Readers, You Are Great; But, There Will Be No More Entries In This Blog. Instead, There Is A New Blog Site...

Readers, you are great. You are my best companion while I was alone, and away in Taiwan during my sabbatical leave of 2008-2009. Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Now, my official sabbatical leave ended on July 15, 2009. There will be no more reasons to enter any new stories in this blog. Instead, I have created another blog site, entitles, "Dr. Chen Story Time." for new stories and my experiences in the U.S.

I love story-telling. I think story-telling is a very good way to get human connections. My story-telling experiences when I was in Taiwan helped me a lot. Dr. Chen will continue his story telling in the new blog site with the web-address as http://dr-chen-story-time.blogspot.com/

I need your continuous support and encouragement. Thank you all, because you are just great.

Miracle--Large or Small Did Happen

Miracle did happen all the time whether they are small or large. It happened to me who happened to be a Christian when I was taking the plane back to US from Taiwan. But I believe that it will also occur to persons of other faith as we keep humble ourselves.

Last week, I sent a note to Pastor Chen of Wu-Feng Presbyterian Church and they had my note translated into Mandarin. Here it goes.

安抵美國，見證上主應允我的禱告

敬愛的陳牧師：

我已於七月十五日安抵美國，現正調整時差中。
我想和各位分享一個關於禱告的見證。

離台兩天前，我覺得非常不舒服，胃脹，吃不下。我就禱告，祈求神的幫助與醫治，也請在美國的太太為我禱告。

當然我去找醫生拿了些藥，同時做了指壓按摩，看起來有點效果，但是，真正幫助我的卻是苦瓜根所燉煮的茶。離開台灣的前一天晚上八點，我的姊姊和外甥來看我，我說出我的症狀,外甥立刻說他也曾有過類似的症狀. 就是所謂的 ”中暑 “。於是外甥就打電話請在彰化的太太為我熬苦瓜茶，雖然姊姊和我都說這樣太麻煩了，但是，外甥卻很堅持，終於我喝了幾盎司的苦瓜茶之後，原本乾痛的喉嚨感覺舒服多了，由於翌日要搭很早的班機回美國，當晚九點我就入睡了。隔天早上我把剩下的茶也喝完了。

結果你猜怎麼了? 從台北到美國密西根州阿爾普頓的航程中，我把飛機上提供的食物吃完了，真是太令人驚訝了。

上主經常用奇妙的方式作工，我只能說這是神應允我的禱告，真是奇妙。陳明楷 敬上 2009年7月17日

To All Readers: This is my last note for this blog. New stories will appear on a new blog: http://dr-chen-story-time.blogspot.com/

Good-Bye, Taiwan

I am writing this note in tears. People know about me understanding me well; Dr. Chen is a very emotional person. When I am writing something deep from my hear, my tears pour out of me.

This one year sabbatical in Taiwan has fulfilled one of my life missions to contribute in Taiwan and to learn something I had missed when I went abroad in 1971. During this year, I taught English Technical Writing, Polymer Chemistry, and Industrial Chemical Process. I had great interactions with students especially for my English writing students. I have English Coffee Social Hour with them every week. Some of them went with me to see movies of '1895' and 'Slum Dog Millionaire'. I also see their growth in English writing skills. Those are gratifying accomplishments.

Intellectually, I also had great interactions with most faculty of the chemical engineering department of NCHU especially with Professor Dai Shenghong and Professor Jeng Ru-Jong. We had weekly meeting during my sabbatical in Taiwan. Those what I have learned and contributed are also gratifying.

The Taiwanese history re-learning experiences are exciting and are hard to describe. When I grew up in Taiwan before 1971, I was taught in school about Chinese history and geography. This year in Taiwan, I actually learn about Taiwanese geography and history. I learned about Taiwanese-French war, I learned about Dr. Mackay and Mr. Hatta Yoichi who had built Wu-San-Tou Water Reservoir and Ja-Nan Irrigation System that has turned the Ja-Yi, Tainan Plain into the rice warehouse of the Southeast Asia. I also had deep appreciation of the Hakka's culture. I went as far as Ping-Tong to see Hakka culture historical remains as well as Nan-Joung and San-Yi. I also had participated in the Tong Blossom Festival. The experiences were fascinating and fantastic.

Living alone my self for one year is hard. Fortunately, I found a church group and a Qi-Kong group to give me support, spiritually and physically. Many thanks to my sister and her children who have taken care of me almost to every details. Also thanks to Meeilei's brother, Mr. Ou Chau-Fu who had taken me to many places in Taiwan to learn about the beauty of Taiwan. Thanks also to friends at Chau-Yang University such as Dr. Huang Jin-Teh and his wife who had introduced me to the church and Dr. Shih Yen-Feng who took me to Ju-San to see the old battle field of Mr. Lin Shung-Wun.

Lastly, I thank my wife for her generosity to grant me living here alone while she has to take care of everything at home such as mowing the grass and shoveling the snow. Those usually are my jobs. Daily Skype phone conversation with Meeilei also gave me tremendous support.

I also had made a mistake by participating in Herbalife Nutrition Club which had made my insomnia and digestion problems worse. At the moment of writing this note, I am really sick. I lost appetite and lost weight. I look forward to coming back to the U.S. to go back to the normal life for better health.

Good bye, Taiwan. I love you all.

Church Choir Said Good-Bye To Me On July 11

Since joining the Wu-Feng Presbyterian Church, I also joined the choir. Choir typically practices every Saturday night from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM even in summer. The church is a vibrant church; even in summer the choir has full participation from the choir members. The Lo's family took a very effective leadership in leading the choir. One photo shows that Mr. Lo presented me a card while in the other photo, Mrs. Lo is sitting on the same role as mine and is the second woman on my left.

Pastor Chen Came To My Residence To Say Goodbye

Wu-Feng Presbyterian Church is almost my second family while I am living alone myself in Taiwan. Pastor Chen wanted to have a dinner banquet for the farewell party. I told Pastor Chen that because my medical problem, I preferred a light dinner. Pastor Chen and his wife together with Mr. and Mrs. Huang Jin-Teh came to NCHU campus and had a very light dinner at Sung-Yen 盛宴 of NCHU. We had great conversation and good fellowship.

Dr. Huang sat on my right while Pastor Chen sat on the left. The woman sat next to Pastor Chen is Pastor's wife.

Pastor Chen recovered very well from a head injury about 4-5 months ago. A disturbed church member attacked him and hit him on the head. Pastor Chen was rushed to hospital. His family and our whole church went through a difficult time praying for his quick recover. The Lord had heard our prayer. He is now on full duty as a church minister which is a very demanding job. He will be a good role model for me to recover my current medical problem to go back full time in my teaching duty at UW-Green Bay.

NCHU Students Gave Me A Farewell Party With Lemonade On July 7

NCHU students had inquired me how to give me a farewell party. I told them because I had digestion system problem, I requested a lemonade farewell. That did very well and we had good time on July 7.

The students had given me a ROC flag. I told them that if this was presented to me 10 years ago, I would not accept. I remember those days in the US, every time Taiwanese displayed any flags representing Taiwan, Taiwanese would be beaten by those who hold the ROC flag. Today, ROC flag represents Taiwan, not China and Mr. Ma Ying-Jiau could not even keep the ROC flag long in Taiwan.

Wen-Kai 文楷 and His Wife Gave Me A Warm Farewell

Wen-Kai 文楷 and his wife gave me a warm farewell party in Chang-Hua on July 9 at a Japanese restaurant. We took a photo at the restaurant.

Wen-Kai 文楷 and his wife, Zuei-Mei 翠美 sat at the front. Standing next to me is my nephew Liu Fan-Tsai 刘煥彩. Liu's wife, Shu-Jing 琇錦 is standing between Wen-Kai 文楷 and Zuei-Mei 翠美.

Both Wen-Kai 文楷 and Zuei-Mei 翠美 are retired. Liu Fan-Tsai 刘煥彩 is an electrical engineering professor working at Fu-Wei Ku-Ji University 虎尾科技大学. Shu-Jing 琇錦 is a school teacher. Shu-Jin 琇錦 has taught me yoga and gave me a book on how to take care of myself with massage.

