Mummy dearest

Our Sunday afternoon was spent in the cozy (as in "people packed in like sardines") confines of the National Museum of Natural Science 國立自然科學博物館 in T'aichung 台中. We went there to check out an exhibit of artifacts related to burial practices in ancient Egypt, "Quest for Immortality". No photography was allowed inside:

The collection, featuring three mummies (two adults and one child), was well presented, and with good English captioning for the most part. However, unless you really enjoy rubbing elbows with your fellow citizens, the middle of a Sunday afternoon is most definitely not the ideal time to visit!

After getting the lowdown on how the ancient Egyptians approached the topic of death, we checked out the IMAX film Everest. The visuals were stunning, but I probably would've gotten more out of it if Liam Neeson's narration hadn't been dubbed into Mandarin. Amber found the film to be a little on the frightening side (all those avalanches and dizzying aerial shots), and not as much fun at the kiddie corner she explored while we were waiting for the movie to start:

One of these days, I'll have to take her to the Exploratorium in San Francisco . Just something else to add to the Things to do with Amber before I get too old, or die, whichever comes first List.

The hulking mass that is the SOGO Department Store 廣三SOGO百貨 looms menacingly over a parking lot:

When the trains hit the fan

My poor wife often has to work on Saturdays, sometimes for just the mornings, but all too often for the entire day. I must admit, however, that her loss is my gain, in that I get to spend some quality time with my daughter. Usually that means going to a park to play ball games together, or to let Amber ride her bike or frolic on the playground. This afternoon, however, we went on a short day trip, taking the train from Fengyuan (Fēng​yuán) 豐原 to Changhua (Zhāng​huà) 彰化 in order to check out the Fan-Shaped Train Garage (shàn​xíng chē​kù) 扇形車庫. Looking like something out of Thomas the Tank Engine, the garage is a sort of wheelhouse used for maintenance of train cars. Visiting the complex is free, with the only requirement being that visitors sign in at the entrance.

There were several permanently parked train engines at the garage. Amber insisted on clambering up all of them.

Amber poses in front of the turntable, which is used to direct the train cars into one of the 12 maintenance spaces in the background.

An observation deck provided an overlook of the garage:

We timed our visit well this afternoon as we had the chance to see the turntable being used to guide a couple of trains in and out of the large maintenance shed:

At one end of the fan-shaped garage were two vintage steam train engines:

Unless you're a trainspotter, the Fan-Shaped Train Garage is probably not worth a special trip (in our case, Amber likes trains, and Changhua isn't that far from where we live). However, it's free, fun for kids (especially if the turntable is in operation) and can be combined with the city's more well-known sites (such as the large Buddha statue 八卦山大佛像) to make Changhua an interesting daylong outing. All aboard!

Taking myself out to the ballgame

Last night I had the pleasurable experience of taking in Game 2 of the 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium 臺中市洲際棒球場. I had hoped to bring my daughter along with me, but the high price I paid for one ticket, NT2800 ($93/¥7260), put, um, paid to that idea. Still, I don't regret having gone, for events like this one don't happen very often in Taiwan, especially here in T'aichung 台中. The final score was 5-3 in favor of the Major League All-Stars over the regrettably-named Chinese Taipei national baseball team 中華臺北棒球代表隊. The Taiwanese side, made up of amateurs, players from the North American minor leagues and several plying their trade in Japan, certainly showed a lot of the what the Japanese call "fighting spirit" 闘志, coming from 2-0 down to take a 3-2 lead, but in the end poor fielding and a wild pitch did the local boys in (though the MLB squad was the official "home team" for this game). The fans were solidly behind their team throughout the game, but they didn't seem disappointed with the outcome, and big cheers were given for Curtis Granderson (a Led Zeppelin fan, judging by his at bat song) and Robinson Cano, two of Chien-Ming Wang's 王建民 former teammates from his New York Yankees days. Speaking of "The Hero of Taiwan", though he didn't pitch in this contest, his visible presence in the dugout got a lot of people excited. The only low point of last night's game was the serious injury incurred by one of the Taiwanese players, Kuo-Hui Lo, a minor league player in the Seattle Mariners system. Lo dislocated his right ankle and fractured his right leg getting tagged out at home in the fifth inning, and had to carried off the field on a stretcher. It was obvious from the look on his face that he was in a lot of pain.

You can read a summary of Game 2 on the Major League Baseball homepage. Some video highlights can be seen by clicking on the FastCast link on the mlb.com main page.

