Light at the end of the tunnel?

A not uncommon scene in my neighborhood on a Sunday morning - a Taoist procession slowly making its way along the narrow streets. This happens several times a year, and comes complete with firecrackers, drums and gongs (the firecrackers had all been set off by the time I had grabbed my camera). Someone in this area obviously pays for these affairs, because the processions almost always stop for a while at the entrance to our apartment building, with the noise getting amplified as a result (both daughter and cat are none too happy about this). This particular procession also featured a female "singer" standing in the back of one of the lead trucks. Though I wasn't able to get a glimpse of her from my window, most likely she was clad in "hot" clothing - "hot", that is, if your idea of "sexy" was formed during the Eisenhower administration. Though I didn't get to see her, I had no problem hearing her, as she "sang" for the benefit of the gods.

But I'm not complaining. I don't want to jinx anything, but it appears that my wife's pleas to the Taoist gods may have finally been answered. In fact, on Saturday afternoon she traveled back to her hometown of Siluo 西螺 in Yún​lín County 雲林縣 to pay gratitude to them. Details will be divulged later once things start to firm up.

For now, though, life in this part of the world goes on as usual, both at the local level and in the political arena, as this AFP article from Japan Today makes clear:

China and Taiwan on Saturday criticized Japan for giving Japanese names to disputed islands in the East China Sea claimed by all three parties in a long-running diplomatic row.

China and Japan have a lengthy dispute over an uninhabited but strategically coveted island chain known as Diào​yú​tái 釣魚臺 in Chinese and Senkaku 尖閣諸島 in Japanese.

China’s foreign ministry said moves by Japan to rename scores of islands in the chain was “illegal and invalid,” according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website.

“No matter what names Japan has given to the islands affiliated to Diào​yú island, it will not change the fact that these islands belong to China,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in the statement.

China’s State Oceanic Administration has released names in Chinese for the islands in the chain, which it put at 70, the official Xinhua news agency said Saturday.

Separately, Taiwan protested to Japan for renaming four islets in the contested chain and unveiling the names on Friday.

“We have lodged a stern protest and reaffirmed our stance that the Diào​yú islands are part of our territory,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said.

Japan has said it plans to finish naming 39 uninhabited islands by the end of March.

The islands, which are believed to be surrounded by oil and gas reserves, have long been a source of friction between China, Japan and Taiwan.

China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and has long sought political reunification with the island. Japan officially recognizes China rather than Taiwan but maintains close trade ties with the island. 

Notice the sentence "which are believed to be surrounded by oil and gas reserves" in the next-to-last paragraph of the above article. Japan took over control of the islands in January 1895 as Terra nullius, or "no man's land", and administered them as part of Okinawa Prefecture 沖縄県 until the United States took over control of the Ryūkyū Islands 琉球諸島 at the end of the Second World War. The U.S. returned the Senkakus to Japanese control along with the rest of Okinawa in 1972. From the time of the Japanese annexation in 1895 until the late 1960's, neither the Republic of China 中華民國 nor the People's Republic of China governments contested the claim to ownership. Not, that is, until oceanic surveys in the mid-to-late Sixties suggested the potential for those above-mentioned oil and gas reserves. Naturally, of course, it turned out the Senkaku Islands have always been a part of China, and must someday be returned to the loving embrace of the motherland. Along with all that potential gas and oil, plus a lot of fish as well.

Other things that go on as usual here is the Taiwanese love of the Japanese language. I haven't bothered much lately with taking photos of signs, but they are still out there, and as abundant (and in some cases misused) as ever. Here are a couple of recent examples:

I'm not sure if the 名屋 on this sign is supposed to be read as the Chinese míngwū or the Japanese naya, but the intention behind ラーメン, rāmen noodles, is fairly obvious.

Umm, barbecue バーベキュー

Mental forecast: cloudy, with a chance of resignation

Like the photographs below, my mood hasn't cleared much since returning to Taiwan last Monday.

It certainly didn't take long for the rut to set in again, now that I'm back to the daily routine of teaching mornings, afternoons and some evenings. My students are as friendly and interesting as ever, but I've been at this for far, far too long. Unfortunately, the ennui of life on Formosa hasn't been alleviated by any good news from back home. Worries over the health of one parent remain an ongoing concern, and I feel a strong sense of guilt for being so far from home when I could/should be making myself useful in some capacity back in the States. However, suddenly uprooting a family from one country and plopping them down in another without sufficient time to prepare for the uncertainties regarding income, education and cultural readjustment doesn't seem like the right thing to do just this moment.

I do prattle on...

Speaking of money, we've been relieved of NT30,000 ($1018) to fix an oil leak in our Nissan Cefiro 日産・セフィーロ. I've never been very good with matters of engineering and mechanics, which is another way of saying I'm hopeless when it comes to cars, and especially, the workings of their engines. Add to my general ignorance the fact that all the repair matters were handled in Mandarin Chinese by my wife, and I'm almost completely out of the loop here. All I know is this was the wrong time (as if there were ever a right one), financially speaking, for our automobile to fail on us. Having missed half the month of January in order to go back to the U.S. for our annual visit, our revenue stream for the next pay period is about to shrink considerably. The forecast for the next four weekends or so calls for lots of domesticity.

Finally, there's Amber. Not to worry, she's in good health and still her usual energetic self. However, this morning she asked if she could change kindergartens because "the other kids don't want to play with me". I'm sure this is only one of life's minor episodes, and just a normal part of growing up, but I'm understandably sensitive to my daughter's situation. She is, after all, the only bi-cultural child in her entire kindergarten - there may be other students whose mothers might be Vietnamese, for example, but they wouldn't be so obviously "different" as my little girl. As one of my Facebook friends pointed out, Amber will never be considered as "one of us" by her Taiwanese friends and classmates (though probably not in a hostile way), and as long as we stay here, she's just going to have to learn how to handle that. Or we could move back to the U.S. where people like my daughter are more commonplace and therefore more likely to be accepted for who they are. 