Teacher Chang Said That She Discovered The First Benefit of Qi-Kong At Age 55...

Ms. Chang Fu-Ying 張富英, as we often called her Teacher Chang because she is a retired school teacher. Ms. Chang is in the 70s and still very healthy. She has practiced Qi-Kong for at least 20 years.

She said that she discovered the initial benefit of practicing Qi-Kong because one day (when she was at age 55), she forgot to wear eye glasses to read newspaper. After reading the headlines, she was amazed to find out she could read the fine print without the eye glasses. Qi-Kong had helped her greatly on her eyesight.

Uncle Lin, Lin Wun-Pang 林文榜 is the oldest member in our group. He is in the 80s. I know he can drink alcohol more than any of the young members. He is very healthy. He also comes to practice everyday.

Mr. Wang Pou 王博, Father of Mr. Wang Yun-Hei 王雲诲 First Established This Qi-Kong Group in 1992.

The name of the Qi-Kong group is called Taichung Wisdom-Energy Qi-Kong Chung-Hsing Practice Group, 台中智能気功中興練功場. It started in 1992 when Mr. Wang Po 王博, father of our captain 王雲诲 , went to China to learn about this Qi-Kong hoping not only to cure his liver disease but help the populace. When the Qi-Kong practice started, every cost was payed for by Mr. Wang. Till these days, this Qi-Kong group teaches based not on profits but on charity; members pay only minimum membership fee for the basic cost which includes group uniform, banquet cost and scholarship money for members' children.

Mr. Wang Yun-Hei 王雲诲 is the right of the attached photo. The person sitting on the left is Mr. Chen Mung-Nan 陳猛男. Mr. Chen used to worked for the founder of the group, or father of Wang Yun-Hei 王雲诲. When Mr. Chen was in the 40s, he had severe stiffen shoulder problem. After practice Qi-Kong regularly, his shoulder problem went away. He also said that that Qi-Kong gave hime many more benefits.

Qi-Kong Group Gave Me A Farewell Party At My Residence On July 11

Members of the Qi-Kong group came to my residence for fellowship as well as signed names on the group photo to send me off on July 11 after morning practice. Each friend was then gave a 2-3 minutes on the reflection how did they start Qi-Kong and how did Qi-Kong help them all through these years.

The name of the Qi-Kong group is called Taichung Wisdom-Energy Qi-Kong Chung-Hsing Practice Group, 台中智能気功中興練功場. It started in 1992 when Mr. Wang Pou 王博, father of our captain, went to China to learn about this Qi-Kong hoping not only to cure his liver disease but help the populace. When the Qi-Kong practice started, every cost was payed for by Mr. Wang. Till these days, this Qi-Kong group teaches based not on profits but on charity; members pay only minimum membership fee for the basic cost which includes group uniform, banquet cost and scholarship money for members' children.

Here are the members' reflections except those of Coach Tong 童菊蘭 , Mr. Yiao 游国, and Mr. Tsai 蔡奕淦 . The reflections of Coach Tong 童菊蘭, Mr. Yiao 游国 , and Mr. Tsai 蔡奕淦 had been reported in my previous postings. (See my 7/7/09 and 7/08/09 psotings.).

Mr. Chiang Chiu-Kwei 冮秋癸 reflection: Mr. Chiang was forced to retire in 2007 from a factory because of knee cap problem. Doctor said that he needed a knee replacement. Mr. Chiang started Qi-Kong in 2007. His knee has been completely recovered plus had more energy than the year he retired.

Ms. Lin Su-Jeng 林淑真 and her husband Mr. Yang Sun-Seng 楊順生 came to practice at the nudge of their relative, Ms. Chang Chun-Mei 張春美. Ms. Lin said that Qi-Kong helped her not to sneeze easily and less body pain. Her husband said that this Qi-Kong is too easy for him. He went to other group to practice Tai-Chi instead.

Mr. Yiao 游国 Works Harder Than I In The Qi-Kong Practice

I am posting two more photos here to show my other Qi-Kong friends. One is a photo with Mr. Yiao 游国 . Mr. Yiao 游国 is in the 70s, but he looks younger than that. Mr. Yiao 游国 started Qi-Kong practice in 2004. He comes to Qi-Kong practice every morning, at least 10 minutes earlier than everybody else. After many years of practice, he is trimmer and less prone to cold.

The other photo is with Mr. Tsai 蔡奕淦 who is in the 50s. Mr. Tsia 蔡奕淦 is a successful business man. He comes to coach us on Saturday. He does have much medical problem to start with. He use Qi-Kong as a method of maintaining good health. He has practiced Qi-Kong since 1992.

Coach Tong 童菊蘭 Was Influential In Convincing Me Usefulness of Qi-Kong

I had reported several stories describing me how did I start with Qi-Kong practice about 6-7 months ago. I use the time for my morning exercise; having no thought about Qi-Kong can do more than the regular exercise such as swimming or playing tennis. My idea about Qi-Kong changed when coach Tong approached me with CDs and a book, "The Melody of Qi" 氣的樂章. The book describes blood circulation in terms of resonance which I understand. That book has made me a convert and coach Tong really plays a key role in making me serious learning about Qi-Kong.

Actually, she had done more than that. She gave me few private lessons teaching me Squatting feet (in front of wall), Swirl ling waist etc. For that I am expressing my sincere thanks to her.

On July 11, Qi-Kong group had a farewell party for me allowing everyone to say few reflection words on Qi-Kong practice. Coach 童菊蘭 Started Qi-Kong in 1996. She was in such bad physical shape in 1996. She could not eat; and alarmingly underweight. She caught cold often; each time she got a cold, the cold would linger at least a month. After practicing Qi-Kong, she no longer catches cold easily. Actually she maintains her beauty and vitality in her 50. She is a good role model for everyone in the group.

The Friendship Given by My Qi-Kong Practice Group Have Deeply Warmed My Heart

Living alone is not easy. This sabbatical leave gave me an experience of living alone which had occasionally given me blue mood.

Fortunately, I found several groups in Taiwan giving me great support, physically, intellecturally, and spiritually.

The students' group gave me intellectual support, the church group gave me spiritual support, and the Qi-Kong Practice Group gave me physical support.

In these one and half an hour daily practices of the group, I had developed deep friendship with the practice members. I will devote several stories introducing my Qi-Kong practice members.

Playboy-Like Jeng Jin 鄭經 Exhibited Unusual Diplomatic and Political Skills In Governing Taiwan

The oldest son of Koxinga 鄭成功, Jeng-Jing 鄭經(1642-1681), was a playboy and a womanizer. He once had sexual relationship with his brother's (Jeng Hsienh) mother . Even Jeng Jing 鄭經and Jeng Hsienh had different mothers, this unusual sexual relationship was considered as an incest according to Han-Chinese ethics code. This had angered Koxinga who ordered to execute Jeng Jing 鄭經. Koxinga's deputies did not follow the execution order; the execution of Jeng Jing 鄭經 was spared because Koxinga died on 1662.

Koxinga's death brought in power struggle among Jeng Jing and his brothers and uncles. Jeng Jing 鄭經 then stationed at Ei-Mung 廈門. He had displayed unusual diplomatic and political skills. First, he dealt with Ching agreeing to follow Korea-China relation model for Taiwan-China relation to buy time for him to defeat his political enemies in Taiwan. After he consolidated his power in Taiwan, he allied with Japan and England against Ching which then allied with the Dutch. Jeng jing 鄭經 developed naval forces, ship building industry and trades which made Taiwan one of the richest countries in the Southeast Asia. Jeng Jing 鄭經 further developed agriculture system in Taiwan, built soldier-farming systems that made Taiwan self sufficient in food supply.

Jeng Jing 鄭經 biggest blunder was his involvement in Chinese civil war in the so-called Three-Territory-Event 三藩事變 in 1673. The involvement of such civil war consumed mush of Taiwanese resources and brought the end of this kingdom in Taiwan.

Jeng Jing's 鄭經 unrestrained private life brought his early death in 1681. His death brought another power struggle among the successors of Jeng Jing 鄭經. This gave Ching an opportunity to conquer Taiwan in 1683. After that Taiwanese lived a very miserable life under Ching's administration.

