The old normal

Would it be ethnocentric of Momoko Sakura さくらももこ, Shūeisha Publishing Co. 集英社, Nippon Animation 日本アニメーション, Fuji Television フジテレビ, Animax アニマックス et al. to complain about this unauthorized use of Chibi Maruko-chan ちびまる子ちゃん?

Well, what do you know - Hell is indeed a very hot place, and pigs are in fact grounded. After seemingly setting sail on a new course towards rational thinking and expository writing, the editorial staff at The China Post have returned to doing what they know best - churning out bizarre, schizophrenic editorials that veer so far from reality that if the Commentary page were an actual person, he/she would be committed to the local mental ward for observation. 

Case in point: today's piece entitled Entrenched discrimination in Japan limits press freedom. The editorial hasn't yet been posted on the newspaper's website, but if you're the type who places great importance on logical, linear progressive thinking, you would probably risk having a seizure trying to make sense of this particular dreck. Ostensibly an observation about the overblown press coverage of the Makiyo affair, the editorial somehow veers in several different directions without ever stating a clear and concise point. Who else but The China Post could find echoes of the Second World War in a drunken brawl involving a half-Japanese/half-Taiwanese "star" of questionable talent, her yakuza ヤクザ-looking boyfriend and a Taiwanese taxi driver:

The vernacular print media, encouraged by the outcry raised by ubiquitous young social network users against (Takateru) Tomoyori and Makiyo joined in the press war reminiscent of Chiang Kai-shek's 蔣中正 eight-year War of Resistance 抗日戰爭 against Japan from 1937 to 1945, at the end of which Taiwan was restored to the Republic of China 中華民國 after 50 years of Japanese colonial rule. Newspapers wished to remind the people of the Rape of Nanking 南京大屠殺, a massacre of hundreds of thousands of unarmed people young and old after the Japanese invasion army occupied the open capital city of the Republic of China, which the Japanese referred to by the derogatory name Shina (支那).

Wow. Yes, the Japanese invasion of China, and the atrocities that followed in its wake, were acts that deserved to be condemned...in the proper place and context. A story about Makiyo and her boyfriend beating up a cabbie isn't one of them. Back on February 15, the China Post was urging its readers to be vigilant in the face of racism and xenophobia generated by Makiyo and Tomoyori. Apparently, the editorial staff has given up the fight and gone over wholeheartedly to the other side. But it gets even worse, or more comical, or both:

On the other hand, the Japanese press all but ignored their Taiwanese counterparts' brouhaha. Of course they could, and with plenty of reason. Asked for comment on the scarcity of reports on the Tomoyori-Makiyo case, Japanese press workers said it was due to the lack of press interest, given that they would only be interested in covering such an incident if it involved a VIP, Japanese or otherwise.

That certainly would be the right reason for lack of coverage in the Japanese press, but the way it was explained couldn't hide the ethnocentric superiority, which is the hallmark of Japanese media workers (so much for "push(ing) back against those who make generalizations about a group of people" - see linked Feb. 15 editorial above). Remember the two Taiwanese girls killed by a lovelorn Taiwanese boy in Tōkyō 東京 ?

Makiyo is a nobody in Japan, so it should come as no surprise that the affair has generated very little interest in her homeland. The murder-suicide case alluded to above, on the other hand, happened on Japanese soil, with all the tragic elements of a TV soap opera, so it should also come as little surprise that the media in Japan jumped all over the story. This may be hard for the writers at the China Post to grasp, but just because a story has made a spectacular splash here in Taiwan doesn't mean it has to have the same hold on people elsewhere. Japanese TV viewers and newspaper readers might conceivably be more interested in some other scandalous news that might not have any bearing at all on Taiwan or its people. Or, to put it another way, who is actually demonstrating "ethnocentric superiority" here?

By the end of the editorial, it turns out that what is really bugging the staff at The China Post isn't memories of the war, or the lack of interest shown in Japan toward Maikyogate. No, what's chapping the Post's hide is the existence of Japan's notorious "press club" system 記者クラブ, which acts to reserve the juiciest tidbits of news to only those members of a particular kisha club. Often, this serves to exclude foreign media, though Japanese journalists as well also find themselves on the outside if they aren't members of a particular club. There's a right way to criticize such institutions - ask Karel van Wolferen. Bringing up totally irrelevant, pointless allusions to World War II and resorting to hypocritical insults based on ethnocentric generalizations, while almost completely contradicting one of your own editorials put out less than a month before, isn't the way to go about it.

