Saying yes and の

Taiwanese love to say, or at least write, "no" - as in the Japanese kana 仮名 syllable の, which is read as no. The words 筆柿の家 (bǐshì no jiā) refer to a stand selling persimmons in the Sintian 新田 area of Greater Taichung's 台中 Tán​zǐ District 潭子區.

Saying the English word "no" this evening was me, unfortunately, as in "I'm sorry, but there is no way I can go into work tonight." Not only is my cold not getting any better (my nose this evening is like a waterfall), but the doctor confirmed that the discomfort I'm feeling around my left eyeball and left upper row of teeth is the result of sinusitis. To add insult to injury, I'm also suffering from the effects of diarrhea. Yesterday's four-hour hike was apparently only a momentary blip of normality.

Not saying "no" is the National Palace Museum 故宮博物院, according to this Kyōdō News 共同通信社 article from today's Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ:

Taiwan's National Palace Museum is likely to lend Chinese antiquities for exhibition in Japan in 2014, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou 馬英九 told visiting Diet 国会 members.

Ma told Takeo Hiranuma  平沼赳夫, head of the Japan-Republic of China Diet Members' Consultative Council, during a visit Monday at the Presidential Office that if all goes well he hopes the exhibition will take place at the Tōkyō National Museum 東京国立博物館.

Ma also thanked Hiranuma for keeping his promise to help push legislation to guarantee the return of the national treasures.

The Diet passed legislation last year to address Taiwan's concern that China could seek to have artifacts and artworks impounded if there were no such law.

Hiranuma later told Japanese media at Taipei Songshan Airport 臺北松山機場 that details of the exhibition are still being arranged, including the dates.

National Palace Museum director Chou Kung-shin 周功鑫 said last month that Diet members would come to Taiwan to discuss plans for the exhibition with her ahead of a visit by Masami Zeniya 銭谷真実, executive director of the Tōkyō National Museum. The date for Zeniya's visit has not yet been set...

...The exhibition in Japan will be the first of its kind in Asia.

The treasures have only been exhibited in four foreign countries — the United States, France, Germany and Austria — all of which enacted laws beforehand to guarantee their return to Taiwan after the exhibitions.

Over hill, over dale

I haven't blogged in a while because, well, I haven't felt like it lately. Part of the reason is due to the effects of a bad cold that I've yet to shake off. But even more so is the personal strain I've been under of late, which combined with my less-than-stellar health condition to make for an especially miserable weekend this past Saturday and Sunday. Which is probably why it was imperative to get out of the apartment this afternoon and do something before my mind snaps. That something was to head for the hills of Dà​kēng 大坑 after work. That in itself isn't unusual, for I often go hiking in that area on Tuesday afternoons. What was different about today was the route I took. Instead of the usual ascend-one-trail-descend-another routine, I went out all out this afternoon. Parking my scooter at the trailhead for the No. 2, I walked along the road for about 15 minutes to where the No. 1 Trail starts. Upon climbing the No. 1, I proceeded to walk the entire length of the ridgetop, descending via the No. 4 Trail, from where it was a long walk back to my parked scooter. It took about four hours to do (well, three hours and fifty-five minutes, to be exact), but for those 235 minutes all cares, troubles and worries were forgotten, and everything seemed right with the universe. Part of the reason for doing all this was to get my flabby body into some sort of fighting shape for my trip next month to Hiroshima 広島, where I plan to do some hiking and long-distance cycling. But mostly it was to get away from everybody and everything, and for nearly 4 hours, the mission was accomplished.

Despite the warm, sometimes sunny, weather, views were non-existent as a result of the haze.

Lots of lizards were out and about this afternoon.

Two hikers examine the "Taiwan 5 Leaves Giant Pine" 巨木臺灣五葉松. The man in the white shirt was smoking a cigarette, the second hiker I saw this afternoon enjoying a fine tobacco product. The thinner the air, the smoother the smoke.

 Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags, a common sight in Taiwan.

All afternoon I had been wondering if I was going to see any monkeys. As I was reaching the end of the No. 4 Trail, I finally encountered a lone Taiwanese macaque 台灣獼猴. Believe it or not, I thought it was a cat at first. A poodle passing by didn't even notice the presence of the macaque next to the staircase, which just goes to show that as dogs go, poodles are one of the more useless breeds.

Today's route. Next time I may do everything in reverse.

Play ball!