Koxinga 鄭成功 May Be A Hero; But He Also Committed Atrocity Against Dutch

Facing with the advancing Ching's army together with the shame that Ching had inflicted on the Jeng's family because Ching had raped Ms. Ta-ga-Wo-Ma-Tsu 田川氏 (たがわ まつ)(1601-1646) (wife of Iquan and mother of Koxinga) and later forcing Ta-Ga-Wo-Ma-Tsu 田川氏 (たがわ まつ) to committ suicide, father 鄭芝龍 (1604-1661) and son 鄭成功 (1624－1662) had completely different responses. Iquan 鄭芝龍 chose to surrender. He betrayed Ming but himself betrayed by Ching and was imprisoned for 22 years and was eventually executed by Ching in 1661. The son, Koxinga 鄭成功 chose to fight. At the peak of his career, he successfully expelled Dutch from Taiwan in 1662 and became a hero.

Koxinga was not interested in invading Taiwan until 1658 when he lost his campaign in Nanking because of his blunder. While army and naval fleet had already encircled Nanking and were counting days for the victory, Koxinga threw a birthday party outside of the Nanking castle. His soldiers and sailors were drunk when Ching had sensed the opportunity to attack Koxinga's army. Koxinga hurriedly retreat; and from that moment, he lad lost the military upper hand against Ching. Koxinga needed a base to retake Ching; this time, he targeted Taiwan, then a Dutch colony.

Koxinga invaded Taiwan on APril 30, 1661. His fleet and army took Provincia castle quite easily on May 4. The Dutch defended Zeelandin for more than 10 months. The Dutch surrendered to Koxinga on January 25 of 1662.

When Dutch defending Provincia surrendered to Koxinga, they had expected that Koxinga treated them with the status of prisoner-of-war. Well, this was not the case. Koxinga's army killed the men and raped the women. Also during the Zeelandin siege, Koxinga hunt Dutch all around Taiwan, killing them with cruelty such as nailing them on a cross etc. In fact, in those campaign, Koxinga had committed atrocity against the Dutch.

This is part of the bloody history of Taiwan. While most Taiwanese worship a hero-like figure of Koxinga, Koxinga did have his dark side needed to be discussed.

Pirate Jeng Ju-Long 鄭芝龍 Was A Complex Character

Pirate Jeng Ju-Long 鄭芝龍 (1604-1661) inherited Lee Dan's pirate empire and became a godfather himself in 1625. Jeng was a genius of language and he had many other skills. Besides Mandarin, Jeng also mastered Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch. He also played Spanish guitar. The Europeans called him Iquan because this was the name when Jeng was baptized with the Catholics religion.

The relationship between Dutch and Iquan was uneasy. They fought war in 1633 but without any win or loss on either side. Iquan agreed to give Dutch a port at Fu-Jou 福卅 in exchange of giving Iquan monopoly of sea-transportation between China and Taiwan.

During 1633 and 1635, there was a famine in China while the Dutch needed Chinese labor to develop her new colony. Iquan's fleet then transported Chinese laborers to Taiwan and made a good fortune himself.

These Chinese laborers were not human slaves because at the time the Dutch gave them great incentive to come to Taiwan to develop agriculture. However, Dutch squeezed them with hefty tax which resulted in Kuo Huei-I's 郭懷一 rebellion in 1652.


Iquan himself made a huge political gamble by accepting Ming emperor's invitation to become an Ming's minister while ending his pirate career. With his new minister position in the Ming's court, he took his Japanese wife 田川氏 (たがわ まつ) (1601-1646), and his oldest son Jeng Chung-Kung 鄭成功 or the Koxinga back to China and gave his son Chinese-style education. Iquan further expanded his naval fleet power by attacking other pirates who were not under his control.

As Ming's 明 government and troops got weaker and weaker when Ching's 清 troops advanced and took control huge territory from the Ming 明, Iquan betrayed Ming 明 and surrendered to the Ching 清. It was an irony. As Ching threw a big party accepting his surrender and as the banquet came to an end and as Iquan was isolated from his own troop, the Ching清 handcuffed Iquan and escorted Iquan to Peking. There, he was imprisoned for 22 years.

There was one thing Iquan finally did it right. He refused to persuade his son to surrender on Ching's 清 behalf. For that refusal, he was executed. At the execution, he finally made peace with himself and with his son.

Wo-Kok 倭寇 Was Not Just Limited to Japanese Pirates. Many of the Wo-Kok Were Chinese Pirates. The Head of The Pirates Was Lee-Dan 李旦

The following story came from the book, The Forbidden Nation.

During 1500-1600 AD, pirates were rampant raiding the east coast of China. Taiwan was then a refuge of pirates. Here, the pirates rest, and recuperated with fresh water and bountiful resources from the island.

The Chinese government then blamed the Japanese and called these pirates the Japanese bandit, or the Wok-Kok, 倭寇, as I usually read from the Chinese-version textbook. True, many of them were Japanese pirates; but many of them were also Chinese pirates. Indeed, the godfather of the pirates was Lee Dan 李旦(?-1625) (known to European as Andrea Dittis). He owned a fleet of thousand battle-trade sailing boats (called junk at the time.) and ran the trade of both goods and human. The Europeans were not afraid of China, nor Japan; but they took a serious attitude toward the pirate godfather, Mr. Lee Dan 李旦.

Why Mr. Lee Dan is important in Taiwanese history? This is because one of Lee-Dan's 李旦 deputy was Mr. Jeng Ju-Long, 鄭芝龍, the father of Koxinga or 鄭成功. Even Koxingya 鄭成功 inherited part of the pirate fleet and was the superpower on the sea at the time when he expelled Dutch from Taiwan.

I will have more stories on Jeng Ju-Long 鄭芝龍, and Koxingya 鄭成功 later in this blog.

Forbidden Nation--A History of Taiwan

From now on, I will write several interesting Taiwanese stories that I was ignorant in the past. Most of the stories come from the book recently published by the Mayflower Publisher. The title of the book is "Forbidden Nation- A History of Taiwan, written by Jonathan Manthorpe and translated by Ko Tsuei-Yuen 柯翠園, isbn 978-986-84266-4-1; NT $350, tel-(02)-8522-7530. Mr. Manthorpe is a Canadian news reporter in Asia and has written many commentaries for Asian and Canadian television stations.

How does this new book compare to "Taiwan Four-Hundred Years History" by Mr Su-Ming 吏明? The book by Mr. Su-Ming 吏明 is a classical, yet the book is serious but dry. On the other hand, the book by Mr. Manthorpe is lively and is like reading a detective novel. I am so glad to find this good book to recommend to my readers. Why don't you give it a try?

If you do not want to spend the money, you can just read the stories in my blog. I will make the stories equally entertaining and exciting.

The Name 'Taiwan' Originated From 'Tayouan' An Aborigine Word Meaning A "Foreigner'

When the aborigines first interacted the Dutch, later the Han-Chinese immigrants, the aborigines called them 'Tayouan', or the foreigners. Since the Dutch have heard 'Tayouan' name so often that they called the colony as 'Tayouan'. Han-Chinese translated 'Tayouan' into Da-Yuen or 大員. Later, this Da-Yuen becomes Taiwan.

Thus, Taiwan is a land of immigrants besides the aborigines. We will discuss the history of immigration later with my blog. I ask my readers to be patient to read about the interesting stories of Taiwanese immigration history.

The Charming Beitou 北坄 Hot Spring Was Actually The Witch Place Named By The Aborigines

The hot spring canyon is located in the Beitou region 北投區 between the Hot Spring Road 溫泉路 and Chung-San Rd 中山路. The location is part of Da-Tun volcano-active place 大屯火山群區. The canyon is foggy all year with hot spring vapor filling the void of the canyon. It is one of the great charming place in Taiwan. The aborigines named this place Pawu-Tawn (same pronunciation of Pau-Tau 北投) which means 'witch'. The aborigines believe the spirit of the witch lives here making this place charming and unpredictable.