Bi-cultural offspring have been having a hard time of it lately in Taiwan, as this AP article in Wednesday's Japan Today pointed out:

Prosecutors say Taiwanese-Japanese starlet Makiyo 川島茉樹代 has been barred from leaving Taiwan pending a probe into her alleged involvement in the beating of a taxi driver in Taipei.

  

The Taipei Prosecutors Office said Tuesday the 27-year-old singer is accused of kicking a taxi door after her companion, who allegedly was drunk, dragged the driver out and beat him.

  

Makiyo has apologized and pledged to stop drinking in the wake of the Thursday night incident.

  

Takateru Tomoyori of Japan was released on bail pending formal charges, possibly attempted homicide, according to prosecutors.

  

The driver suffered a brain hemorrhage and two fractured ribs.

  

News reports said the taxi driver asked Tomoyori and Makiyo to get out after they refused to wear seat belts. 

This story has dominated the headlines here, which isn't surprising as celebrity-related scandals grab the attention of Taiwanese just as much as they do the citizens of other countries. For those of you who don't know, Makiyo is what the Japanese call a tarento タレント, an entertainer of minimal talent who nonetheless becomes a celebrity, and is constantly seen on vapid talk and variety shows. The product of a Japanese father and a Taiwanese mother, she became famous here because of a combination of having a nice body paired with a Japanese background (though she speaks Mandarin fluently). As to whether she has any actual singing abilities, you can do a YouTube search to listen and decide for yourself (or just watch this). What's disturbing here is the undercurrent of xenophobia that appears to be fueling the hype over this "scandal". Sure, entertainers in Asia do seem to have an exaggerated sense of themselves, and as a result, are constantly getting into scrapes with the common people, but the outrage in this case might well be amplified by the fact that Makiyo isn't "one of us" (her companion most certainly isn't). It's a strange situation when a reactionary rag like the China Post actually comes to her defense, sort of.

At least the weather cleared up enough earlier this week to allow for a bit of hiking. I'm getting flabby again after a long period of relative inactivity combined with a poor diet (plus my Taiwan-related insomnia has returned in the post-jet lag period), so it was with some sense of relief to be walking again along the trails in the  Dàkēng 大坑 area. The photos below didn't turn out very well, but I really didn't want to post any pictures of Makiyo, so here you go:

Looking down from Trail 7 towards the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium 臺中市洲際棒球場

Trails 1-5 are shrouded in mist

Don't even get me started on how I missed what, by all appearances, was a very exciting Super Bowl XLVI. The last couple of years our trips back to the States coincided with the biggest sporting event on the American stage, but the calendar wasn't working in my favor this time. The Giants-Patriots clash was televised in a number of other countries, but Taiwan wasn't one of them. I certainly couldn't find the game on my local cable provider. Unlike in Japan, where the American game of football アメフト is popular at the university level (there's even a Rice Bowl to decide a champion!), the gridiron game is virtually unknown here. In fact, the only NFL game I've ever attended was a preseason clash between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams (before they moved to St. Louis) at the Tōkyō Dome 東京ドーム in August of 1989 (the American Bowl, which the Rams won 16-13 - thanks for the getting the tickets Jun!), while my Australian friend Josh and I once attended a college all-star game at the Yokkaichi Dome 四日市ドーム circa 2005. Yet here in Taiwan...

Enough whingeing already. I'm back, and I'm just going to have to deal with it.

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.

Clearly speaking

As you can see in the pictures above, we've had some really clear weather recently. The first two photos were taken around noon today, while the last one was shot in the late afternoon. The line of mountains in the distance are part of the Central Mountain Range 中央山脈, and it isn't often that they can be seen through the usual haze and smog. 

Also apparently becoming clearer is the search for the killer of the two young Taiwanese women murdered last Thursday in Tōkyō 東京. The Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ ran the Kyōdō News 共同通信社 story on the not-so-surprising suspect in the case:

A Taiwanese man is being sought in connection with the fatal stabbings of two female Taiwanese students in Taitō Ward 台東区, Tōkyō police said Sunday.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Chang Chih-yang 張志揚, 30, who has been missing since Thursday after telling his roommate at around 10 a.m. that he was going to Ōsaka 大阪. Chang was a student at the same Japanese language school the slain women attended.

Police suspect Chang of killing Lin Chih-ying 林芷瀅, 22, and Chu Li-chieh 朱立婕, 24, at around 9 a.m. Thursday at an apartment rented by the school as a dorm, police said. The two women each had about 10 stab wounds, mostly around their necks, and the cause of death was apparently blood loss, police said.

Chang is believed to have been fond of Lin as he recently complained that she had been giving him the cold shoulder since mid-December. He was spotted by security cameras near the crime scene at around the same time as the murders, police said.

On the day they were killed, Lin promised to go on a trip with male friends from the school. They were to meet at a subway station at 9:30 a.m., but when Lin failed to show, her friends contacted a school official who used a duplicate key to enter the apartment where the women were found.

Lin was found lying in the hallway in a jacket and boots, while Chu was found bleeding in the room's bottom bunk bed. 

Japan Today has a similar article on its website.