If things work out as planned, I won't have to bother with this sorry excuse for journalism much longer. Instead, when I need a fix of heavily-slanted reporting, I can watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh.

Baltimore vs. Washington: A Taiwanese Rivalry?

A Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation 台灣菸酒公司 "research and development center" located close to my daughter's kindergarten. Although there's a large poster of a bottle of beer on the side of the building, cigarettes are produced here. You can often smell the aroma of rolled fags (that's British English for those who aren't in the know) as you pass by

From the sports desks of the Associated Press, courtesy of Japan Today:

Taiwanese left-hander Wei-yin Chen 陳偉殷 and the Baltimore Orioles have agreed to a three-year contract worth $11,338,000 (NT337.9 million), a move aimed at improving a starting rotation that struggled last year.

  

Chen went 36-30 with a 2.48 ERA in 117 games, including 88 starts, over the last four seasons with the Chūnichi Dragons 中日ドラゴンズ of Japan’s Central League セントラル・リーグ. The 26-year-old will become the first Orioles player born in Taiwan.

  

Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette says Chen has “exceptional command” with a 92-94 mph (148-150 kph) fastball and a hard breaking ball as his “out pitch.”

  

Chen gets a $250,000 (NT7.45 million) signing bonus and salaries of $3,072,000 (NT91.5 million) this year, $3,572,000 (NT106.4 million) in 2013 and $4,072,000 (NT121.3 million) in 2014. The Orioles have a $4.75 million (NT141.5 million) option for 2015 with a $372,000 (NT11.1 million) buyout. 

The China Post's article on Chen's deal adds some additional details:

If Chen makes the Orioles roster, he will become the first Taiwanese player to have played at Japanese professional baseball before singed by a U.S. Major League team.

He will also become the first local player to sign multi-year contract with an MLB team. 

Chien-ming Wang 王建民 of the Washington Nationals had previously sought a multi-year contract during his years with the New York Yankees failed in the attempt. 

Chen's reported deal with the Orioles pays him just under US$4 million a year and therefore does not rank as the highest single-year salary paid to a Taiwanese player in the U.S.

That record is still held by Wang, who made US$5 million (NT149 million) in 2009 in his last year with the Yankees...

 ...The southern city Kaohsiung 高雄-native will be the second starting pitcher signed by new Orioles GM Dan Duquette out of the Japanese leagues this offseason, joining Japanese lefty Tsuyoshi Wada 和田毅.

The Orioles previously signed the 30-year-old Japanese southpaw under a two-year, US$8.15 million (¥627.4 million) deal.

Chen is also the first Taiwanese player to be signed by the Baltimore team.

Though the Orioles hope Chen will fit into their starting rotation, the Taiwanese lefty will face stiff competition, with eight pitchers potentially vying for only five starting slots.

Though their teams are in different leagues, Baltimore and Washington are natural geographic rivals, and should meet every season (especially from 2013, when the Houston Astros move from the National League Central to the American League West). Should Wen make the Orioles' rotation, you can expect a great deal of local interest when his team and the Nationals play each other.

Blown calls

My daughter poses outside of Chungshan Hall 中山堂 in T'aichung 台中on Tuesday night. We had just seen the Moscow City Ballet perform Swan Lake. The dancing was incredible, and though the ballerinas received the greatest applause, I was most impressed with the man playing the role of Prince Siegfried. His combination of grace and strength was the envy of this clumsy clod.

One thing you can be sure of about Taiwan is that when it comes to its relationships with the outside world, this society often manages to squander the few opportunities that come its way (and I should know - missed chances have always been the dominant storyline of my life). In this case, I'm referring to the upcoming visit to this island by a team of Major League Baseball players who will play a series of exhibition games next week against the Chinese Taipei 中華台北 national team. One of the stops on the tour will be next Thursday at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium 臺中市洲際棒球場. Tickets are pricey - the one my wife bought for me at 7-Eleven this evening cost NT2800 ($93/¥7060), but I'll treat it as an early Xmas present. I remember seeing Sammy Sosa and company play as part of an MLB All-Star team vs. a squad of Japanese stars many moons ago (well, 1998 to be exact) at the Tōkyō Dome 東京ドーム (Sosa hit a long home run as the major leaguers came from behind to win 9-8), and I'm hoping this upcoming contest will also be a fun one to watch.