Hokutolite 北投石 Is The Only Rock in The World That Is Named After Taiwanese Local Regional Name

The rock found in the lower stream of Beitou Stream 北投溪 is unusual in many ways, It is a heavy rock with the compositions of both barium sulfate and lead sulfate with a hardness of 3.0~3.5 and specific gravity of 4.69~4.83. When a Japanese geologist Mr. Yohachiro Okamoto 岡本要八郎 came to Beitou in 1906 to collect the rock, he immediately saw the differences of this rock from all other rocks he knew from the textbook. Mr. Yohachiro Okamoto published his research finding in Tokyo, Japan in 1911. Next year, his advisor, Dr. Kotora Jimbo 神保小虎published Okamoto's finding in Europe and named the rock as Hokutolite or 北投石; the academic position of Hokutolite was then established.

Beitou Stream is a hot spring stream. The water temperature of the stream at the originated place is around 70 degrees centigrade. At the lower stream, the temperature drops to around 30 degrees centigrade. The minerals begin to crystallize at the lower stream; crystallization conditions will depend on pH, water contents and water temperature. The crystals of hokutolite mainly consists of solid solutions of barium sulfate BaSO4 and lead sulfate PbSO4. It also contains radiactive substance, radium element.

In 1962, Dr Lee Yueon-Jeh 李遠哲, the only Taiwanese Nobel Laureate wrote a master-degree thesis on the radioactivity studies of hokutolite while he was still at Ching-Hua University 请華大学.

Photo shows a sample of hokutolite.

The House of Professor Chen--A Father's Day Poem from Victor

Unlike Taiwanese who celebrates Fathers' Day on August 8, the American celebrate on June 21. My son Victor sent me a poem for celebration. This poem takes the tune of "The House of the Rising Sun", my favor song in the U.S. Here is the poem:

There is a man in Appleton,
They call Professor Chen
And yes, he is, the proud father, of two boys who have now, become, two men.

Victor is the oldest son.
He wants his Ph.D.
He hopes, to fin-ish all of his dissertation,before he turns thirty-three.

His other son is Leo Chen
And dad once bought him a drum,
He teaches like his old ba-ba,
Except his kids are dumb.

So summer's here, our father is on break.And tennis, and golf, he will play.
We wish, him well, and many, fun times
And a Happy Father's Day.

Squatting In Front of A Wall--蹲牆--Weight Traing, The Qi-Kong's 氣功 Way

Osteoporosis is a medical condition that the bone density of a patient is reduced. Most elders especially women after menopause are vulnerable for osteoporosis. It is an insidious disease that often leads to an increase of bone fracture. Bone fracture is the number one reason for an elder to be admitted to the nursing home.

To overcome this situation, doctor often advises elders to get into the weight training program. In the U.S., weight training involves heavy equipment which means that unless the elder is a member of a health club, it is unlikely to get regular weight training program.

In Taiwan, I have learned a "squatting leg" technique from my Qi-Kong 氣功 lesson. I found it is useful as an alternative weight training program without becoming a health club member. The technique is actually pretty simple; all you need to do is to squat your legs, and bend your knees without hurting your knees. To do that, one also needs to use both the stomach and the back muscle to make sure that when you bend, your center of gravity stays behind your knees. You can imagine that there is a wall in front of you. This imaginary wall will keep your body gravity center behind your knees.

Formosan Blue Magpie 台灣藍鵲--Taiwanese National Bird

Should one day, Taiwan becomes Republic of Taiwan, what would be our choice for the national bird? Well, this is a relatively easy issue; because more than 500,000 international bird-watching friends (Many of them are Taiwanese bird watchers.) had already voted and had chosen Formosan Blue Magpie, or 台灣藍鵲 (Urocissa Caerulea) as theTaiwanese national bird.

Taiwanese calls Formosan Blue Magpie 台灣藍鵲 as the mountain lady of long tail 長尾山娘, also a beautiful name for the bird. They are called long-tail mountain lady because while their body length is about 64-65 cm, their tails are as long as 40 cm. The whole body is blue in color except they have red mouths, red toes, yellow eyes, black heads and necks. These birds work together and they are not afraid of defending their nests against the invaders, something Taiwanese can learn about from the birds.

I learned about this bird from my NCHU Experimental Forestry trip on May 28, 29. (See my 5/29/09 stories.). In fact, I even shot pictures on these beautiful birds. (pictures of poor quality; not shown here.) Professor Hsu and Hsieh's family taught me about this bird. While I like the birds very much, I value the friendship I had fostered from the trip even more. Photo shows the blue bird and Prof. Hsu's family.

Also, if you want to be a citizen of Republic of Taiwan as badly as I am, please come to the following website and download the petition for our nationhood. http://jessie-tw.blogspot.com/

Wild Monkeys Live So Close to Human Beings...

The attached photo was downloaded from NCHU Organic Farmers' Market web site (http://nchuorganicfm.blogspot.com/) with permission. It is one of the photos taken from the wild monkeys we saw in the trees on the road when we were hiking from the Twin Rivers 二 水 of Chang-Hua county to Ming-Jeng 名間village of the Nan-Tou county. (Read my 5/25/09 story)I was so surprised to see the wild monkeys living so close to human beings because the place we took the photo was in the park which had many pedestrians walking-by. Out of curiosity, I did a research on this type of monkey and was equally surprised to find out such a species of the wild monkey is actually listed as an "endangered species" in Taiwan and in the world.

This type of monkey is called the Formosan macaque or the Formosan rock-monkey (Macaca cyclopis). In Taiwan, it is called Taiwan Mi-Monkey 台灣獼猴. The color of the monkey faces can be either red or white. The monkey has a typical round head and only exists in Taiwan. In 1993, a statistics was taken that the total population of the monkey was only 780. Because they live so close to human beings, they often beg food or steal food from the pedestrian passing by their living habitat. Because wild monkeys often carry hepatitis virus, mingling of monkeys and human being is dangerous both to human beings and the monkeys. This presents a difficult task for the Taiwanese government to manage this endangered species in Taiwan. The nature habitat for the monkeys is rock mountain which has been invaded by human beings who had expanded their living space from the great plains to the mountains.

Do you know who is Hatta Yoichi (八田與一 はった よいち ) ?

Do you know who Hatta Yoichi (八田與一 はった よいち ) is? You may know who is Hatta Yoichi; but I did not know before until recently I read a small article in the Church Weekly. I believe many Taiwanese who have grown up in the era of White Terror of the Chinese colonial government (led by Kuo-Ming-Tang) will be as ignorant as I am about this Japanese civil engineer. You and I may know pretty well about Chinese Great Wall; but we are all ignorant about the great project of water reservoir and a network of water tunnels that direct the water from the reservoir to various places in the Jia-Lan Great Plain.

Through out Taiwanese history, there are several non-Taiwanese-natives who have made significant contributions to Taiwan. On February of 2009, I had introduced to you with a story of the Canadian Presbyterian minister, Dr. MacKay 馬偕医師,. Today, I am going to introduce to you a Japanese civil engineer, Mr. Hatta Yoichi 八田與一 はった よいち (1886-1942). He built the Wu-San-Tou Water Reservoir 烏山頭水庫 and Jia-Nan-water-plantation-water-tunnels 嘉南大圳to supply water needed for growing rice fields in the Jia-Nan plain of Taiwan. The project was the first-in-the kind in Asia, and third-in-the kind in the world great engineering marvels of the time.

The plain of Yun-Lin, Jia-Yi, and Tai-nan counties on the sea-shore used to be desert-like; not much different from the desert lands of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. Nothing could grow on this soil. There was too much salt in the soil. Fresh water sources either from the rain or from the stream was either too little or too much. This situation changed after the water reservoir at Wu-San-Tou 烏山頭 was built in 1930. Today, the Jia-Nan Plain is not only the so-called Rice-Warehouse of Taiwan but one of the Rice-Warehouse of the Asia. Water plantation acreage has increased from 7,000 hectare (1 hectare=10,000 square meters)to 15,000 hectors. With the reservoir, farmers are able to plant rice on the Jia-Nan plain twice a year. Rice productivity increased 6.5-fold while the sugar cane productivity increased approximately 3 times. This engineering project required building water tunnels through the Wu-San-Mountain 烏山 with total tunnel length of 16,000 km which is 9,000 km longer than that of the Great-Wall in China (Total length of Great Wall is 6400 km.) Imagine that engineers and workers had to dig 16,000 km-long water tunnels to direct the water to the rice field. The quality of the project was first in the kind at the time.