When this story first broke, I had a feeling that the killer might have been another Taiwanese. Not because I think a Japanese is incapable of murder (they are, just like anybody else), nor because Taiwanese people are more prone to killing (they certainly aren't). The reason I thought so is that it seemed that in most cases where foreign students are murdered, the killer or killers often turned out to be compatriots, or at least fellow classmates. I don't have any crime statistics to back up that last assertion, but it is a fact that in most murder cases, the victim(s) knew their killer(s). Add to that the tendency among students studying abroad to socialize with classmates from their home countries, and/or with others studying at the same school, and the odds increased in this particular case that the main suspect would turn out to be from Taiwan. 

According to the latest news, which I heard from a student this evening, Chang committed suicide, and it appears the case is being brought to a close. A sad end all around.

Perspective

Downtown Fengyuan 豐原 on a chilly, drizzly Friday evening

My day got off to a bad start this morning when I realized that I couldn't find my bank book or ATM card. Despite an extensive search of the apartment, not the mention the scooter and car, neither item could be located. In the end, I had to give up a morning of work (along with a mornings' worth of pay) in order to go downtown to the bank, and apply for new ones. Not the best way to begin the day, but in the grand scheme of life, it was an extremely trivial and minor annoyance. From Japan Today came this story of two Taiwanese women who were stabbed to death in their apartment in Tōkyō 東京 to things into their proper perspectives:

Two Taiwanese women were found with stab wounds to their necks in their 2nd-floor apartment in Tōkyō’s Taitō Ward 台東区 on Thursday morning, police said. The two women, aged 21 and 23, were taken to hospital where they were confirmed dead.

According to Fuji TV フジテレビ, the two women were Japanese-language students at the nearby Intercultural Institute of Japan. The apartment building was rented by their Japanese language school as a dorm for the students. 

One of the women was supposed to leave for the school with two male Taiwanese friends at 9:30 a.m., but when she didn’t show up, the two alerted school authorities, Fuji reported. A teacher used a duplicate key to get into the apartment where he found the two women, and alerted police. 

A tragic story with a local angle such as this one has naturally attracted a lot of media interest here in Taiwan, though this morning's TV news programs were devoting a lot of coverage to Chen Shui-bian's  陳水扁 temporary release from prison in order to pay his respects to his recently-deceased mother-in-law. NHK News (Channel 107 in my area) also gave the story prominent coverage. To become a parent who has outlived his/her child is a terrible fate that I would never wish on anybody.

Returning to things that don't really matter...

Pictured above is a 330ml bottle of Strawberry Beer. According to the label, it's "The Best Fresh Strawberry Beer in Taiwan Which is Brewed with Local Non-toxic Natural Strawberry". AFAIK, it's the only strawberry beer brewed in Taiwan. When I first saw it at the Yumaowu Capita'n Supermarket 裕毛屋開福登連鎖超市 on Chongde Road 崇德路 in Taichung (Tái​zhōng) 台中, I had hoped it was a rare example of a Taiwanese craft beer. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a new product from the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation 台灣菸酒公司, the state-owned behemoth responsible for the Budweiser-like Taiwan Beer 台灣啤酒. Still, I bought a bottle anyway, as one should keep an open mind about these sorts of things. Strawberry Beer turned out to taste more like strawberry cola, and despite the 9% alcohol content figure printed on the label, it had the same effect as a soft drink. At NT150 ($5/¥380), it was a waste of money, but I suppose credit should be given to TTL for at least trying something different.

Out with the old, in with the...old

A picture of my class of third-graders, taken yesterday afternoon at the cram school where I work. Many of the children are bundled up because even though the outside temperature was just around 15°C (less than 60°F), the lack of central heating (as you would find in the U.S.) or kerosene heaters (commonly used in Japan during the winter months) means that the concrete-and-tile classrooms can get extremely chilly. The girl in the lower right is Cherry, one of my brightest and most inquisitive students. She loves nothing better than to draw, and her caricatures are quite good. I wonder, though, if the Taiwanese educational system will eventually grind that love of art right out of her. The "examination hell" system that constitutes schooling in this country begins to kick in from the fourth grade.

It may be a new year, but 2012 begins with a same old tired story. As the BBC and other news outlets have reported (article and video), the Senkaku Islands 尖閣諸島 are back in the news again. China is upset that a small group of Japanese citizens, including a couple of local politicians from Ishigaki Island 石垣島, which has administrative jurisdiction over the Senkakus), made a brief landing on one of the islands on Tuesday. The Chinese government issued a formal protest, and a dozen rabid Chinese nationalists attempted to set sail for what they refer as the Diaoyu Islands, or Diaoyutai 釣魚台群島. It appears that cooler heads will prevail over this latest incident, however, as authorities in Hong Kong moved to stop the planned flotilla, while police in Japanese are investigating the matter as the Japanese who ventured to the Senkakus landed without permission. 

While the media are characterizing this as a Sino-Japanese dispute, AFP's report on the story does make brief mention of Taiwan's position:

"Taiwan also protested to Japan. 'We reiterate that the Diaoyu islands are part of our territory and we oppose any remarks or actions by Japan that violate our sovereignty,' said foreign ministry spokesman James Chang.

Taiwan’s de facto embassy in Tōkyō 東京 has been instructed to lodge a formal protest to Japan, he added."

(link to the full article in Japan Today) 

Territorial disputes between nations are complicated affairs (the BBC has a short Q&A on the Senkakus), but basically Japan annexed the islands in early 1895, declaring them to be Terra nullius ("territory which has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state, or over which any prior sovereign has expressly or implicitly relinquished sovereignty" - Wikipedia). The Senkaku group became part of what is now modern-day Okinawa Prefecture 沖縄県. For decades, the Chinese government seemingly accepted the Senkakus as Japanese territory, and made no claim to the island group when the United States took over administration of Okinawa at the end of the Second World War - the Chinese Communist rulers in the early 1950's even went so far as to include the Senkakus (using the Japanese name instead of Diaoyu) in demanding independence for American-controlled Okinawa. It wasn't until geologic surveys in the mid-to-late 1960's suggested the possibility of oil and gas reserves in the waters around the Senkakus that the rival governments in Taiwan and China began asserting sovereignty over them. Control over the islands returned to Japan in 1972 as part of the reversion of Okinawa from American to Japanese control, and the dispute has continued since then.

