Taiwanese Marched on August 30 for Employment and Taiwan Soveneignty

Dismayed by the high inflation, poor economy, and his caving in to China's pressure to loseTaiwan's sovereignty fast, a record-high-gathering of more than 300,000 Taiwanese marched in Taipei on August 30 which marked as Mr. Ma's 100-days anniversary of his Taiwan presidency.

Picture shows the crowd in Taipei as reported by the Liberty Times on August 31.

邱聰正 Story; Story of Mr. Chieu

I was at A-Jay's place on August 30 when one of A-Jay's friend, Mr. Chieu, dropped by to give A-Jay vegetables grown from his organic garden. Mr. Chieu is about my age; he had been a colleague of Pei-liang, A-Jay's daughter. From the conversation with Mr. Chieu at A-Jay's place, I have learned about Mr. Chieu's story.

Mr. Chieu grew up in a family with a father who was addicted to the gambling. His dad lost all the belongings in gambling. Mr. Chieu, although excelled in the junior high school, was forced out of school after he finished his junior high school. He then went to work in the same corporation as Pei-Liang and was promoted many times in the corporation. He then made a dazzling move on his career in the 80's. He quit the corporation job and started on his own business with the machinery manufacturing which he knew nothing at the very beginning. Because of his hard work and quick mind in learning new things, he had successfully secured few patents of his own and made profits out of these patents. Right now, he had contract with US industries. His factory employs about 80 persons. He is a successful Taiwanese entrepreneur story.

Photo showing Mr Chieu Chong-Cheng.

You don't call your spouse'Honey'; but "an Old Man" or "an Old Woman" (老公 老婆)

Here are another new Taiwanese vocabulary that will puzzle many people including me. The American calls the spouse, 'honey'. Well, it is quite interesting to see how this word evolve over time in Taiwan. In the very early time (during the Japanese Occupation Time), they called their spouses, the holding hand partner (牽手). When Chinese colonialism replaces Japanese Occupation, the word 牽手 also evolves. First, with 先生 ( the wife called the husband, Mister, or Master, or teacher), and 太太 (the husband called the wife, the boss). Recently, all those words are no longer used. They are replaced by 老公 (the wife calls the husband "an old man") and 老婆 (the husband called the wife "an old woman").

Personally, I prefer 'the holding hand partner', or 牽手 than 老公 or 老婆 (an old man or old woman). It is a degradation of Taiwanese culture by the Chinese colonialism.

Curtain is down and light is off at the noon-time: It is a siesta time. 午睡 時間

Try not to get any job down during the noon time, especially between 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM. It is especially un-polite to bother your colleagues at this time of the day. It is the siesta (午睡 時間) for everyone, especially for students, teachers, and stuffs in the schools. Those people living close-by will go home and rest. Those persons who cannot go home will turn off the light and take a nap at the desk.

I am learning to take the siesta in Taiwan now. After a light lunch, I will lock my office, turn off the light and take down the curtain to make the office very dark and cool. I will then turn on an IPod (Ipod turns out very useful at this moment) listening to a soothing music and close my eyes to take a small nap at my desk. It is a siesta time; and I think American can be more productive if they learn the siesta habit.

What is a 'little mouse'? 小老鼠?

I heard this 'little mouse' (小老鼠) a lot in Taiwan. At the beginning, I scratched my head and have no crew what was going on. Well, I got it now; it is part of modern Taiwanese vocabulary to describe an e-mail address. For example, my e-mail address is dr.fmchen@gmail.com. In the states, the '@' is called 'at'. In Taiwan, it is called the 'little mouse', or 小老鼠. If you look more closely to @, it looks more as the 'little mouse' 小老鼠, then the word 'at'.

Do you agree?

Tsuai-Mei's (翠美) Story

Tsuai-Mei (翠美), my sister-in-law, is a devouted Buddhist. She would regularly go to Buddhist temple offering worship to Buddha, and Kuan-Sei-Yin-Po-Sah (觀世音菩Sah) at least three times a month. She is also a very strict vegetarian, part of the religion practice. She was not like that 10 years ago. What makes her change?

Ten years ago, she was still an elementary school teacher at Jon-San-shiaw-Suai 中山小学. My sister-in-law is a strong-mind woman. She was also a perfectionist and was very strict to her students. From time to time, she would use physical punishment to discipline her students. Well, what was then happened? Students made complaints not only to the principal, but all the way to the local legislators. The local newspaper published students' complaint stories; eventually forcing her to resign (or retire) as a school teacher. In her life, she hit the bottom. According to my brother, she was even suicidal.

A teacher in the Buddhist temple saved her life. Acting as a councilor, he guided her into the Buddhist way of kindness and compassion. Today, her life is vibrant. She offers free dancing lessons to many enthusiasts in Chang-Hua, Ho-Mei (和美), and Taipei. She is quite a different person.