This engineering project was led by a Japanese civil engineer, Mr. Hatta Yoichi 八田與一 はった よいち (1886-1942). The engineering team included both Japanese and Taiwanese engineers and workers. The total cost of the project was 5.414 x 10^(8) Japanese Yen日圓 (The budget of the project was second next to the Japanese war budget in which the Japanese used in preparation to fight a war against the world.); the Japanese government paid half of the total cost, the rest of the cost was shared by Taiwanese farmers. During the project, he working area at Wu-San Mountain was infested with malaria and other tropical diseases. Yet the team overcame all difficulties and finished the project in 1930. During this 10 year-long project, Taiwanese and Japanese engineers and workers worked side-by-side to finish a project they were proud to show-off to the world. The project has benefited many Taiwanese generations many years after 1930.

In 1942, while Mr. Hatta Yoichi was boarding a merchant ship on the way to Philippine, the merchant ship was torpedoed by an American submarine. Mr. Hatta Yoichi died in that attack; his remains were buried near the Wu-San-Tou 烏山頭 water reservoir. In 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies, all Japanese nationals needed to be sent back to Japan. Hatta Yoichi's wife unwilling to leave Taiwan, she committed suicide by drowning herself in the water reservoir. Taiwanese buried the couple together near the Wu-San-Tou water reservoir.

Taiwanese initially built a statue for Hatta Yoichi but hid the statue for the concern that the Chinese colonial government (led by the Chinese Nationalist) which had a very strong anti-Japanese attitude might destroy the statue. The statue was finally allowed to be displayed and Mr. Hatta Yoichi's story finnaly allowed to be commemorated during the Lee Tung-Huei era. We finally know about this Japanese engineer and Taiwanese friend who had devoted more than 10 years of his life to finish a project in Taiwan that benefited many Taiwanese generations years after.

Thank you, Mr. Hatta Yoichi 八田與一.

Bird Has Found A Good Place to Nest

This morning, my wife sent me a photo showing a bird nest above the porch light in my Wisconsin home. Birds have found a good place to nest because the porch light is warm and secure. Here is the photo.

A Joke: Two Cars Bon-Bon.

This joke comes from Joanna Chang, our church choir director. She sent me this joke via e-mail. I think it is pretty funny. WIth her permission, I share her joke with my readers.

One Taiwanese student had an auto-accident while was driving in the highway of New York State in the U.S.

He dialed 911 and explain to the police about the accident with his Taiwanese English:

One car go one car come.

Two car bon bon.

Please call O-Yi, O-Yi 歐咿歐咿

come hurry hurry.

Praise to The Jade Mountain; 玉山頌

Poet Lee Ming Young 李敏勇 (1947-) has written hundreds of poems and essays; many of them are patriotic poems for Taiwan. The following poem (song) was in collaboration with another Taiwanese musician, Shaw Tai-Zan 蕭泰然 (1938-). The title of the song is "Praise to the Jade Mountain", or 玉山頌.

The Jade Mountain is located in the middle of Taiwan. The main peak is 3952 meters above the sea level. The Jade Mountain to Taiwanese is the Fuji Mountain 富士山 to the Japanese. (The main peak of Mount Fuji is 3776 meters above the sea level.) The Jade Mountain represents the souls of Taiwanese.

Here is the text of "Praise to the Jade Mountain" 玉山頌 written by Lee Ming Young李敏勇 and Shaw Tai-Zan 蕭泰然 and published in 1990.



遠遠看你，你是天，佇真高的所在，真高的所在 Seeing you from far, you are the sky. You stand over at a very high place.

倚佇山頂，你是地，青翠樹林，綠色田園滿四界 Closing by the peak, you are the Earth on which it grows green forest. From there, the green crop and fruit fields are scattered all over the surrounding mountain.

蝴蝶自由飛，日時白雲擁抱你 The butterflies fly freely. During the day-time, the white clouds embrace you.

蝴蝶自由飛，暗暝天星金熠熠 The butterflies fly freely. During the night, the shinny stars accompany you.

現實的你，你是父親，給我魂魄，給我意志佮勇氣 In the real life, you are the Father who gives me soul , will, and courage.

夢中的你，你是母親，佇我心內，佇我心內給我愛 In the dream, you are the Mother who gives me love to my heart.

走找自由路，行過悲情的過去 Searching for the path to freedom while passing many past sad history.

走找自由路，殷望起造新世紀 Searching for the path to freedom while creating a new century with hope.

玉山，玉山，台灣美麗島，神聖的記號 The Jade Mountain; the Jade Mountain, Ilha Formosa. you are the emblem of the sacred.

玉山，玉山，台灣新國度，光榮的標記 The Jade Mountain; the Jade Mountain, the Taiwan New Nation. You are the symbol of glory.

サヨンのかね 鐘 The Bell of Miss Sayon

Miss Sayon was sending off her boyfriend, a man from one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. The man was drafted to fight a war in the South-East Asia for Japan during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. She was standing over a wooden bridge across a canyon seeing her lover disappearing from the horizon. Suddenly, wind was blowing and rain was pouring over the mountain and the canyon, Ms. Sayon tripped and she fell to the bottom of the canyon. This song was written for Ms. Sayon, a woman representing the fate powerless Taiwanese then and now. The song was written in Japanese but it was a Taiwanese story. I transcript the song here so that not only I share the song with my readers, it is also an opportunity to practice my Japanese.

Here it is:

Verse 1:

あらし（ 嵐） ふきま （吹き間）く みね (峰） ふも と Wind is blowing, and rain is pouring over the top and down the bottom of the mountain.

流れ（ながれ）あやふき　まるきばし （丸木橋）　River water was rushing down below a single-wooden bridge.

わたる は だれぞ うるわし お とめ Who was the beautiful lady down below the bridge walking in the water?

赤きくちびる　あ。。あ サヨン That was the red-lipped Miss Sayon

Verse 2

散るや 嵐　に 花　ひとえ The flower is withering under the thunderstorm.

消えて　悲しき 水煙り 　Sadness also gradually disappearing like the water vapor.

ばんしゃのもりに ことり　は　なけど However, the birds in the forest over the aboriginal tribes were crying sadly

なぜにかえらぬ あ。。あ サヨン Why would the beautiful Miss Sayon not return?

Verse 3

みなみ の しまの たそがれ ふかく As the darkness comes to this southern island (Taiwan)

かね　は なる なる　 あ。。あ サヨン 　The bell rang. That sound was from Miss Sayon

Dr. Chen Has Met New Friends at Weekly Organic Farmers' Market

At NCHU campus, there is a weekly market for farmers who use organic farming method to produce their products. The vegetables picked up from this market are far safer than those picked up on a regular market because organic farming method does not use the pesticides which are highly poisonous to human being.

I started shopping at the organic farmers market last week and I have met good farmer friends at the market. Here is the photo showing my new friends in the market.

Brodsky Has Exiled Twice: The First Exile Was in 1964

Joselph Brodsky (1940-1996) has exiled twice in his life. First, he was sent into internal exile in Siberia in 1964. The second time he was sent into exile was 1972.

In 1964, he was charged with the so-called 'parasitism' 社会寄生蟲 and was found guilty of the charge. A famous exerpt from the transcript of his trial made by journalist Frida Vigdorova was smulggled to the West and can be found in the Wikipedia reference. Here is part of the transcript:

Judge: And what is your profession, in general?

Brodsky: I am a poet and a literary translator.

Judge: Who recognizes you as a poet? Who enrolled you in the ranks of poets?

Brodsky: No one. Who enrolled me in the ranks of humankind?

Judge: Did you study this?

Brodsky: This?

Judge: How to become a poet. You did not even try to finish high school where they prepare,
where they teach?

Brodsky: I didn’t think you could get this from school.

Judge: How then?

Brodsky: I think that it ... comes from God.