So what's the problem? Among the players from the American and National Leagues who will be taking part in the 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series are none other than Chien-Ming Wang 王建民 of the Washington Nationals, and his fellow countryman on the Detroit Tigers, Fu-Te Ni 倪福德. The catch is that Wang and Ni, despite honing their professions in the baseball world's equivalent of the Premier League, will not be playing with their peers from North America. Instead, Wang and Ni will be throwing the ball for Taiwan...I mean Chinese Taipei. And what's wrong with that, you might ask? Where do I begin...

Let's start by making a comparison with what happened on recent MLB all-star tours of Japan. During the past decade, both Ichirō Suzuki 鈴木一朗 of the Seattle Mariners and Hideki Matsui 松井秀喜 (then of the New York Yankees) played in Japan, in front of their countrymen, as members of the MLB squad, and not on the team made of up of stars from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) プロ野球. The tours were promoted as contests pitting a team of MLB players against a squad made up of local heroes, and very few Japanese seemed to mind that Ichirō and Godzilla were playing with Americans (of both the North and Latin persuasions) and not against them. In fact, most fans looked forward to seeing the local boys who had made good overseas sharing the field as equals...teammates...with some of the best baseball players in the world. The fact that they were on the winning sides (the MLB teams won most of the games against the Japanese all-stars) seemed to please the Japanese spectators all the more.

Cue Taiwan. Wang, and to a lesser extent Ni, have shown that they belong on a Major League playing field. Wang, especially, had a couple of stellar seasons with the (hated) Yankees, and this year he made a successful return from the disabled list with the Nats. Ni has struggled in recent years, spending the past couple of season with the Triple A Toledo Mud Hens, but he still has the potential to return to the big leagues. These two players (a third Taiwanese from MLB, Hong-Chih Kuo 郭泓志, seems to have given up on the game) deserve to be on the same team as their peers from the AL and NL, and not reduced to serving as ringers for the local side, which unfortunately seems to be the case here. It's as if the San Francisco Giants were to play the University of Washington in an exhibition game, with Giants standout pitcher (and Cy Young Award winner) Tim Lincecum suiting up for the Huskies, his alma mater.

I'm left to wonder if Taiwanese fans are not ready to allow Wang to have his moment, basking in the adulation of the hometown (home country?) crowd in the presence of his fellow teammates from the majors. No, Wang and Ni have to switch sides, and carry the banner for the natives against the foreign horde. For in all likelihood, this series won't be viewed here as a contest between a group of baseball players who ply their trade in the American and National Leagues (made up of 30 teams based in the USA and Canada), vs. a team of players representing the local Chinese Professional Baseball League 中華職業棒球大聯盟 (with perhaps a couple of players who are based in Japan). Rather, I have the feeling Taiwanese fans will think of these exhibition contests as battles between Americans and Taiwanese, despite the fact that in any given baseball season, between 25-30% of players on Major League rosters were born outside of the United States, with Taiwan included on that list (and a quick perusal of the lineup for the MLB team coming to Taiwan reveals several players from the Dominican Republic, along with a couple of Venezuelans). And you can't have the Pride of Taiwan siding with the barbarians now, can you?

沒關係. Parochialism may rule, and chances to broaden the international outlook of the local populace are in danger of being squandered, but I'm still looking forward to next week's game. Play ball!

Oh, that Post!

Reckoned there was a storm a-comin' my way - turned out I reckoned wrong.

The China Post 英文中國郵報, "Taiwan's Leading English-Language Newspaper Since 1952". "Trapped in 1952" more like it, seeing as the Post still likes to view itself as the ideological English-language mouthpiece of an authoritarian one-party state, despite the fact that Taiwan has been a multi-party democracy with a free press (in theory, at least) since the middle of the 1990's. Throw in the poorly-translated China News Agency articles, using terms and expressions that were popular in the 1890's, not to mention sexist observations that haven't titillated most societies since Ike was in the White House, and you have "Taiwan's Most Entertaining English-Language Newspaper", at least.