In the photo, Wen-Kai (my brother) and Tsuai-Mei (翠美), Wen-Kai's wife.

Buddhists' Temples Everywhere in Taiwan

I remember many years back when a friend of us living in Tennessee came to visit us in New Jersey told us that in Tennessee, there are so many churches that you can find one at every street corner. Well, I probably can describe the same thing to Buddhists' temples in Taiwan. You can find one at every street corner.

Ju-San's TenTea 竹山的天梯

Ju-San's TenTea is one of the most beautiful scenery wonders among 20 other world's leading places. It is situated in Ju-San (The Bamboo Mountain) in the Nan-Tou County. It is not known to many people even to Taiwanese until recently. The mountain range made it very difficult to reach and building roads there is difficult. Even today, when a paved mountain trail is available; the road is often close to public (The road is allowed for the locals to make a living on their tea-farms.) by the authority because of its treacherous nature. Major accidents along the paved trail had been documented many times before. But our driver, totally ignoring the no-entry-sign on the road, made a 'brave' (but dangerous) drive all the way to the top and drove us all the way back without a single seat-belt on in the van (I sat on the back-seat among 7 other passengers. There was no seat-belt in the back seat. But the driver seat had a seat-belt equipment. Our driver chose not to wear the seat-belt on this ride.). In this ride, I was holding my breath with cold sweat in my hands. Eventually, we arrived at TenTea and made some hiking and picture-taking. No accidents happened; and I think we were just lucky.

Top photo: I posted before a water-fall at TenTea. Middle left, a suspending bridge. Middle right photo, our tour group posted on a suspending bridge. The bottom photo, three persons in our group posted, from left: the driver, A-Kuan (driver's wife) and 翆美 (Wen-Kai's wife).

I learned about Tea Making

On August 21, 2008, my brother, and his wife invited me to join their Buddhist's friends to go for a trip at Ju-San(竹山) of Nan-Tou (南投) county. Ju-San is famous for three things: bamboos, ten-tea (天梯 heavenly stairs), and tea. The highlight of the trip was a stop at a tea factory shop where we enjoyed host and hostess' hospitality of tasting tea and learn about the tea-making process.

The picture describes what I saw at the tea factory shop. Top left, the host and hostess for our tea-tasting; Top-left, Tsuei-Mei (翆美) (wen-Kai's wife) and A-Kuan (the driver's wife) posted in front of state-of-art-tea-leaf-cooling tray inside a cold-room (19 oC). Bottom left, the front of the Tea-Factory-and-Tasting-Station.

Taiwanese betrayed by their politicians

The former Taiwanese president, Mr. 陳水扁 admitted to the public in a news press that he and his wife had set up illegal oversea accounts. Those money counted as billions of NT came from donation money (from Taiwanese in Taiwan and oversea) for DPP presidential or legislation representatives campaigns in past 10 years. While DPP is so financially stripped, the president's couple is super-rich. 陳水扁 has stolen money and Taiwanese confidence in his leadership. 陳水扁 has betrayed Taiwanese who has supported him for many, many years in the past. So many Taiwanese has disheartened, disappointed, and saddened by this episode.

中元普渡 is a serious ceremony in Taiwan

Few weeks ago, I have briefly described the story behind the 中元普渡, a Taiwanese version of Halloween. It turns out that Taiwanese is very serious about this holiday. There are 大拜拜 and burning paper money everywhere in Taiwan. On this holiday, Taiwanese will buy a lot of food and prepare them for 大拜拜. It is good for food sales. Even universities which are the highest educational institutions cannot stay away from the traditional 大拜拜 on this day. There are formal memos written by the departmental chairs advising their faculty, stuff, and students on the places where they can burn their paper money.

I have moved

I have moved to 教師会館 on August 12. My sister treated me very well; but I cannot stay at her place for ever. The room in 教師会館 is nice. It is on a location very close to a bicycle trail in Taichung City. Therefore, I can bicycle to both school and the swimming pool everyday. Most of the time, riding bicycle on the trail in Taichung City is safe; but there are always some crazy motorcycle drivers on the streets. When they don't obey the traffic rule, then there is a danger. The commute to school is convenient. But, basically, 教師会館 is still a hotel. Therefore, it is very lonely at night, because no one to talk to at night. Today, my nephew gave me a printer a microphone. I should try the microphone on Skype tomorrow.

The days of free meals at A-Jay's place is over. I now eat lunch and dinner at the school cafeteria. The cafeteria opens for dinner at 5:00 PM. Since it gets dark earlier, to be safe at the bicycle, I need to eat earlier and leave school earlier. Therefore, I am exploring possibility eating at the restaurant around the hotel within the walking distance so that I don't need to eat that early and still be riding home when it is not dark.