For the longest time, a key pillar in Taiwan's claim to the Senkakus was that supposedly in 1940 a Tōkyō court ruled that the islands should be under the jurisdiction of Taiwan (at the time a Japanese colony) and not Okinawa. However, there appears to be little evidence of such a ruling having ever been handed down, and mentions of it have disappeared in recent years. Beijing frequently trots out the "indisputable sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands which have been an inherent part of China since ancient times" line, with its underlying inference of "once Chinese, always Chinese". It may not happen over the Senkaku Islands, but somewhere down the line there is going to be a serious clash between 21st-century notions of international law and China's aspirations to re-establish the boundaries of the Manchu Empire of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Autumn Almanac

Fall is here in Taiwan, all two weeks' of it (according to one well-known local blogger), and the weather has been very nice (with the exception of a few days' worth of rain). Today was especially pleasant, and I made good use of the sunshine by going for a walk in the area around the Kuanyin 觀音 temple atop the hill behind the Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology 中台科技大學. The walk up to the temple is a short and easy one, but fortunately there is a network of trails in the area behind the temple, and I was able to make a two-hour loop around the hills.

The two little kissing duck figurines were complemented by recorded quacks being played on a continuous loop. Tres Buddhist, non?

Whatever the structure in the photo is, its position atop a small hillock made it look like an island fortress

This lizard was quite literally hanging around

One thing I sometimes wonder while stomping around in the hills and mountains of central Taiwan is what would I do in the event a large earthquake suddenly struck the area (probably scream like a baby). According to this AFP article from Japan Today, I'll now a few seconds warning before the trails collapse from under my feet:

Taiwan deploys NEC-made undersea quake warning system

"Taiwan said Monday it had put into service its first undersea seismic observation system, giving the island life-saving extra seconds or even minutes to brace for earthquakes and tsunamis.

The NT420-million ($14 million/¥1.07 billion) system, built by NEC Corp 日本電気株式会社, consists of equipment ranging from ocean-bottom seismographs to tsunami pressure gauges and even underwater microphones.

'The system gives a much clearer picture of what’s happening. We can even hear the sounds of dolphins swimming by,' Kuo Kai-wen, director of the Seismology Center 地震測報中心, told AFP.

'With the help of this system, we’ll be able to attain an average of 10 seconds’ extra warning if earthquakes hit off the east coast, and an extra 10 minutes to issue tsunami warnings,” he said.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes, as it lies near the junction of two tectonic plates. In September 1999, a 7.6-magnitude tremor killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s recent history.

The new alert system is centered around a submarine cable beginning at the township of T'ouch'eng 頭城 in the northeast of Taiwan and stretching for 45 kilometers (28 miles) into the ocean in a roughly easterly direction.

Nearly 70% of the earthquakes that strike Taiwan hit this area, according to the seismology center.

The system is deployed at a depth of around 300 meters (980 feet), sending real-time digital information to land via submarine optical fiber cable 24 hours a day, NEC said in a statement.

Taiwan began considering an undersea alert system after the Indian Ocean tsunami in late 2004 killed almost a quarter of a million people.

Another undersea earthquake, as powerful as that which caused the 2004 disaster, triggered a tsunami that struck Japan in March, leaving about 22,000 dead or missing.

'The power of the two quakes was pretty much the same, but the much lower toll figure in Japan shows that early warning systems are very effective in the battle against unexpected natural disasters,' Kuo said.

Now the workers at those three nuclear power plants on Taiwan's northeast coast (two in operation, the other nearing completion) will have a few more minutes to run for their lives before a massive tsunami 津波 swamps the facilities, already badly damaged from the earlier earthquake, leading to catastrophic meltdowns and the irradiation of the entire island. Time to head to the local いざかや (izakaya, or Japanese-style pub) for a round or two before it all comes to an end, On the Beach-style.

Watch for falling rocks

It hasn't been a good week. Starting on Saturday, and lasting for several days, I had a bad case of diarrhea, with resultant stomach cramps. On Monday I started having dizzy spells, which were strong enough to keep me off balance much of the time, and frequent enough that I ended up not going to work on Monday evening. Tuesday was better, but then yesterday my chest was bothering me throughout the day. Combined with the general feeling of exhaustion I've been having for over the past year or so, the result of feeling tired every night but unable to go to sleep, and I've been rather irritable these past few days. Life as usual in Taiwan, in other words.

On Tuesday, however, I was feeling good enough to go for a hike. I did a four-hour round-trip walk (slower than usual due to my weakened condition) on Huoyanshan 火炎山, that badly-scarred mountain located just to the left of the No. 1 Freeway 中山高速公路 if you're driving north from T'aichung 台中 to San'i 三義:

(http://hoher.idv.tw/blog/read-1406.html)

The mountain's appearance is most likely the result of having been stripped for the materials to manufacture concrete. There are several points along the hiking trail where we look right down into the abyss:

Half the fun of hiking Huoyanshan is being able to start several small rock slides. I just don't want to be up there the when the next large earthquake strikes.

The Beautiful Hair Salon. Many Taiwanese hair salons use Japanese script on their signs, an indication of how much influence Japan has on fashion and style in this country.