Stuck in a time-warp though it may be, the editors of the China Post are aware of the fact that much of the world tends to overlook the Republic of China 中華民國. So when foreigners do pay attention, or at least stop by for a visit, the Post's writers get all excited (unless the visitor is a "troublemaker" like Rebiya Kadeer or the Dalai Lama). Take, for example, this opening paragraph from today's Prime Time supplement (italics are mine):

"This weekend's Beastie Music Festival is an ambitious endeavor. No fewer than 100 indie bands will perform on four musical stages, with a handful of acts coming from as far away as Japan and Korea."

Perhaps it's because I grew up in a huge landmass, but Japan and Korea don't seem all that far away to me. I can't imagine a music festival going on in my hometown of Sacramento, for example, and read the Sacramento Bee gushing how bands were coming from as far away as Seattle or Denver.

Ah, Japan. The (I assume) youthful Western entertainment writers employed by the China Post might get enthused about things that come from Taiwan's former colonial overseer, but the dinosaurs in charge of the paper still see the Empire of Japan 大日本帝国 and its Imperial Army 大日本帝国陸軍 when it comes to historical matters. Today's front page had a (very) short article on the indictment of a Taiwanese aboriginal publicity-hound...sorry, I mean legislator who has been indicted by Japanese authorities over an incident at the infamous Yasukuni Shrine 靖国神社...two years ago. But what was even more revealing was this example of historical revisionism found in what should have been a simple blurb for a hotel promotion (italics mine again):

"From now until the end of September, the (Leader Taroko Village) will be light [sic] out every night at [sic] after 8 p.m. to welcome guest [sic] and to celebrate the releasing of "Seediq Bale" by the director of Cape No. 7, Wei Te-shen [sic]. The movie centers on the history of Taroko heroes who fought the Japanese invasion during the 1930s."

The above paragraph refers to the Wushe Incident 霧社事件. For those of you who don't know your history, Japan and China fought a war from 1894-5, which resulted in China's defeat. In the Treaty of Shimonoseki 下関条約, the Qing Empire 清朝 ceded Taiwan to Japan, and Japanese forces landed on the northwest coast of the island in May of 1895. Resistance was fierce, but the Japanese soon assumed control of their new dependency (though the last rebellion wasn't put down until 1915). The point is that there was no "invasion" - Taiwan was handed over to Japan under the terms of a diplomatic agreement between Beijing and Tōkyō. Furthermore, even if the initial landings of the Japanese military could be called an "invasion", by the time of the Wushe Incident in 1930, things had been quiet for over 15 years (which is why the uprising was such a shock to the Japanese authorities). And, finally, there is the reference to the aboriginal fighters being "heroes", an obvious attempt to include non-Han Chinese 漢族 peoples in the struggle against Japanese imperialism that took place in China between 1931 and 1945. It's doubtful that Mona Rudao and his compatriots were fighting for Taiwan's "retrocession" into the loving arms of the Chinese motherland, but that doesn't stop the Post from turning a hotel promotion into a Greater China piece of propaganda.

Yes, you gotta love Taiwan's Leading English-Language Newspaper Since 1952.

China Post editorial makes no sense

In order to write an editorial for the China Post, a formula needs to be applied each time it's deemed necessary to comment on something related to Japan. To start things off, a head-scratching headline is required, something along the line of "Japan-US war scenario makes no sense" . Of course, there must be irrelevant references to the Second World War:

"...Japan's self-defense forces, which have inherited the venerable historic tradition of its once invincible Imperial Army 大日本帝国陸軍 and Navy 大日本帝国海軍, are planning to stage a joint air-sea maneuver with the United States based on a highly unlikely war scenario. The two countries that fought the bloody Pacific War are reported to have their joint naval exercise take place over waters near the Tiaoyut'ai Islands 釣魚台群島 in December..."

Later on, it is mentioned that:

"The Imperial Japanese Army sent an infantry regiment to occupy uninhabited Attu in the Aleutian Islands immediately after Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku's 山本五十六 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941."

No further reference is made on this subject, but suffice it to say it's enough to hang the war albatross around the Japanese neck, even if it is 2010 and not 1945, and the USA and Japan are staunch allies. Actually, the Japanese attacked the Aleutians six months after Pearl Harbor, but why quibble over unimportant matters like historical accuracy?