To overcome the loneliness, I decide to go to Chang-Hua to talk to A-Jay almost every weekends starting this weekends.

Taiwanese Holidays

Taiwanese have quite a few holidays: Valentine day on August 7, Father's day on August 8, and 普渡, Taiwanese Halloween on August 15. August 7 corresponds to Lunar Calendar, July 7 on which Taiwanese god and goddess, Liau-Lahh 牜郎, and Zu-Ni, 織女, met in Heaven. This day is a blessing for the lovers, a Valentine day. August 8 sounds like 爸爸 (Pa-Pa, Father) in Taiwanese. August 8 is the Father's day. It is a big celebration in Taiwan. Many shops offer 88% discount for shoppers.

The month of July in Lunar Calendar is the 'ghost' month. Ghosts wander freely among the worldly human beings (人閜). On July 15 (August 15 on regular Calendar.), worldly human beings will send-off the ghosts back to their ghosts' world. It is called Po-Tou 普渡. It is Taiwanese Halloween.

An advanture almost chocks my lung

I am moving to Taichung next week. I had promised A-jay to visit her every weekend. Railroad transportation from Chang-Hua to Taichung is very convenient. The challenge is to walk from the station to A-Jay's place. I adventured to walk from A-Jay's place to the railroad station this Saturday afternoon. The polluted air almost chocks my lung. The station is not far from A-Jay's place by all means; but it took me nearly an hour to walk and 'dodge' the roaming cars and motorcycles on the street. Neither cars nor motorcycles will stop or slow-down for the pedestrian. 車不讓人, 人輸. One hour walk in the polluted environment is very painful; it is almost like smoking 2 packs of cigarette non-stop.

An illegal parking cost me three hours to commute

The attached photo shows an illegal-double parking in front of an eatery, Pai-Kuh Mi-Tain. The driver left the car and enjoyed a good meal at the eatery. The illegal parking causes the traffic constriction, and worse of all, it blocks public bus' entrance to the bus station to pick up passengers going to Chang-Hua City. It cost me three hours to be finally picked up by a bus, first to HRS station,then by another bus to get into Chang-Hua City.

It was a nightmare.

A-Jay's Daily Routine

A-Jay (Sister) has characters that I really admire. She works hard, and is extremely kind and generous.

Here is her daily routine that I have observed in about a week. She gets up everyday around 5:00 AM. She would then have water boil so that the family has safe water to drink during the day. At 6:00 AM, she practice Tai-Chi with a group of senior citizens in the park just across the street from her house. At 7:00 AM when Tai-Chi exercise is done, she comes home to have a breakfast. Breakfast menu is very disciplined It usully consists of milk, oat meal, and one ban-tou (bread of Taiwanese version). After the breakfast, she begins to do many household works, such as sweeping floor, watering the plants, hand-wash the clothes and cooks.

Yes, she cooks and prepares at least 4 dishes at every meal. Why so many dishes and so much food? Isn't she living alone by herself? Well, the answer is either 'yes' or 'no'. Yes, she does live alone by herself, except there are me and three other tenants also occupy the building at the same time. However, her daughter, Pei-Leng, lives next to her. Her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren either lives or works close-by. In a modern busy-life of Taiwan society, those youngsters don't have much time to cook themselves. Most of them come to A-Jay's kitchen table for free meals that are prepared by A-Jay and have conversations with their mom or grand mom. A-Jay is very generous to provide such meals in exchange of being accompanied with her children and grandchildren.

My conclusion is that A-jay is independent (Yes, she is busy all day doing 'a lot' of household chores.); yet she is connected (physically and emotionally) to her children and grandchildren. Such connections come greatly from her kindness and generosity.

Alarming news from Taiwan

Photo on upleft: Taiwan post office names will be changed to 'China Post' starting August 4. Photo on lower-left, Taiwanese outcries when Bejing's Olympic Committee asks Taiwan atheletes to be presented as Jong-Ko, Taiwan.

According to the Liberty Daily (8/2/08), Ma's administration will spend NT 800,000 to change the name of post-office from "Taiwan Post Office" to "China Post Office", starting August 4, Monday.

Another related news is that Bejing's Olympic Committee notify Taiwan's team to be presented as 'Jong-Ko, Taiwan' with sequence in line with 'J' capital as other countries start with J-alphabet. In the past, Taiwan was presented with a sequence according to 'T'.
This is a very alarming news and we shall be all concerned about.

A contrast of life in Taiwan

Photo on the right showing the Taichi exercise in the morning (A-Jai and other senior citizens, a state of quietness.).

Photo above (The first photo) showing a scene of busy street of Taichung-City, a state of restlessness.