Business is another area in which the Japanese influence can be easily seen here. Japan Today posted an AFP article this morning on the signing of investment pact between Japan and Taiwan:

"Taiwan and Japan signed an arrangement Thursday to bolster mutual investment despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties.

The deal comes amid steadily improving ties between the sides. Relations hit a trough at the beginning of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou’s 馬英九 term in office, but have blossomed in recent months, particularly after Taiwan extended substantial aid to Japan in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in March.

Taiwanese Vice Economics Minister Hwang Jung-chiou said the arrangement is expected to help Taiwan lure more investment from Japan, including from companies considering moving production overseas to avoid supply chain disruptions caused by the March disaster.

'Japan has been the biggest source of technology for our industries,' Hwang said. 'Many of the big Japanese corporations have already invested here, but with the arrangement, we can attract those who were not as enthusiastic before, such as makers of machinery components, chemical materials, and biotechnology.'

Taiwan’s East Asia Relations Commission Chairman Peng Run-tsu signed the new agreement with his Japanese counterpart Mitsuo Ōhashi 大橋光夫, chairman of the Japan Interchange Association 財団法人交流協会.

The deal is not expected to draw protests from China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan but has improved its own ties with its rival in recent years. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949.

Last year, China signed a landmark deal to offer tariff cuts for hundreds of Taiwan-made goods. Taiwanese officials say Japanese corporations may be lured to invest on the island to get access to the same preferential tariffs when exporting to China.

Hwang said Japanese investment in Taiwan has increased over the past two years, and that bilateral trade totaled nearly $70 billion in 2010.

Under the arrangement signed Thursday, companies from the two sides can enjoy the same benefits as local counterparts when investing in each other’s territories.

Both governments will be obligated to assure the free movement of money by their companies to the other side. Investment disputes can also be resolved by international arbitration agencies.

Tōkyō 東京 switched recognition from T'aipei 台北 to Beijing 北京 in 1972.

Hwang said the two sides will also consider the signing of a more comprehensive free trade agreement, which would involve liberalization of the service sector and removing remaining import and export barriers."

Another clip joint

Craning necks

This Japanese-era building in Fengyuan 豐原 was originally the head office of a local textile company. It was idle for quite some time until a few years ago, when someone converted it into a Western-style restaurant called Zion. Unfortunately, Zion didn't last as long as Jerusalem has, and now it appears to be in the process of being turned into a Japanese restaurant, appropriate considering the site's history. Before this place officially opens for business, however, somebody should point out to the owners that 丸田 is pronounced as "Maruta" まるた, and not as まみた...um, I mean まぬた...no, sorry I mean to say...actually, I don't what the hell this sign actually says. It probably won't matter, anyway - most Taiwanese will just assume the name is "Want'ien".

From Thursday's edition of Japan Today comes this article:

ENDANGERED CRANES ARRIVE IN TAIWAN FROM JAPAN

"A pair of red-crowned cranes 丹頂『タンチョウ』 from Japan were flown to Taiwan on Wednesday in the country’s first ever export of the endangered bird, zoo officials said. The birds, named 'Big' and 'Kika', were transported to T'aipei 台北 from Kushiro 釧路, northern Japan. They will be quarantined for 21 days before the nine-year-old male bird, 'Big', which is used to human contact, is introduced to the public on October 30, Taipei Zoo 木柵動物園 said. There are about 1,000 of the birds - one of the world’s largest cranes - in Japan.

Biologists estimate that 1,600 others live in the wild or in captivity in Siberia, China, Mongolia and Korea."

The local media here is playing up the angle of the cranes 丹頂鶴 being given by Japan to Taiwan in gratitude for the financial assistance provided by the Taiwanese people in the aftermath of the March 11 triple disasters 東日本大震災. The reality is that this was in the planning stages well before the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns that have wreaked so much death, destruction and dislocation in Japan's Tōhoku region 東北地方. Still, it does make for a nice story.

UPDATE: One of my students, DJ, has pointed out (via Facebook) that the hiragana 平仮名 written on the sign in the photograph above is actually read as "Mawita". Wi is rendered as ゐ in hiragana, and as ヰ in the katakana 片仮名 script. As this Wikipedia article notes, wi is seldom encountered in modern Japanese. I certainly don't recall ever seeing it when I was learning kana 仮名 all those years ago.

In any event, the sign should read まるた. So there.

Monkey businesss

The view from my daughter's room this morning. Before you get all gushy about the sight of the egrets in the rice fields, keep in mind that just out of the picture frame to the right there is a factory belonging to a biotechnology company.

Japan Today has noticed that Seedig Bale, the upcoming film about the Wushe Incident 霧社事件, the last major uprising against Japan's colonial rule of Taiwan, has been getting a lot of attention on this island ("Film on uprising against Japan gets rare honor in Taiwan"):

"Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng 魏德聖 will lead scores of aboriginal actors to attend a gala premiere in T'aipei 台北 of his historical epic 'Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale' 賽德克‧巴萊.

The epic about a 1930 aboriginal uprising against Taiwan’s Japanese rulers is currently up for best feature film at the Venice Film Festival.

The Taipei  premiere will be held Sunday at a square facing the Presidential Office Building 總統府 in honor of the island’s first epic film production in decades.

Speaking to reporters in Venice, Wei said the film’s nomination shows 'arts and culture can have a greater power than politics.'

The comments are seen as a mild criticism over the Venice festival’s listing of the film as coming from Taiwan, China — a reference that makes the self-governed, democratic island seem like it comes under Beijing’s rule."