Next, you must ridicule your subject using tortuous logic:

"The scenario (of practicing to retake one of the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 from a foreign invader) is naive, if not inane. Japan seems to believe Senkaku or Tiaoyutai...is likely to be occupied by either the People's Liberation Army (PLA) or Taiwan's marine corps. Is it possible for the People's Republic to mount an amphibious assault, on what our fishermen used to call 'No Man's Island,' without T'aipei's 台北 acquiescence? Taiwan's defense forces certainly cannot match the PLA in all-out hostilities, but is more than strong enough to hold their ground in denying safe-passage for easy access to Diaoyutai. Does Taiwan have any wish to occupy Tiaoyutai, which means Fishing Platform? Of course, not. As a matter of fact, the tiny islet isn't worth occupying. In other words, there is no ground whatsoever for fear that Senkaku may be invaded and occupied."

Let's see...in the previous paragraph, the editorial states that:

"(the Senkaku archipelago), which lies only 120 miles northeast of Chilung 基隆 in the Western Pacific, is claimed not merely by Taiwan but by the People's Republic of China as well. It is important as a rich fishing ground, while geological surveys show there are huge petroleum reserves under its waters."

Rich fishing grounds? The possibility of huge petroleum reserves? The Post is right - what possible reason could any country have for wanting to seize the Senkakus, especially when two other states in particular lay claim to the Japanese-held islands? This group of rocks is obviously not worth the trouble of sending flotillas of Hong Kong Chinese protesters to assert sovereignty over it, let alone having some of them drown in the sea in the process (goodbye David Chan, we hardly knew ye).

Now it's time to show some ethnic pride. Behold the mighty dragon:

"Even if Senkaku were occupied, could a small 250-strong contingent drive out the invaders from China? Don't make us laugh...An airdropped company-size fighting group would be too lightly armed to fight off a much larger occupying force. Then, what would Japan want to do with Senkaku if its next-to-impossible recapture of the isle were successful? Station a larger garrison on a barren, habitable islet? It would be easily retaken by the PLA, if it so wished."

The last part of the formula is the most important - the writers must unintentionally provide the very rationale that justifies what they so casually dismiss in the first place:

"We fully understand the PLA is flexing its muscle in the East China Sea 東中國海 and planning to extend its influence past the Okinawa 沖縄 island chain into the Pacific. It's only natural for Japan to be concerned."

If it's only natural for the Japanese are be worried about the growing power of the Chinese military, especially its navy, in the waters surrounding Japan (including its territorial waters), then wouldn't it make sense for the Japanese security establishment to prepare for all possible scenarios? Apparently not if you write for the China Post. It helps not to have any grasp of reality:

"But that does not mean the Japanese have to ask Uncle Sam to take part in a joint maneuver against their potential enemy. How does the Pentagon want the Americans to participate in the joint exercise? The United States keeps a Marine division at an air station on Okinawa. Its Pacific fleet may send an aircraft carrier combat group. The United States may choose to show its flag around to alleviate Japan's newly acquired Sinophobia."

A brief history lesson is in order here. Japan occupied the Senkaku Islands in January 1895, four months before it took over Taiwan. The following year, administration over the islands was formally transferred to Okinawa Prefecture 沖縄県. In 1945, with Japan's defeat in World War Two, the Senkakus were handed over to the United States along with the rest of Okinawa. In 1972, when the Ryūkyūs 琉球諸島 were reunited with the rest of Japan, the Senkakus were part of the package, and have been under Japanese control ever since.

While all this was going on, neither Taiwan nor China made any claims to the islands. Not until a Japanese geological survey in the late 1960's suggested there might be oil reserves under the seabed there, that is. Suddenly, the Senkakus (or Diaoyutai/Tiaoyut'ai Islands) became an inviolate part of Chinese (or Taiwanese) territory, under the rubric of "Once a part of China (or Taiwan), always a part of China (or Taiwan)".

And why is Uncle Sam getting involved in this? Not to alleviate any Sinophobia, but to carry out the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty 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, an obscure document dating from 1960 that obligates the United States to come to the defense of Japan in the event of an attack on territory under Japanese administration. Guess what, China Post? That includes the Senkaku Islands!

As usual, there is no mention made of China's ever-increasing military buildup and defense spending, of the aggressive actions of the Chinese navy in recent months in the waters around Japan, or of the concerns about Chinese intentions expressed by the U.S. government. No, it's all just "Sinophobia":

"The end result of the reportedly oncoming joint exercise will be to increase tensions between Japan and the People's Republic Of China. That's the worst scenario none of the countries involved hope to unfold."