Street sign in Fēng​yuán 豐原

Yesterday was March 11, the one-year anniversary of the triple disaster - earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown - that affected Japan's northeast region 東日本大震災. A number of media outlets ran stories on how the country and its people have been coping one year on, and there have been endless repeat showings of the many video recordings of the waves and the havoc they caused. In the midst of all these remembrances and commemorations, the Daily Yomiuri ザ・デイリー読売 ran a short story yesterday on a charity baseball game Saturday played between all-star squads from Japan and Taiwan:

On the eve of a day sure to bring back a lot of painful memories, the members of Samurai Japan made it their mission to offer a little bit of relief, if only temporarily.

Tōhoku 東北地方 native Kenta Kurihara 栗原健太 came through with the biggest hit of the night, a two-run homer in the third inning, and Tōhoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 東北楽天ゴールデンイーグルス ace Masahiro Tanaka 田中将大 got the win, as Japan routed Taiwan 9-2 in a charity game in front of a crowd of 35,505 on Saturday at Tōkyō Dome 東京ドーム.

"I was able to swing the bat the way I wanted," said Kurihara, who hails from Yamagata Prefecture 山形県 and is the star slugger for the Hiroshima Carp 広島東洋カープ. "For me, who is from Tōhoku, this game means more. I am happy I was able to have a good result."

The game was held on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which devastated a large swath of northeastern Japan, as a way to help aid ongoing relief efforts.

A total of 12,000 tickets were given to residents from disaster-stricken areas and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to disaster relief.

"In a charity game like this, or in a pennant race, I hope to be able to show some courage by playing well," said Chūnichi Dragons 中日ドラゴンズ pitcher Kazuki Yoshimi 吉見一起, who tossed a pair of scoreless innings for Japan.

The Taiwanese team consisted of an All-Star squad from the Chinese Professional Baseball League 中華職業棒球大聯盟, led by CPBL MVP and home run leader Lín Hóng-yù 林泓育. The game marked the first time NPB has invited the CPBL, which began in 1990, to Japan for an exhibition.

Prior to the game, Japanese players' union head and Hanshin Tigers 阪神タイガース star Takahiro Arai 新井貴浩 urged everyone to continue to do their part to help the relief efforts and popular vocalist Masayuki Suzuki 鈴木雅之 sang a poignant rendition of "Kimigayo" 君が代 (the Japanese national anthem).

A better writer than myself could probably wax poetic on the symbolism of this game - of how baseball and life itself both start anew in the spring, and of how a love of the American national pastime is also shared by both Japan and Taiwan, therefore making the baseball diamond an appropriate place for two cultures to come together in a shared cause. So I won't. Instead, I'll let the last paragraph of the article stand on its own, without comment:

The Taiwanese team took the field following the game and bowed to the Japanese supporters then to their own, receiving a standing ovation in the process.

 A stall at the Féngjiǎ Night Market 逢甲夜市

In the aftermath of the disasters in Tōhoku, many people in Taiwan donated generously to help the victims there (as did we, at my daughter's insistence). I was here in Taiwan when the horrors unfolded, and like many Taiwanese, I watched it all live on TV. I was indirectly affected by what happened - one of my former students from Yokkaichi 四日市 in Japan had to be rescued from a building near Sendai Airport 仙台空港, losing his car to the tsunami (though fortunately he was unhurt), while I had to cancel my plans to visit the Tōhoku area in the summer of 2011 (one of the stops I had planned to make on that trip was to the island of Kinkazan 金華山, itself largely spared, but accessible only by train and ferry from Ishinomaki 石巻 and Ayukawa 鮎川, two of the worst-hit towns by the tsunami), going to Okinawa 沖縄 instead. I was intending on trying again this summer, but a sudden change in plans will have me traveling to Hiroshima 広島 and some of its surrounding area next month instead.

Féngjiǎ

It's remarkable how well the Japanese people as a whole have endured the events of a year ago - a testament to the spirit of the society. I, on the other hand, am finding myself at home this morning, unable to cope with something as simple as the common cold and a headache. I'm not worthy.

Craftiness

 How my daughter must look to a fish

It isn't a common sight here in Taiwan, and thus had to be checked out. On our way into downtown Taichung 台中 early this afternoon to have lunch, my wife noticed a small sign reading 手工啤酒, Chinese for "craft beer", and an arrow indicating a right turn past a small hardware store. Needless to say, this had to be checked out, and a quick change in our lunch plans was in order. The microbrew in question is brewed by a company called Malt Crystal Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hardly a mouthwatering name for a brewery)...