"Mild" is the operating word here. There is no logical reason at all for the film festival organizers to insist that Taiwan be identified as "Taiwan, China", or that only flags of nations with which Italy has diplomatic relations can be displayed in Venice. Unless, that is, you accept that caving in to Chinese pressure is a "logical" act. It would be great if Taiwan's stars (musicians, actors, filmmakers and so on) could stand together and speak with one voice in condemning these ridiculous demands from China, but their reactions are rarely strongly-worded, and many meekly compromise rather than risk Beijing's ire. It's understandable, of course, why they do so - Taiwan is a small country, with correspondingly small rewards, while China offers so much more, as the gateway to the Greater China market. Which is perhaps why Wei chose to complete his film about the Wushe Incident following the runaway success of Cape No. 7 海角七號. The latter movie dared to portray World War Two-era Japanese as sympathetic human beings and not imperialistic warmongers, and its release in China was first delayed, and then shown with some scenes censored. It wouldn't be surprising if Seediq Bale is much more warmly received by the Chinese authorities.

Here in Taiwan, the reactionary China Post newspaper 英文中國郵報 has certainly been looking forward to the film's release, and tonight's showing in the square opposite the building where President Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 of the Kuomintang 國民黨 works smacks of cynicism. A couple of years ago, when the KMT was the opposition party, a large banner of the Wushe Incident leader Mona Rudao was hung from the party headquarters building in Taipei. Though it is doubtful that Mona Rudao was fighting to liberate his people from Japanese rule in order to help "reunite" Taiwan with the Chinese "motherland", that hasn't stopped the Chinese Nationalists from trying to co-opt him in order to make themselves appear more "Taiwanese". Perhaps Wei's next film could be about aborigines struggling to preserve their culture in the face of post-1945 KMT Sinicization efforts.

Meanwhile, here in the real world, the Kaminoge family spent the afternoon in T'aichung's 台中 Tak'eng 大坑 area, first to check out an "alternative" elementary school for Amber (she'll start first grade next year - more on that in future blog posts)...:

Amber on the school grounds

...and then to visit what the Mandarin signs called a "Monkey Area" 猴區. There, we saw a lot of Formosan Macaques 台灣獼猴 doing a lot of different things, such as drinking water...:

...checking themselves out in mirrors:

...grooming:

...eating:

...and swimming:

In short, there were a lot of macaques.

The great thing about the monkey area was that the macaques were not penned in. Instead, they are drawn to the area by free handouts of fruit, and we were fortunate in that we arrived there just in time for their evening feeding. Once they had had their fill, the monkeys returned to the forest. In fact, we were told that there were fewer monkeys than usual today, because many of the others were deep in the mountains gorging themselves on longans 龍眼, which are currently in season, and which Amber also loves. While it is questionable to bait the macaques with food in order to bring them into close contact with people, the operators of the monkey area do seem to be making a conscientious effort to prevent visitors from attempting to feed the macaques, and to keep the monkeys from getting too close to the tourists. The monkeys are free to roam their Dakeng homeland, and so far, at least, display little of the aggressiveness that the monkeys on Kaohsiung's 高雄 Ch'aishan 柴山 mountain are increasingly becoming infamous for.

My own little monkey certainly enjoyed herself today:

From a trilingual restaurant menu:

In the news

From Friday's online edition of Japan Today (300-strong Taiwan tourism delegation visits Hokkaidō, Kyōdō News 共同通信社 ):

"A 300-strong T'ái​wān​ 台灣 tourism delegation led by Wang Jin-pyng (Wáng​ Chīn-​p'íng) 王金平​, president of the island’s Legislative Yuan 立法院 or parliament, arrived in Hokkaidō 北海道 on Thursday to help rehabilitate Japan’s tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the March 11 earthquake, tsunami 津波 and subsequent nuclear crisis.

'I want to send a strong message to Taiwanese people that Hokkaido is safe and they can visit here at ease,' Wang told a news conference in Sapporo 札幌.

The delegation is visiting at the request of Hokkaido Governor Harumi Takahashi 高橋はるみ, who has been seeking to restore tourism in the northern island, as Taiwan is Hokkaido’s top source of foreign tourists, accounting for almost a quarter of all foreign visitors.

In fiscal 2009, the number of Taiwanese who visited Hokkaido came to around 180,000.

While in Hokkaid, Wang’s delegation will visit Sapporo, Kushiro 釧路 and Otaru 小樽.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization 国際観光振興機構, Taiwan accounted for the second-largest group of foreign tourists to Japan last year, totaling almost 1.14 million. The largest number of tourists came from South Korea."

Wang is a significant figure in local politics here. Not only does he hold the powerful position of parliamentary president, he is also the biggest rival to President Ma Ying-jeou (Mǎ​ Yīng​-chiǔ​) 馬英九 within the ruling Kuó​mín​tǎng 中國國民黨. Wang represents the party's pro-localization faction, i.e. those KMT members who were born and raised on this island, and can speak the Taiwanese dialect known as Hoklo (T'ái​yǔ) 台語. This often pits him against the "mainlanders" (​wài​shěng​jén​) 外省人, who still hold many positions of power and influence in the ruling party. Wang also has close ties to the Japanese political class, and he is a frequent visitor to Japan, often on missions to repair once-close ties that have been damaged in recent years by Ma's pro-China policies.