In the world of the China Post, where the Republic of China 中華民國 still waits for the day it can resume control over the greater Chinese nation, where the heroic Chiang Kai-shek 蔣中正 single-handedly defeated the forces of the Empire of Japan 大日本帝国, it's just plain incomprehensible how a country like Japan would even consider measures to defend its so-called "territory" from the benign Chinese.

See, anyone can write like the editors of the China Post.

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.

I can't think of a title

Though it appeared in the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ on Tuesday of last week, "New Japanese makes inroads into Chinese vocabulary" is a pretty interesting article, and one which will no doubt annoy the hell out of your (un)friendly neighborhood Chinese nationalist. The story describes "Wasei kango" 和製漢語, literally "Japan-made Chinese words", which were coined in Japan, starting from the Meiji Period 明治時代 (1868-1912) and continuing up to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War 日中戦争 in 1937. "Wasei kango" served to translate knowledge from Western countries into Chinese characters 漢字 as Japan was modernizing after 250 years of relative isolation, and these in turn were adopted by the Chinese and became part of their language. The article gives a sample list of such words (I've added the Mandarin pronunciations):

直接 chokusetsu (direct; zhijie)

注射 chūsha (injection; zhushe)

出口 deguchi (exit; chukou)

伝染病 densenbyō (contagious disease; chuanranbing, with 傳 used in Taiwan in place of 伝)

電子 denshi (electron; dianzi)

動脈 dōmyaku (artery; dongmai)

原子 denshi (atom; yuanzi)

百貨店 yakkaten (department store; baihuodian)

入口 iriguchi (entrance; rukou)

時間 jikan (time; shijian)

決算 kessan (closing of accounts; juesuan)

企業 kigyō (business; qiye)

小型 kogata (compact; xiaoxing)

工業 kōgyō (industry; gongye)

広告 kōkoku (advertisement; guanggao. In Taiwan it's 廣告)

国際 kokusai (international; guoji 國際)

空間 kǖkan (space; kongjian)

民族 minzoku (people; minzu)

農民 nōmin (farmer; nongmin)

大型 ōgata (large scale; daxing)

歴史 rekishi (history; lishi)

劣勢 ressei (inferiority; lieshi)

政党 seitō (political party; zhendang)

社会 shakai (society; shehui, with Taiwanese writing 會 for 会)

市場 shijō (market; shichang)

自然科学 shizen kagaku (natural science; ziran kexue 學 in place of 学)

所得税 shotokuzei (income tax; suodeshui)

出版 shuppan (publishing; chuban)

主体 shutai (main subject; zhuti 體 replacing 体)

相対 sōtai (relative; xiangdui 相對)

体育 taiiku (physical education; tiyu 體育)

体操 taisō (calisthenics; ticao 體操)

投資 tōshi (investment; touzi)

優勢 yǖsei (superiority; youshi)

絶対 zettai (absolute; juedui 絶對)

In the early centuries of Japanese history, China (via Korea) was the source of numerous concepts and vocabulary for Japan. Now the flow has been reversed, and the story concludes by pointing out that the Japanese language today still has a big influence on Chinese.

 The China Post had an "editorial" yesterday on the relationship between Yonaguni Island 与那国島 in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture 沖縄県 and Taiwan's Hualien (Karen) 花連: "Japan isle looks to Taiwan". The reason for the quotation marks around the word "editorial" is that the piece is anything but. It seems the editors at the China Post took a few facts about Yonaguni from its Wikipedia entry, and then "borrowed" very liberally from the same Kyōdō News 共同通信社 story that appeared in the Japan Times a week ago ("Yonaguni looks to Taiwan to survive"). While Kyōdō News was credited in the second paragraph of the Post's article, if I were a college professor and this a term paper handed in by one of my students, I would be raising some questions about plagiarism. But my biggest question is why this appeared as an editorial. The opinions of the editors on Yonaguni and Hualien are not stated anywhere. If this were truly an editorial, shouldn't there be some words about encouraging the two places to grow closer together, thus further improving the overall Japan-Taiwan relationship? Or, seeing as the China Post is generally anti-Japanese in tone, couldn't the editors have passed along a warning about the "threat from the rise of Japanese nationalism"? Even a completely reactionary assertion (not beyond the realm of possibility for the Post!) that Okinawa is still a tribute state of China, and that therefore Taiwan has a claim over Yonaguni, would at least constitute an opinion, which is what an editorial is supposed to do. This story belongs in either the Asia-Pacific or Taiwan sections of the newspaper, and not on the Op/Ed page. Is the China Post too cheap to actually pay Kyōdō News for the article? I guess you could call it "night market journalism".