...and I had a glass of their "Pure Bavarian Beer":

Though a bit light-tasting for my liking, it went well with the beef-and-rice dish I had for lunch, and it goes without saying that this beer was far better than anything you can find on most Taiwanese supermarket and convenience store shelves. The restaurant's location on a semi-desolate stretch of Jūngōng Road 軍功路 (between Dōng​shān 東山路 and Tài​yuán Roads 太原路) probably helps to explain why microbrews still make up an infinitesimal segment of the Taiwanese beer market.

Suitably fortified with the proper balance of hops and yeast, it was time to dive into the hordes descending upon Taichung's newest addition to the department store scene, the Top City Far Eastern Department Store on Zhōng​gǎng Road 中港路:

Despite the rain, or more likely because of it, the place was packed. There was a long line of cars waiting to descend into Top City's underground garages, so we chose to park nearby in a lot for a flat fee of NT150 ($5.10). To be honest, the store was little different from its next-door neighbor, Shinkong Mitsukoshi 歡迎光臨新光三越百貨, with the exception of two restaurant floors on the 11th and 12th floors. The sanitized recreation of a postwar Taiwan had many people taking pictures:

Other highlights of Top City included the view of Taichung from the 14th floor...:

...while Amber got a kick out of the fish video installation on the 10th floor. Waving your arms around and pretending to throw food would bring the "fish" closer to you (that's Amber waving at the shark swimming away):

Like all good department stores, Top City has a gourmet supermarket in its basement, and it's in these places that my will almost always breaks down:

On the left is yet another Made in Taiwan craft beer, the White Beer from North Taiwan Brewing; in the middle is an Old Foghorn Barley Wine Style Ale, courtesy of San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company; while the one on the right is a Belgian Amber Ale, Montagnarde. My daughter insisted I get the last one, for reasons which should be obvious. Alas, the onset of a cold will prevent me from enjoying these brews for a couple of days, at least.

Things are starting to look up in the local beer market, though when your most popular beer is Taiwan Beer 台灣啤酒, up is the only direction in which to move. It's going to be a long, uphill struggle, and my advice to the local microbrewers would include not using words like "biotechnology" in your brewery's name; making sure your product is available in more centrally-located dining and drinking establishments; and including locations other than those in Singapore on your website for visitors looking to see where they could enjoy one of your fine brews. 

I'm just sayin'...

Thank 神!

Back on the 26th of February, we paid a visit to my wife's hometown of Siluo 西螺, in Yún​lín County 雲林縣. While we were there, we stopped by the Guǎngfú Temple 廣福宮, a local Matsu 媽祖 house of worship, where Pamela asked the gods to grant a certain request of ours. Apparently, the goddess and her allies looked favorably upon my wife's plea, and so this afternoon we paid a second visit to Siluo to thank the deities for their benevolence. First stop once off the freeway and in the town was at a small shop selling mochi 餅, a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice which is known in Taiwan as 米麻:

Armed with four bags of mochi, we drove over to the temple, and proceeded to do the rounds of the various altars on the three floors. The mochi was left as an offering (but picked up later on our way out), incense sticks were burned and thanks were proffered. The ritualized xiè​xie's 謝謝 were completed with the act of  burning "ghost money":

Gratitude having been expressed, and with my wife's relatives all busy doing something or other, we left Siluo and headed for home. 

 Central Siluo

However, seeing as it wasn't yet 5 o'clock and the three of us were starting to get hungry, we pulled off the freeway in Taichung 台中 and made a beeline for the city's most well-known night market in Féngjiǎ 逢甲文華夜市. Night markets in Taiwan are most definitely not for the claustrophobic, and Wénhuá Road and its surrounding lanes were no exception:

As you would do in Rome, we snacked:

Shrimp fried in batter, with curry sauce and cheese

Guà​bāo 刈包, "a Taiwan specialty, similar to a hamburger"

Tofu fries

Mǐgāo 米糕 and ròugēng soup 肉羹

My daughter's favorite bite of the evening, fried banana

Food isn't the only thing on offer at night markets. In Féngjiǎ there are plenty of stalls selling clothing. I just hope Amber will have a better sense of fashion when she grows up:

Being cute takes guts

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.

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