If you feel that the charge of parasitism 社会寄生蟲 was groundless and laughable, you are not alone. The message is that an authoritarian government can imprison anyone with any rational. Taiwanese who had lived through the White Terror era knew about this very well. Taiwanese needs to work hard to free ourselves from another authoritarian imprisonment in the future.

Milosz And Brodsky Have Many Things In Common

NCHU has sponsored a seminar on June 2 for the renown Taiwanese poet and NCHU alumnus, Mr. Lee Ming-Young 李敏勇 (1947-) to speak on a topic about rebuilding the Taiwan nation--A Poet's View. Mr. Lee cited two poets in his talk: Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) and Joselph Brodsky (1940-1996). Milosz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980. Brodsky received the Nobel Prize in 1987 also in literature.

Besides both being renown poets and Nobel Laureates, Milosz and Brodsky have many things in common. They were patriots to their nations; Milosz to Poland and Brodsky to Russia. Both were forced to exile under the authoritarian communist rules and both were eventually naturalized in the United States where they published their best work.

Milosz published a novel in 1953 , entitled "The Captive Mind", which attempted to explain both the intellectual allure of Stalinism in Poland and the temptation of collaboration with Stalinist regimes among intellectuals in post-war Eastern Europe.

Brodsky emphasized the power of literature to positively impact its audience and to develop the language and culture in which it is situated. According to Brodsky, the fast recovery of Western Society over the catastrophes such as Nazism was in part due to the Western literary tradition.

Here are few questions for my readers. Why great intellects like Milosz and Brodsky ran exile to escape Communism ? Why our government (Ma's administration) has tried to persuade Taiwanese to get close to communist China and eventually 'reunited' with China?

Dr. Chen witnessed His First Traffic Accident On June 11 In Taichung City

On the way back from the Chinese Medicine University Hospital on June 11, 2009, the bus I was boarding collided with a cyclist (on a motorcycle) on the pedestrian path at a traffic light. The rider of the motorcycle fell. The bus driver pulled an emergency break; the cyclist was not hurt badly except had few bruises here and there. Because the bus stopped suddenly, the passengers in the bus were all jolted forward. My lower face hit the back of a passenger seat as a result of the break. Although I feel a little bit of sore on my upper front teeth, but basically they are OK.

How did this accident happen? It occurred on the pedestrian path which meant the bus must slow down to allow the pedestrian walking by. The bus driver was at fault of not watching out for the pedestrian. The cyclist was at fault too. It is a pedestrian path, not for a person on a motorcycle to ride-on. I have seen this type of blatant rudeness and traffic violation on the road a lot during my sabbatical leave in Taiwan and was wondering when accidents would actually happen. It did happen and I have seen it on June 11.

Qi-Kong 氣功 Practice Is To Use Focus and Forms To Tune The Frequencies of Various Organ Vibrations

This note is a continuing story of the previous post describing what I understand from reading the book of "Melody of Qi" 氣的樂章 written by Dr. Wang.

In previous notes, I have described that a human body is like an orchestra with 11 set of wind instruments, each set plays one key harmonics. These 11 set of wind instruments help blood circulate through the body with resonance-vibration-assisted capillary flow. In orchestra, if one of the instruments is out-of-tune, the music played by the orchestra will be out-of-tune. In body, if one of the organ's harmonics is out-of-tune, the person will be sick. To help the orchestra play beautiful music, a conductor will ask each musician to tune his/her instrument. Similarly, the sick person will ask help from doctors to tune the harmonics of the the organ that is out-of-sync.

Qi-Kong 氣功 exercise is to train each of us tuning the harmonics ourselves through focus and forms. Will Qi-Kong 氣功 work? Or, let's ask the question more specifically. Would our body's harmonics respond to Qi-Kong's 氣功 focus and form practice?

Let me recall the relevant literature that may relate to the answer of this question. The first literature was about how a predator (say lion) synchronize his chasing pace with the running pace of prey (say deer) at the moment of the predator's attack on the prey. The chasing images was captured with a high speed camera and analyzing with a computer software. This article was published in the Scientific American. Since I am physically in Taiwan, I am not able to locate this article. But the key point of the article is that external event can trigger the synchronization of an animal.


Another relevant article which was published in the Science magazine analyzed the menstrual cycles of a group of women living together. The authors reported that after living together for a period of time, the menstrual cycles of these women were synchronized. This article says again that human being can respond to the external world to synchronize her biological function.


Qi-Kong 氣功 relies on focus and forms. To best achieve its goal for tuning the harmonics, it is best practiced with a group, with a soothing music and soft suggesting voice (for hypnosis effect) and with a relaxing body and a focus mind. It is not easy. But its benefit is immense.

There are 11 Harmonics in Human Beings; Each Corresponds to A Jin-Roe 經絡 in Chinese Medicine.

This note is a continuing story of the previous post describing what I understand from reading the book of "Melody of Qi" 氣的樂章 written by Dr. Wang.

The regular heart beats create 11 harmonics in the chest chamber. Each harmonic in the form of the pressure wave is transmitted through various organs in the body via arteries, capillaries and veins. For example, the first harmonic (n=1) is transmitted through the liver organ and is called the Liver 肝 Jin Rou 經絡while the second harmonic (n=2) is transmitted through the kidney organ and is called the Kidney 腎 Jin Rou 經絡. The 11 Jin-Rou 經絡 are shown in the attached one of the graphs.

Both the organs and the arteries have elasticities which allow the blood to transport via coupled vibrations. The vein cannot expand or constrict by itself. The transport of blood in capillaries and via are helped by various small cavities call the Shuei-Tau 穴道. The vibrations in these small cavities help blood to move in the capillaries and in the veins. If we put a finger pressure on capillaries, blood flow will slow down or even stopped. However, if we apply pressures on those small cavities, blood flow will actually increase according to Dr. Wang. In that sense, these small cavities or the Shuei-Tau 穴道 can be considered as a small spring. A model of the coupled flow with the arteries, organs, capillaries, small cavities (Shuei-Tau 穴道) and the veins are also shown in the attached photo.

Our Body Is Made of Cavities, Big and Small; Resonance Among The Cavities Help Blood Circulation

This note is a continuing story of the previous post describing what I understand from reading the book of "Melody of Qi" 氣的樂章 written by Dr. Wang.

Our body is made of cavities, big and small. The body can be considered as one whole big cavity while various organs such as kidney and spleen are all situated in smaller cavities. All cavities can vibrate with sets of harmonics if an external oscillatory force is applied. This is similar to all kinds of wind instruments. These instruments can make sounds when they were blown with our breadth.

Our heart which regularly pumps the blood is the external oscillatory force to create harmonics to all cavities. The heart is not located the head because at that location, it can only create the odd number (n=1, 3, etc.) harmonics. Nor the heart is located in the middle of the body because at the center, the heart pump can only create even number (n=2, 4, ...) of the harmonics. Instead, the heart is located about 1/4 from the top of the head. There the heart beats can create all harmonics that will help all other organs to be in sync with the harmonics the heart beat create.

The body harmonics originated from the heart beat actually distributed from the place called Tan-Jon 膻中 , at the center of the chest connected to the heart with a blood vessel. At Tan-Jon膻中, the kinetic energy of the blood flow in the artery is transformed into the potential energy in the form of the pressure wave. This wave will cause the other cavities such as kidney and spleen cavities to vibrate if the vibration frequencies of these smaller cavities are in sync with the harmonics that was produced at Tan-Jon. Blood circulation is very similar to making a sausage which requires repetitive squeezing and releasing of the pressure of the tube to facilitate the material transfer. This model explains many mysteries of the nature. For example, it explains why the smaller animals which require less blood for living have faster pulse rate than the bigger animals. It also explains why organs are connected to the blood vessel system with an almost 90 degree angle branched out with a stiffer side-blood vessel.

An analogy of blood circulation is similar to distributing electricity to a city. Electricity generated from a power generator first needs to be transmitted to a transformer to become a high voltage but low current flow. At the local household, the voltage is reverted back to a usable voltage and current. The various transformers in our body are: Tan-Jong 膻中 , Kidney Gate 腎門, and spleen gate 脾經.