Taiphew!

Another weekend, another typhoon it seems. This time is was Jangmi's turn to wreak havoc on Taiwan. The storm reached this island yesterday, and while we didn't have as much rain in our area as the last one, the winds were powerful. So strong, in fact, that our apartment building management warned the residents against using the first floor gate to go outside, saying it was safer to use the underground parking garage as an exit (the layout of our apartment complex has a tendency to amplify wind speeds, making them even more powerful). At one point, we thought the window in Amber's room was going to get blown in (and naturally we had nothing to tape it up with). Fortunately (for us, anyway), Jangmi lost some steam as it made landfall on Taiwan's east coast (in the process being downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm), and with the Central Mountain Range 中央山脈 acting as a buffer, the winds died down in our area by early Sunday evening.

Today (Monday) was declared a typhoon day, meaning all government offices (including schools) were closed, and further meaning another unwelcome day off from work due to Mother Nature. The weather hasn't been too bad, at least in central Taiwan, today, though it hasn't stopped raining for even a second all day long. Feeling cooped up from being indoors (but not being able to do anything outdoors), and faced with an unexpected holiday, we figured the best thing to do was to get out of the apartment and go somewhere indoors, like a department store or shopping mall. So after lunch, we headed off to Taichung台中. Surprisingly, though there were a lot of downed trees and torn advertising banners, there was little structural damage from the previous day's onslaught (the one exception was a large sign that had collapsed on Zhonggang Road, which had made it onto the TV news programs. We were driving by too quickly, however, for me to get a decent photo of the destruction). Our first destination, an outlet mall in downtown Taichung, was closed. For our second, third and fourth destinations (the Chung Yo and Mitsukoshi 三越 Department Stores, and the Tiger City shopping mall, respectively), it seemed as if all of central Taiwan had the same idea as we did - there were LONG lines of cars waiting to get into all three places. In the end, we gave up and went back to Fengyuan 豊原 (where it was the same story at the local department store as well!). A rather appropriate outing on a dreary day, one could say.

I don't know if it was a coincidence, but the China Post had this story in its back pages this morning:

Japanese take part in Operation Wind Pursuit 

"Japanese participated in Operation Wind Pursuit (Sunday). Launched jointly, Operation Wind Pursuit involves meteorologists in Japan and Taiwan to gather up-to-the minute information on tropical cyclones...a Japanese Falcon jet craft made a five-hour observation flight near Taiwan yesterday, as Typhoon Jangmi landed at Yilan 宜蘭 last night."

Hopefully they collected a lot of meaningful date, because it appears Jangmi is on its way to Japan.

Son of ニュース

The China Post newspaper today has an article on ex-President Lee Tung-hui's 李登輝 current visit to Okinawa 沖縄:

Ex-president Lee visits Japanese war memorial 

"Former President Lee Teng-hui on Monday started a visit to Japan and visited a World War II memorial, despite expected criticism from Beijing which has labeled him as 'splittist.'"

The story is surprisingly factual and unbiased, two qualities usually not associated with the Post's coverage of Taiwan-related stories. Lee is credited with having "nurtured Taiwan's democracy", and balances the differing viewpoints held by the Chinese and Japanese governments:

"It is Lee's fourth visit since he stepped down as Taiwan's president eight years ago. Each of his trips trigger protests from Chinese authorities, who see such visits as an attempt to affirm Taiwan's own status. Japan, which does not require visas for Taiwanese tourists, says Lee's visit is private."

The writer is also careful in describing the connection between Lee and the controversial Yasukuni Shrine 靖国神社...oh, hold on a moment. I've just noticed this story is from the Agence France-Presse news agency. No wonder.