A few photos from last night:

Approaching the stadium before the start of the game. Parking spaces for cars were at a premium, but having come by scooter, I was able to find a spot just a few blocks away. I was also able to avoid the traffic jam after the game by using a series of side streets behind the ballpark.

The view from my seat, just before the start of the game.

The opposing managers exchange lineup cards and go over the ground rules with the umpires. No. 16 is Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants, managing the MLB team on its tour of Taiwan.

The first pitch of the game. On the mound for the MLB team is Ross Detwiler of the Washington Nationals.

Speaking of the Nationals, Screech, the team's mascot, paid a visit to our section during the later innings.

The scoreboard showing the final linescore.

Players from both sides shake hands after the game.

Bubblelicious

My daughter this morning in her devil costume for Halloween, the same one she wore last year. Amber likes this outfit so much she even kept it on when her mother took her to the clinic this evening to get some medicine for a small cold she has recently come down with. Happy Halloween to one and all!

And speaking of which, the following comment appeared on Facebook the other day:

"With all the party signs, decorations and costumes I've seen today, I think Halloween must be celebrated more in Taiwan than anywhere."

The person who wrote the above isn't American or Canadian, so it's likely that he/she has never experienced a genuine Halloween. But the comment did remind me of something unrelated to ghosts, goblins and pumpkins - the Bubble phenomenon. I blogged about this in an entry on Sponge Bear a couple of months ago - namely, the tendency for some Western residents on this island to assume that what they're doing, feeling, hearing and seeing in Taiwan must somehow be uniquely...um, unique. In fact, much of this so-called uniqueness can be found elsewhere in East and Southeast Asia, but ignorance is often bliss in the case of the Bubble People. There's no harm, and thus no foul, in any of this, but it does get annoying after a while reading about the same ad nauseum testimonials on how special Taiwan and the Taiwanese are. 

What I forgot to point out back in that August diatribe is that there exists a sub-species of the Bubble People who reside in Taipei, the capital and largest city on Ilha Formosa. These folks tend to assume that what they're doing, feeling, hearing and seeing in T'aipei 台北 isn't unique, but actually representative of the island of Taiwan of a whole. Therefore, when one sees colorful Halloween decorations and costumes on the streets of the metropolis, it must mean the country as a whole is doing the exact same thing. The only problem is that out here in the hinterlands, aka The Real Taiwan, or the place where 90% of the Taiwanese population resides, you would be hard-pressed to find any signs of Halloween other than at some kindergartens and cram schools. 

On social websites such as Facebook, or in discussion forums such as Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree or Forumosa, one can read countless comments and postings describing a cosmopolitan, fashionable and thoroughly modern land known as "Taiwan" that sounds almost completely alien to the provincialism and sheer ugliness that I encounter on an almost daily basis out in the Taiwan where I reside (which happens to be in the suburbs of the third-largest city on this island). Replace the word "Taiwan" in these descriptions with "Taipei", and things immediately become clear. Yes, Taipei can be a very appealing city, and certainly a very comfortable one for Western expats, with all mod cons and many of the familiar trappings of home, but with just enough exoticism to impress the folks and friends back home (or when they come to visit). And it should be, for Taipei:

• receives a disproportionate share of cash from the central government in comparison with other cities, resulting in plenty of funds to be spent on parks, bikeways, mass transportation and urban beautification projects;
• and by hosting the best schools, and benefiting from its location as the headquarters for many domestic as well as international companies, attracts the best and the brightest - people who have had more dealings with non-Taiwanese and are thus more open to different things, as well as being more likely to have spent time abroad and therefore more demanding in their expectations of what a capital city should (or shouldn't) be.

Out here in the rest of Taiwan, the situation is a wee bit different. Things are not as well-planned, the architecture is more hideous to look at and it's more difficult to track down things from home. The area where I live has hundreds of eateries to choose from, but other than watered-down offerings of Japanese or Italian cuisine or the ubiquitous fast-food outlets, trying to find food that isn't Chinese or Taiwanese in origin can be a major undertaking. 

Taipei is Taipei, and Taiwan is Taiwan, and quite often the twain doesn't meet. I just wish some of my fellow expats can remember that the next time they marvel in how wonderful life is in the big city.

Some good news for those folks in Taiwan who are obsessed with beating the Koreans: according to this Kyōdō News 共同通信社 article, Sony to end LCD panel venture with Samsung, tap cheaper sources, from today's Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ:

"Sony Corp. ソニー株式会社 is in talks to terminate its joint venture with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. for the production of liquid crystal displays for televisions...Sony has decided to increase procurement of cheap displays from Taiwanese and other manufacturers rather than focusing on the joint venture."