I will elaborate on how Qi exercise helps the blood circulation through breathing, focus and body exercise.

Dr. Chen Is Learning Qi-Kong, The Quantum Chemistry Way

When I came to Taiwan about a year ago, I meant to learn Japanese in Taiwan. I brought Japanese-English dictionaries and several textbooks along hoping to find a learning environment to improve my Japanese.

I did not learn Japanese here; instead I learn Qi-Kong.

I started practicing Qi-Kong about 6 months ago. I have morning swimming habit. Every morning asI walked to my bicycle parking place and about to bike to the pool, I see a group of people practicing Qi-Kong. The banner said that this is a 'free' Qi-Kong learning group.

Out of curiosity, I started practicing Qi-Kong with them, first 30 minutes then 60 minutes. Recently, because I have few health problems, I practice Qi-Kong more, increaseing practice time from 60 minutes to 90 minutes.

The Qi-Kong group knows about I am returning to the U.S. in July. One of the coaches, Tong Juei-Lan 童菊蘭, is so nice to give me practice CDs, books, and individual coach. She also loaned me a book, entitled, "The melody of Qi. 氣的樂章", (authored by Wang Wei-Kong 王唯工, Locus Publishing Company, 0800-006689, NT $300) which describes the circulation of blood is a mathematical 'resonance' problem. This bears great analogy to the quantum chemistry that Dr. Chen has taught for years. I will write several notes to share my understanding of the Qi-Kong with my readers in the next few post.

Dr. Wang was a physics major before practicing Chinese medicine. He received a Ph.D degree from the Johns Hopkin University.

The resonance theory explains how the heart pumps the blood through arteries and capillaries, delivering nutrients to organs, and circulating the blood back to the heart via veins. Conventional fluid dynamics theory cannot explain the efficiency of such blood circulation because the blood flow resistance through the capillaries and organs would be too great. Artificial hears developed recently and have an average power of 30 watts can only pump a stable blood flow of few milli-liters per second which is insufficient for physiological functions. Instead, distribution of blood to various organs is transmitted through the resonance mechanism. Each organ (liver, kidney, etc) vibrates with a characteristic set of standing waves and when the frequency of the organ vibration is in sync with one of the vibration modes of the heart vibration, the circulation frequency is mostly efficient. Qi-Kong practice is to use mental focus and physical exercise to tune frequencies of various cavities 穴道 to achieve the better blood circulation in the body.

I will elaborate more on this in next few posts. But the point here is that the concept of harmonics of the standing waves is the same as the concept of orbital, or quantum states in the quantum chemistry. Because I am aware of this theory, I am learning Qi-Kong with a greater appreciation.

Qi-Kong practice group group photo is on the top. . Ms. Tong is the woman standing in the middle of the last row.

An Organic Farmer Needs to Get Along with Spiders, Worms, and Snakes

The characteristics of an organic farm is to grow vegetables, and fruit naturally without using fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. With a tropical-like weather in Taiwan, insisting on not using herbicides or pesticides, one needs to know how to get along with weeds and insects. Organic farmers will tell you that actually weeds are not too bad at all. Weeds only grow few months a season; after they die, they provide fertilizer-like nutrients to the plant. Worms will damage part of the crops but the damage will reach a limit and final state will reach an equilibrium. The attached photos show spider, and worm taken from Mr. Hung's organic farm at Ko-Shing village of Nan-Tou.

Did I also mention about snake in the title of this note? Yes, that refers to the snake skin I saw at Mr. Liaw's organic farm at Tung-Shu. The tale says one day a 5-ft long python glided by the side of Mr. Liaw's mountain house. Being a martial art-trained farmer, he caught the snake with a tool. Later, he killed the python and peeled the snake skin and displayed the skin outside of his house. The message is that if you want to be a farmer in the mountain, you also need to know how to catch the python. (This message is for one of my students who doesn't want to be a chemical engineer, but a farmer.)

I also have messages for my American friends. Americans take great care on their lawns. Some of their lawns are carpet-like. But, it pays a price greatly. Not only it requires labor, it also needs chemicals such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides which are applied to the lawn frequently. I wish they have opportunities to visit organic farms so that they can say to themselves that it is perfectly OK to have weeds in the lawn.

Hakka Has Turned A Mistake Into A Success--A Story about Tung Blossom Festival 客家桐花祭

The following story came from Mr. Hung, an organic fruit farmer near the Huei-Sun NCHU Experimental Forestry. Although the truth of the story still needs to be verified, it was entertaining and well-told. So, I decide to share this story with the readers.

Originally, the Hakka meant to plant Ka-Tang tree 茄苳 (Bischofia javanica Blume) not the Wu-Tong tree 梧桐 (or Phoenix tree, Firmiana simplex). Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree is a trophy-like tree because of its excellent wood quality for making furniture. It was said that if a family grows just one Ka-Tang tree, the family can marry a daughter with a complete set of dowry made of the wood of the Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree.

The Hakka ends up planting Wu-Tong 梧桐 tree instead, thinking that the wood in Wu-Tong 梧桐 tree is similar to that in Ka-Tang 茄苳tree. They planted Wu-Tong trees not just few locations, but the whole Miao-Li County, the mountain range in Taichung County and part of the mountain range of the Chang-Hua County. It turns up the wood quality of the Wu-Tong 梧桐tree is far inferior to that of the Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree. According to Mr. Hung, Wu-Tong 梧桐 tree is good only for farming the mushroom.

The Hakka blames the mistakes to the Japanese technicians. However, if the story ends up here, it is not interesting. The Hakka did finally discover that the Wu-Tong tree grows beautiful white flowers. In April, those flowers fall and covering the ground with the snow-white color. The Hakka finally discover a money making machine in those seemingly useless trees. Every year in March and April, there was big promotion for the so-called Tung Blossom Festival 客家桐花祭that attracts million of tourists.

I was in one the festivals at San-Yi village in early May. There, I have seen thousands of Japanese tourists.

P.S. In writing this story, I also got the help from Ms. Yachi Huang of NCHU organic farm market. She helped me find information on the Ka-Tang 茄苳 tree.

All Writers Need Readers

Several students in my English Writing Class and in my English Coffee Social had expressed interest in English writing. I suggested them to set up blog sites and forced themselves to write interesting stories in the blog like Dr. Chen is doing in this blog site.

One student specifically asked what would be different if he just wrote to his personal journal because he did not want other people to read about his private life.

"You don't need to write private things in the blog. But if you know somebody else is reading your stories, you are motivated to do better. Your writing skill will be greatly improved. All writers need readers. " I said.

Let me use several examples to illustrate this point, "All writers need readers".

My wife and I have a family friend, Karen, who retired at age 50 then turned herself into a painter. She started from a beginning painter to a really good artist today. Her paintings have been sold and exhibited in few Coffee Places in Appleton, Wisconsin. She said that the real turning point of her painting career was that she had an art exhibit few years ago (at my suggestion). During the exhibit, she met admirers and critiques. The admirers purchased her art work while the critique gave suggestions to her art.

Artists need art exhibits. Musicians need recitals. All the researchers need publications. Lastly, all writers need readers. Set-up a blog site and force yourself to write English. I assure you that your English writing skills will be greatly improved.

Dr. Chen's Home Garden in Wisconsin Has Beautiful Iris Flowers

I had Skype with my wife this morning (6/3/09). She sent me two pictures of the iris taken from our garden in Wisconsin. I post the picture here to share with my readers.

The Root of Happiness is To Know How to Let Go

Yesterday (June 2, 2009), my students and I were discussing how to be happy and successful during our weekly English Coffee Social Hour at National Chung-Hsing University. I like to offer readers and students advice which may be useful to them and to me. In fact, I have been trying to learn this lesson all through my whole life.

What is the advice and the lesson? It is: Knowing when and how to 'let go'. Let me illustrate this with few examples.

When I was learning to play golf in the United States, the coach always reminded me to relax my shoulder, arm, and back muscles. "A soft arm plays a harder ball." , the coach said. Same advices were also given by the tennis coach when students were learning how to serve (the ball). "Relax your shoulder, arm and wrist then you have a high-speed ball" To know how to let go is to play a better sport.