For an example of how the China Post often approaches local news, this morning's edition has a classic primer in the article "Armed soldiers take train to drill". Check out the opening paragraphs:

"Bullet train passengers were stunned to find 63 fully armed infantrymen taking the train with them yesterday. 'Are we fighting a war now?' one shocked passenger on the train reaching Taichung 台中 asked. He and his fellow passengers were scared, not without reason. President Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁 used to provoke China into declaring war on Taiwan."

I don't know why I bother buying the China Post. OK, I do - it carries a greater range of wire service stories (not to mention more in-depth coverage of Major League Baseball) than Taiwan's two other English-language dailies - but I feel guilty about it. Honest.

ニュース

From Saturday's edition of The China Post, a fine newspaper (if you believe in Greater China fantasies, that is):

Taiwan, Japan to mutually recognize each other's driver's licenses 

"Holders of Taiwan driver's license will be eligible to apply for a Japanese license without taking a test, and vice versa, starting Oct. 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) 中華民国外交部, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) 中華民国交通部 and the Interchange Association (Japan) 交流協会 jointly announced yesterday."

Despite recent tensions over the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島, relations between Japan and Taiwan continue to grow closer at the tourist level. Last year the two governments agreed to mutually recognize driver's licenses from both countries, with the provision that Taiwanese drivers needed to get copies of their licenses translated into Japanese (and vice versa for Japanese motorists in Taiwan). This latest initiative means drivers will be able to obtain licenses in the other country without having to take a test (other than a physical exam). It is the latest action (starting with the decision made by the Japanese government a couple of years ago to waive visa requirements for Taiwanese tourists) that recognizes the fact that 2.5 million people travel between Japan and Taiwan every year. I'd like to see an article in the future on whether or not Taiwanese drivers are obeying traffic regulations in Japan, the latter being a place where drivers actually stop for red lights, and (gasp!) let pedestrians cross the road without trying to drive around (or over) them first.

DOH: Crackers from Japan may be tainted 

"The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that 500 boxes of imported rice crackers from Japan that may have been contaminated with a pesticide and with aflatoxin were distributed to consumers in late June, but stressed that the health risk was very low."

The ongoing scandal in Japan involving Mikasa Foods 三笠フーズ having sold contaminated rice (from Vietnam and, no surprise, China) to 375 brewers, food ingredient wholesalers and confectionery makers, has apparently reached these shores. According to the government, a local dress company imported 500 boxes of rice crackers from a Japanese food processor that used tainted rice procured from Mikasa, to be given as presents to customers. The firm, however, denies the DOH's allegations. Japan has been hit by a number of scandals over the past year involving food safety, which has shaken the faith of many Japanese consumers.

Are you sure about that? それは正しいと確信しているか

Once in a while, when reading a story about travel in Taiwan, you will come across a statement that the Emperor of Japan stayed at such-and-such place during the colonial era (1895-1945). In today's China Post newspaper, the following statement appeared in an article about the Yuchang 玉長 Highway in eastern Taiwan:

"The Jhihben Hot Springs Area is a colorless and odorless sodium carbonate hot spring. It enjoyed the favor of the Japanese Emperor during the Japanese colonial period."

As far as I know, Hirohito 昭和天皇 visited Taiwan just once, in April of 1923. At that time, he was still the Crown Prince, though serving as Regent as his father, Yoshihito 大正天皇, was unable to govern due to poor health (Hirohito would become officially become emperor in 1925 after Yoshihito's death). According to Hans P. Bix's excellent book "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan", the purpose of Hirohito's visit was to "reaffirm Japan's possession of Taiwan" (p. 137). The Crown Prince visited the spot where Japanese troops first landed on Taiwan to take over the island following the Treaty of Shimonoseki 下関条約 that ended the Sino-Japanese War 日清戦争 of 1894-95, and which ceded Taiwan to Japan. He also paid visits "to (Shinto) shrines, a number of military facilities, and a Japanese sugar refinery...(and) thirteen Japanese-built schools" (p. 137-8). Bix doesn't mention if Hirohito also stopped for a soak at the Chihpen (Jhihben) Hot Springs 知本温泉, but it is possible that he did, which would explain the reference in the China Post article.

These pictures have nothing to do with Hirohito 裕仁 or Chimoto-onsen, but I took them yesterday during my midweek sweat-soaked walk in the hills above Chung-cheng (Jhong-jheng) Park 中正公園.

 

カタツムリ

 

セミ