Hirsch of Kyōdō News 共同通信社, about how dogs from Japan are:

"...transforming Taiwan from an island once known for putting dogs on menus to one that increasingly uses them to lead its blind and patrol its airports."

This trend is being led by the demand for guide dogs:

"...the guide dog industry (in Taiwan) is tiny, with just 24 dogs for the island's some 60,000 visually impaired people. But it was only last year that Taiwan's parliament OK'd fines for peddling dog meat, once a popular food. The (Taiwan Guide Dog Association) itself, the island's biggest, didn't emerge until 2002. Since then, however, the number of dogs processed through the association has increased yearly amid growing demand for service and police dogs islandwide. Just last month, Japan donated four puppies to the association, which had already graduated four other Japanese guide dogs this year...Among the nearly 20 canines the association has trained, some three-fourths are Japan-bred, while Japanese guide dog authorities hold the most seminars in the region on training...Lacking proper canine breeding conditions, Taiwan's reliance on Japan in building up a sizable service dog industry is clear."

I remember when Pamela and I were dating how she would point out dog meat restaurants while we were driving around Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原. The signs would say 香肉, or "fragrant meat"! According to professional dog trainer Rei Chang:

"'Taiwanese dogs trend toward sickness or emotional instability, so we have to look overseas.' Japan, Feng said, is an ideal source because experts there have bred superior strains and developed related expertise over decades. Japanese canines, she said, enjoy the extra advantage of being able to get by the island's strict animal quarantine measures, which all but ban dogs — even top-notch service canines — from countries farther away. Not surprisingly, Japan represents the regional nexus for the service dog industry, with its training schools comprising the bulk of the Asian Guide Dog Breeding Network. Using English as its lingua franca, the network facilitates exchanges of dogs and knowhow among Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Representing AGBN in Taiwan, the association typically receives dogs from fellow chapters in Japan and trains them locally."

The thing is, when I was living in Japan during the 1990's, I can remember reading stories in the newspapers of hotels refusing entry to guide dogs (due to "No Pets" policies), with the implication being that Japan was far behind the United States in that regard. I don't know if things are any better for the visually-impaired these days in Japan, but the JT article does serve as a reminder of how some ideas make their way from the U.S. to Taiwan after being passed through a Japanese filter.

A day at the beach

Well, what do you know. There is at least one halfway decent beach on the west coast of Taiwan after all. OK, Mashakou (Mashagou) 馬沙溝 beach in T'ainan (Tainan) County 台南県 isn't going to make anyone forget Hawaii or Okinawa, but the sand and water were relatively clean, and despite it being a warm Sunday afternoon, there weren't that many people there. With my wife wanting to have a day to herself, I took my daughter on the two-hour drive south from our home in Fengyuan (Fongyuan) 豊原, in central T'aichung (Taijhong) County 台中県, and met up with my friend Steve, his wife March and their two kids at a freeway rest stop near the turnoff for Mashakou.

Amber had a great time playing in the "big ocean", and digging in the sand.

The swimming area was small, as is often the case with beaches in Taiwan. But all things considered, you could do worse (a lot worse, actually) than Mashakou if you would like to reconnect with the water.