Sakura, Thou Art Here

Well, what do you know? We didn't have to endure gridlocked roads last weekend in a futile attempt to see cherry blossoms 櫻花 「サクラ」after all. It turns out that there a couple of trees in the area close to my apartment building, and both are in full bloom. Their surroundings, however, are less than ideal for hanami 花見 parties:

Freshwater eels ウナギ are a common component of Japanese cuisine 日本料理, whether grilled and served over rice 鰻丼, or as a sushi 寿司 item. The traditional calendar in Japan has a day called "doyō ushi no hi" 土用の丑の日, falling on the hottest day of the year, when the consumption of unagi is supposed to provide a source of stamina during the sticky hot summers. Despite the fame of places like Lake Hamana 浜名湖 in Shizuoka Prefecture 静岡県 as sources of unagi, it turns out that roughly 90% of the eels consumed every year by Japanese diners is imported from China and T'ái​wān​ 台灣. Naturally, the 10% that is cultivated domestically is considered to be of a higher quality, which is why the following Kyōdō News 共同通信社 story from Japan Today shouldn't come as a surprise ("Eel importer ordered to pay Y5 mil fine for false labeling"):

"The Tōkyō District Court 東京地方裁判所 on Wednesday fined a Tōkyō 東京 -based eel importer ¥5 million ($60,740/NT1.8 million) for falsely labeling eels farmed in Taiwan as domestically raised products in violation of the unfair competition prevention law. The court also sentenced Hirokazu Iwai, 55, former board member of the precursor of Clover Trading Co, to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for masterminding the falsification, and fined him ¥1 million ($12,150/NT358,000). Judge Mariko Goto said the importer 'harmed the confidence of consumers,' while Iwai 'played the central role in the falsification.' According to the ruling, Iwai conspired with two officials of an Ōsaka 大阪 -based marine products firm to disguise 970 kilograms (2140 pounds) of Taiwanese-produced grilled eels as products originated in Aichi Prefecture 愛知県 between 2009 and 2010 to sell them to a Kyōto 京都 -based wholesaler for ¥3.2 million (/$38,875NT1.15 million)."

www.fukuzuchi.com/menu.html

Sakura Sakura, O Where Art Thou?

It won't be long before winter is officially over, and already things have started to warm up here in central Tái​wān​ 台湾. In tandem with the rising temperatures, the cherry flowers are starting to bloom, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and check out the cherry blossoms (Japanese: sakura サクラ; Chinese: yīng​huā​ 櫻花).

Big mistake. In Japan, the 桜 can be seen everywhere, but in T'ái​wān​, the best concentrations of blossoms are in the mountains. Take that fact into account, add in the sunshine and warmth, the middle day of a three-day weekend (Monday, Feb. 28, is a national holiday - 228 Peace Memorial Day 228和平紀念日), narrow mountain roads and the reality that there is only a finite number of things to see and do on this small island, and you've got the recipe for one, long frustrating traffic jam. Which is what we encountered this morning (and stretching into the beginning of the afternoon) in Túng​shì​h 東勢, as we attempted to see the blooming trees (British expletive pun intended). Sure, the cherry blossom season in Japan can result in mass concentrations of people, too. Ueno Park 上の恩賜公園 in Tōkyō 東京 turns into a circus when the flowers are at their park, while noted 花見 spots such as Yoshino 吉野 are swamped with visitors, but it is also quite possible to see beautiful pinks and whites without venturing far from your home - in Yokkaichi 四日市, for example, there was a winding river lined with cherry trees along both sides just a short bicycle ride from our apartment building, and it was never crowded. Unfortunately, we don't have that luxury where we live in Greater Tái​chúng​ 大臺中​. After an interminable length of time creeping along a narrow, winding lane, we made the decision to give up and turn around when we started seeing cars parking along the side of the road, and people getting out to walk to the leisure farm where all the cherry trees were (and with the park entrance still being some distance away). It just wouldn't have been worth the hassle (not the mention the prospect of the return traffic jam on the trip home later in the day), so we made our way back to central Túng​shì​h.

Amber eats lunch at a restaurant in downtown Túng​shì​h. At that point we would probably have still been stuck in traffic up on the mountain, and with rumbling stomachs further adding to our collective misery. With plenty of time left in the day following lunch, I suggested driving out to Tà​hú​ 大湖.

Central Chó​lán​ 卓蘭, where we stopped to buy some tea. A typical town involved in a typical daydream. All a friend can say is ain't it a shame...

Pamela suggested driving up to a Buddhist temple dating from the Japanese era 台灣日治時期 that offered a beautiful view of the plains below, but on the way there we encountered another long traffic jam. No problem, however. A quick U-turn, and in no time we were at a strawberry farm, filling up a basket with fresh strawberries. This was heaven for Amber, for 草莓 are her favorite fruit in the world, if not her favorite food.

Smiles aside, picking the right berries was serious business for my daughter.

Amber poses with the fruit of her labor. She's also holding a small carton of ice cream...strawberry, as if there was any doubt.

The view from outside the strawberry farm. It's hard to see in the photo, but if you look under the green and brown traffic signs, you can make out the tops of the long line of cars heading toward Dahu.

With one contented child in the backseat, we headed back to Fēng​yuán​ 豐原, stopping off along the way at a viewpoint overlooking the Lǐ​yú​ Reservoir 鯉魚潭水庫. It was crowded, of course.

The water level in the reservoir looked low. Are we in for a dry year this year?

Leaving the scenic viewpoint, we encountered...get ready for it...yet another traffic jam. As it was nearing 4 in the afternoon, a lot of folks were no doubt on their way home. Fortunately, when we turned off and headed in the direction of Sān​yì​ 三義, most of the other cars continued on in the other direction, and we made it back to Fēng​yuán​ without much fuss or bother. Despite the clogged arteries, we managed to enjoy ourselves. Amber got her strawberries, and I was pleased to discover that 7-Eleven has Samuel Adams Boston Lager in stock again! All in all, I shouldn't complain - those who drove up to Wǔ​líng​ Farm 武陵農場 today (Sunday) to see the cherry blossoms spent 7½ hours stuck in traffic! Perspective - what a concept.