In the zero sum game of relations between the southern half of the divided Korean peninsula and the renegade province of China, South Korea's loss is Taiwan's gain.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night

My daughter rides her bike at night on that tree-lined paved strip that lies between the National Museum of Natural Science 國立自然科學博物館 and Chungkang Road 中港路:

A small temple located just outside the museum grounds. If you look closely on the far-left side of the photo, you will see a zebra standing there. Zebras play a very important role in the traditional folk religions of Tai...OK, actually I haven't a clue as to why the model was placed there:

A fairly typical nighttime street scene of T'aichung 台中:

Scratching my head in wonder

A not-too-successful attempt at carving our very own Halloween Jack-o'-Lantern. Wait till next year, which is something I hope the Texas Rangers won't be saying after tomorrow's Game 7. 

I came across an article this morning in the Taipei Times about the push to have Yushan 玉山, the highest mountain in both Taiwan and East Asia, declared...well, I'll let the opening two paragraphs speak for themselves:  

"Local non-governmental organizations (NGO) were lobbying yesterday for the public to vote for Yushan to become one of the world’s 'New 7 Wonders of Nature.'

The organizations urged the public to cast their vote, asking people to treat the finals of the competition even more seriously than the upcoming presidential election."

Yushan as one of the "New 7 Wonders of Nature"? I realize that many Taiwanese are only dimly aware of what lies outside the confines of the Chinese-speaking universe, but this is being carried to ridiculous extremes. Yes, at 3,952 m (12,966 ft), Yushan is an impressive piece of geologic uplift for this corner of the planet, but there are innumerable mountains the world over of much greater stature and grandeur (and as the Wikipedia entry points out, Yushan is only the fourth highest mountain on an island). Even in relation to East Asia, Taiwan's mightiest peak can't match the aesthetic beauty or iconic status of Japan's Mount Fuji 富士山, which has been venerated both spiritually and aesthetically for centuries. But Fuji-san, for some odd reason, isn't on the list of finalists. What is going up against Yushan is...well, to quote the Taipei Times article again:

"Wang [Chun-hsiu 王俊秀, who organized the Vote-for-Yushan campaign] said that the last thing Taiwanese would want to see is Yushan losing the contest to South Korea’s Jeju Island - the only other natural landmark in northeast Asia that has made it as far as the finals.

'Yushan is and will be the president of the Republic of China 中華民國 - forever,' Wang said.

'Winning or losing in this race matters much more than the upcoming presidential election,' he said.

Wang, in collaboration with the Central Taiwan Sustainable Development Alliance, urged Taiwanese both at home and abroad, and all Chinese people, to go online and cast their vote for the breathtaking landmark."

Jeju Island is a Natural World Heritage Site that has the gall to be under Korean administration. Many Taiwanese are obsessed with South Korea. As with many Japanese, South Korean TV dramas, pop stars and fashion are popular, but for people here, South Korea is also a hated rival, one that has to bested in any and all competitions, whether it be sports, economics or, as in this case, a pointless public relations contest. And if it takes overly emotive appeals to pan-Chinese nationalism to put those former vassals back in their rightful places, then so be it.

In all fairness, Koreans are hardly known for their pragmatic responses in matters of national pride - Dokdo Island and the "East Sea" are just two issues in which South Korean "patriots" frequently make fools out of themselves. But for most people in South Korea, Japan is the object of obsession, and the rival that must be beat, not Taiwan. While many here work themselves up in a lather over those dastardly Koreans, the latter most likely don't pay that much attention to how they're viewed by the Taiwanese. For those in Taiwan who fret over how this island is "losing out" to South Korea, I'd just like to say that the rest of the world really couldn't give a rat's ass care less about how the R.O.C. ranks in relation to the R.O.K. It's time to get over this asinine fixation.

As for the "New 7 Wonders of Nature", rather than leaving things up to online voting (with all the ugly nationalism and attempts at ballot box-stuffing that will inevitably result), why not just appoint an international committee of experts to settle the issue? Fill it up with scientists who can analyze the geologic and physical facets, and artists, poets and writers who can provide an emotional perspective on the different sites, and let them come to a consensus.

Or better yet, just drop the whole damn thing so that Mr. Wang can apply all that energy of his towards something that's actually useful.

Happy Halloween!

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!