Few days ago, I met Professor Lin Ching-Hseing at the swimming pool. He introduced me to meet with another very good swimmer, Ms. Wang. He explained to me how well Ms. Wang can swim with her body upside-down, no kicking on her feet and propelling only with both hands. Professor Lin said that, "She swim well because she let go her body and completely relax herself."

The philosophy of 'let go' comes from I-Ching 易經 of Lau-Zu 老子. Actually, there are thousands of American fans learning about I-Ching 易經. I remember that there were even televised lectures over Public Broadcasting System (PBS) by renown scholars of I-Cheng 易經. The philosophy of I-Cheng 易經 reminds us everything we hold including wealth, power, and even health is an illusion. We come to this life empty-handed, and we will leave this world empty-handed. Why Americans are interested in I-Ching? The reason is clear. Literally, no one is happy with a society overly-emphasized with the material achievements; the society such as America and others (According to Poet Lee Ming-Yung in the seminar on June 2, 2009, Taiwan also belongs to this category.) Those societies overly-concern with questions regarding on how much a person earn? on what kind of cars he or she is driving, etc.

Did you hear I mention about 'health' in this 'let-go' philosophy? Yes. Although we have to take responsiblity of eating habit and exercise routine, there are something else that is outside of our control. To be happy is to know hoe to let go those we cannot control over. Here I am going to give two examples:

About 5 years ago, my former Kimberly-Clark colleague, Steve, re-count on his near-death experience. He had a heart attack. The incredible thing he has experienced was that although he was unconscious at the time of the heart attack, he knew that his soul was hovering over the operating table and was aware of all the conversations among the doctors operating on his body at the operating table. Later, He came back alive. He said with a sigh, "Life is fragile. Nothing can be considered as an entitlement."

Recently, I had few health problems. My blood liver enzymes were elevated. When I was at the church asking how well I was doing. I shared them with my concerns. I said, it is not at the point of life-and-death.

"This part (life or death) you don't have to worry about it. Only God can take your life away when the time comes." answered my church friend.

"Knowing how to let go" is a simple concept; yet, it is so hard to do that ourselves. I write this note so that we can all learn this philosophy together to be happy.

Cairo Communique, Potsdam Communique, San Francisco Treaty and Taipei Treaty

Self-determination to determine Taiwan's future is the right of 23 million Taiwanese; this right does not need other 'legal argument' to justify her legitimacy of self-determination. Nevertheless, an understanding of some relevant historical documents during and after the war is helpful in case that 'pro-unification' folks try to misinterpreted the document to legitimatize their claim of Chinese annexation of Taiwan.

The 'pro-unification' folks like to mention the Cairo Press Communique (開羅宣言) published on November 27, 1943 which stated 'returning Taiwan to Republic of China' . Later, the Allies published another press on July 26, 1945, called the Potsdam Communique 「波茨坦宣言」, stating that the essential points of the Cairo Press Communique must be carried through. A month later, Japan surrendered to the Allies saying that Japan accepted Potsdam Communique.

'Pro-unification' folks usually use both the Cairo Press Communique and the Potsdam Communique to legitimize Chinese claim on Taiwan. However, both Communiques are presses only, not legal treaties; they do not have binding power on the nations affected in the Communique.

The real treaty that affects Taiwan's fate is the San Francisco treaty signed on September 8, 1951 which stated that Japan to give up the sovereignty of Taiwan. The article did not mention which country should inherit Taiwan from Japan. San Francisco Treaty went to effect on April 28, 1952.

The Republic of China, however, enacted a separate Treaty of Taipei with Japan on April 28,1952 just hours before the Treaty of San Francisco went into effect, which acknowledged the terms of the San Francisco Treaty but added that all residents of Taiwan were nationals of the Republic of China. Treaty of Taipei went to effect on August 5, 1952 almost 3 months after the San Francisco Treaty went to effect.

Here is the point. Since both the Republic of China and Japan recognized the term of the San Fracisco Treaty, Japan no longer owned Taiwan when signing the treaty with ROC. If Japan did not owned Taiwan to begin with, how can she have the right to transfer the sovereignty of Taiwan? The legality of the Taipei Treaty to claim ROC sovereignty over Taiwan is invalid.

Overall, Taiwan's future must be determined by the 23 million of Taiwanese.

San Francisco Treaty in 1951 Declares that Future of Taiwan Is Determined by 23 Million Taiwanese

As Ma and his KMT party are blatantly accelerating the pace of their so-called "re-unification with China" agenda, it is essential to remind Taiwanese that their right of self-determination is guaranteed by the San Francisco treaty signed by 49 nations on September 8, 1951.

Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945. Yet, the peace treaty with the Allies and other colonized nations such as Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, etc was not signed until 1951. The most emphasized spirit in signing this peace treaty was that not only Japan has to give up the colonized lands before and during the war but all the Allies such as USA, England, Netherlands, and France have to give up Philippine, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam etc. This is the spirit of the United Nation which declares that only the residents of the colonized land can determine the future of the lands.

Neither People's Republic of China (PRC) nor Republic of China (ROC) was invited in the meeting of signing the San Francisco treaty. ROC has retreated to Taiwan, the former colony of Japan. PRC has started the Korean War and was named the aggressor of the time. Since self-determination is the spirit of the United Nation, no one wanted to see Taiwan becoming a colony again by another nation such as PRC.

The San Francisco Treaty said clearly that Japan to give up the sovereignty of Taiwan but did not say who would be the successor of the new colonizing nation. It says clearly that the future of Taiwan should be determined by the 23 million Taiwanese. Such spirit of self-determination is shared by people of other nations such as Philippine, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

A Joke: "It is too bad; such a pretty woman is a mute."

I heard this joke a few month ago from our church choir director, Ms. Chang. She told me a story when she was in the seminary school studying music.

One day, after a long-day of music class, she was hungry but dead-tired. She drove a car to a night market. She ordered the food, asked for the food price and paid the bill from an eatery shop, all in sign language.

Responding to Ms. Chang's sign language, the attendant of the eatery served the food, telling Ms. Chang the cost of the food and accepting the bill, also all in sign language.

After the meal, Ms. Chang went to the car, saying to herself.

"It is shameful. Such a pretty girl (the attendant) is a mute."

As soon as Ms. Chang was about to drive away, she heard a voice from the attendant.

"Wow, can a mute be allowed to drive a car ?"

A Joke, "Sometimes" or "Three Units Will Cost..."

This joke requires triple translations; first from Taiwanese spoken phrase to Taiwanese written phrase; second, from Taiwanese written phrase to Mandarin spoken phrase ; third, twist two characters such that these two characters have the same sounds but different meaning . The results are the original meaning has a completely different meaning from the final one.

Here we go. Taiwanese spoke phrase "San-Pu-Go-Shi" literally means "not 3 times nor 5 times". Its derived meaning is "sometimes". The written phrase is 三不五時. The first and the third characters, 三 and 五, meaning 3 and 5. The second character, 不, means 'no'. Put these first three characters together, they mean neither 3 nor 5. The last character, 時, means 'times'. The results, "San-Pu-Go-Shi" or 三不五時 means "not 3 times nor 5 times"., or 'sometimes.'

"San-Pu-Go-Shi"三不五時 when read with Mandarin pronunciation, they read as "San-Pu-Wu-Shu" .This joke requires twists on the second character and the third character with the same Mandarin pronunciations but different meanings. First, the character, Pu or 不, is changed to 部 which is also pronounced as 'Pu' but means 'units'. Second, the character, Shi or 時, is changed to 十 which is pronounced as Shu, which means 10. The result is "San-Pu-Wu-Shu", or 三部五十, or it says that "It costs $50 for 3 units. " Note, the character 五 (five) is read as "go" in Taiwanese, but is read as 'wu' in Mandarin.

How do we tell this joke ? You can tell this joke in the form of a riddle. Here is an example:

" If one bicycle costs $100, how much would it cost for 3 units?"

If someone answers "$300", you then say "got you. It costs "50", because it is "San-Pu-Wu-Shu", or 三部五十.

I learned this joke from one of the organizers of NCHU Organic Farm Field Trip on 5/24.