The writing on the seal of Amber's orange juice cup says "Handmade pork cutlet sandwiches". Which is a rather odd thing to see in a hot pot/spaghetti restaurant.

From the Japan Today website:

ELPIDA RAISES $145 MILLION IN TAIWAN LISTING 

"Elpida Memory Inc エルピーダメモリ has raised 4.2 billion New Taiwan dollars ($145 million/¥11.5 billion) in a secondary listing on the Tái​wān Stock Exchange 臺灣證券交易所 as the Japanese memory chip maker seeks alliances amid fierce competition. The money will be used in Elpida’s development and production of cutting-edge 20- and 30-nanometer chips, said company president and CEO Yukio Sakamoto at a Tái​pěi​ 臺北 news conference. Elpida’s listing in the form of T'ái​wān Depositary Receipts comes amid closer ties with Taiwanese firms who are also facing tough competition from South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor. The market for DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, is expected to recover from a long slump in the April-June quarter, with demand for mobile chips expected to surge with the growing sales of tablet PCs and smartphones, Sakamoto said. Rexchip Electronics, a Taiwanese maker in which Elpida has a majority stake, will add mobile chips to its production lines in the second half this year, he said. He said Elpida’s output will also gain from its alliance with Tái​wān’s Powerchip Technology 力晶科技股份有限公司 , which has suspended its own marketing efforts to become a subcontractor for the Japanese maker. Elpida is seeking additional cooperation with other Taiwanese DRAM makers, Sakamoto said, but refused to give details. Amid a glut of DRAM supply following the 2008 global financial crisis, the Taiwanese government sought to consolidate its six DRAM makers into a new company working with either Elpida or U.S.-based Micron Technology. But the project fell apart."

Then there was this article in the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ ("ELEMENTARY ENGLISH: Asian, European peers have big head start but success unquestioned"), comparing the state of elementary school English education in Japan with those in several other questions, including Tái​wān​. The relevant sections are listed below:

"While all elementary schools in Japan are scheduled to start teaching English this April, other parts of Asia and Europe have been doing it for years. They are teaching English earlier, longer and with more advanced content. Some even have teachers who are specialists in teaching the language. According to the education ministry 文部科学省, South Korea began teaching English in elementary schools in 1997. China and Tái​wān​ started in 2001, and Germany and France followed suit in 2004 and 2005, respectively. What's more, students in those countries are learning it at a younger age — from third grade in China, South Korea, Tái​wān​ and Germany, and from first grade in France. Japan's English-language schedule will consist of a lesson a week, or 35 per year. According to the ministry, however, Tái​wān​ and Germany give two lessons a week, France gives 54 hours of lessons a year, South Korea gives two lessons a week for third- and fourth-graders, and three a week for fifth- and sixth-graders...The lessons in Japan will be 45 minutes long, compared with 40 minutes in Tái​wān...The curricula differ as well. In Japan, students will learn to listen and speak English through songs, games and self-introductions, among other activities. They will also engage in cultural exchange activities by meeting foreigners and attending cultural events, as well as do their ABCs...In Tái​wān, pupils are required to write down around 180 vocabulary words and to speak about 300...The ministry also said teachers in charge of English in China and some urban parts of Tái​wān are specialists, unlike in Japan. Japan does not require teachers to have a qualification in English proficiency, but one city in T'ái​wān requires its teachers to have scored at least 213 on the TOEFL, or Test of English as a Foreign Language."

And yet still in the news

It's going on three days now back in the States, and I've been using the time to reconnect with a number of things, such as book stores stocked with titles in languages that I can read, craft beers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Cap'n Crunch cereal, Pop Tarts, maple bars and TV cartoons intended for mature audiences...and my family, of course, but then that's a given. The temperatures have been not much above freezing, but the freshness of the air makes the outdoors feel much more comfortable than it usually is back in Taiwan 台灣 during the Lunar New Year 春節. The beautifully clear skies we've been having so far certainly help, but though it's only a matter of time before the rains fall again in the Pacific Northwest (Thursday probably), it's been good to be back.

Meanwhile, back on the island of Formosa, Kyōdō News 共同通信社 has another article on developments on the local chipmaking front, which I have lifted from the pages of Japan Today ("Elpida to buy all DRAMs made by Powerchip Technology"):

"Elpida Memory Inc エルピーダメモリ株式会社 said Monday it has reached a basic agreement to buy all dynamic random access memory chips produced by Taiwanese semiconductor maker Powerchip Technology Corp, a move that will enable the Japanese chipmaker to boost its output capacity without new capital spending. Elpida has farmed out the production of DRAMs for personal computers to Powerchip since 2003 and currently buys half of the output, equivalent to 80,000 300-millimeter wafers per month. It also allows the Taiwanese firm to sell the remaining half under its own brand. When the agreement is finalized, Elpida will purchase all DRAMs produced by Powerchip and sell them under its brand. Powerchip is also licensed to buy 30,000 of 85,000 DRAMs produced per month by Rexchip Electronics Corp, a Taiwanese joint venture set up by Elpida and Powerchip in 2007, and sell them under its brand. Elpida will purchase all DRAMs from Rexchip for sale under its name when the final agreement takes effect. In addition, Elpida will study measures to turn around Powerchip’s ailing management such as purchasing its core plant."

On a completely unrelated note, the Stone Brewing Company's Stone IPA is one of the finest suds I've had the pleasure to enjoy so far on this visit home Now I'm on the lookout for Arrogant Bastard Ale and Stone Ruination IPA. Thanks for the tips, Gary!