It pays to be assertive...

The following story was told by my church friend, Dr. Huang Jin-Teh about his trip in France with a Taiwanese tour group led by a Taiwanese Travel Agency manager.

One day, Dr. Huang and his wife were at a buffet place of a luxurious French restaurant in France. They could not find other trip companions from Taiwan. The manager of the restaurant directed them to a meeting room where he found his friends in the group jamming together in the (meeting) room. There were no serving plates; even the croissants were put on napkins (instead of plates). Next to the room was another meeting room in which anther tourist group from China jammed together receiving similar treatment from the restaurant managers. However, the Japanese tourists, American tourists, and other European customers were mingling in the big buffet place enjoying standard restaurant services.

"Why are we not eating in the buffet place but jamming together in this room?", ask Dr. Huang

"The European restaurant managers believe that the table manners of Chinese (including Taiwanese) are not compatible with other European customers; to be more specific, the Chinese are noisy in the table manners. Chinese customers are usually eating in the meeting rooms separating from customers of European and Japanese nationalities.", said the Taiwanese Travel Agency manager.

"This is not right." said Dr. Huang, " First of all, Taiwanese is not Chinese and our behavior had been quiet and our table manners have been civil ; second, our contract did not say we should eat in the meeting room not at the buffet place. "

"I don't think the restaurant manager will believe in your argument." said the Travel Agency manager.

"If you don't want to talk to the restaurant manager, I can give it a try." said Dr. Huang.

Our friend, Dr. Huang, did talk to the restaurant manager and finally the manager agreed to Dr. Huang's argument. He apologized to Dr. Huang and other Taiwanese tourists. The Taiwanese tourists eventually received the services they deserved.

Most of the tourist members were educators (school teachers, college professors). They should not be received the second-class-citizen-services from the restaurant at all.

Photo shows Chen's couple and Huang's couple at my residence.

Taiwanese eatery vocabulary includes an English word--Q

Taiwanese are creative in cookery and eatery. The inventions include rice pastes with special flavor and texture. A special kind of paste texture of elasticity and mouthfuls (similar to but better than chewing-gum texture) is called Q; there is a Taiwanese word but no Mandarin's equivalent. But if you say certain food is 'Q', every Taiwanese understands.

To best appreciate the word, you have to try the food yourself. Then you will understand what food is Q vs. not 'Q'.

On Taiwanese highways, occasionally you will see 'Q' on the advertisement boards.

What's for dinner at Dan-Suei 淡水? It is A-Gei's 阿給.

"What is for dinner?"
"It is A-Gei 阿給at Dan-Suei惔水."

You probably have no clue with the previous conversation; because you have not been at Dan-Suei. Even a Taiwanese like me who have grown up in Taiwan half of my life did not know about A-gei until I was at Dan-Suei with Meeilei two days ago. A-Gei is actually an abbriviation of Abura-Agei. It is a Japanese word. Abura means oil, and Agei means fried. The original Japanese words only mean oil-fried. But fried what? It is Taiwanese ingenuity that makes this Abura-Agei a special dedicacy at Dan-Suei. It is made of Tou-Fu only with the skin stay intact. The inside of Tou-Fu is digged out and filled with Tong-Fun (冬粉a kind of rice noodle) and sealed with a fish paste. The whole product is then deep fried in the oil. The end product is then called the A-Gei of Dan-Suei.

We made heavenly lantern 天灯 that can fly at Toucheng

Although this story is almost a week late, it actually worths my report here because I did not know about this when I was in the United States. What is exactly the so-called the heavenly lantern 天灯? It is actually a kind of hot air balloon except the balloon is made of paper. With special skills, you can make a sealed paper balloon with the bottom that can be lit up. When the balloon is lit, the density difference between the cold air outside and hot air inside causes the balloon to fly.

The Chen's party made a paper balloon, with the messages: 'I love Taiwan'; "My country is Taiwan' on the balloon. The balloon flew once it was lit. It was really amazing.

Kandelia Candel's habitats in Taiwan

Walking along the left bank of the Dan-Suei river 谈水诃few days ago (January 22, 2009), Meeilei and I actually learn some biology lesson from the nature. We had witnessed a woody plant habitat that can grow on the salty water swamp. The plant is called Kandelia Candel; its Taiwanese name is called Suei-Pi-A (水筆仔) because it looks like a 'pen' for Chinese landscape painting. The unusual part of the plant is that the mature seeds do not fall off in the first year even they have matured. The matured seed-plant grows using the mother plant's nutrient. On the second year, the seed-plant falls off and grows immediately once they find the earth on the ground.

Taipei county claims that Dan-Suei left bank's Kandelia's habitat is the most north habitat (in the world) of the plant. If the claim is true, then surely it worths your visit of the place and learn about the plant.

A tour of an old Taiwanese treasure by accident

Meeilei and I love to walk. We went to Dan-Suei淡水 (the mouth of Dan-Suei River, 淡水河) and took a boat ride to the left bank of Dan-Suei river. There, we took an hour hike to walk all the way to a place, called the 'Thirteen-line' 十三行 museum.

The name, 'Thirteen-Line' 十三行, is a strange name for the museum. Meeilei and I initially had no clue what was the museum about. Out of curiosity, we toured the museum. We had such a pleasant surprise after this tour. This museum is actually telling stories about our Taiwanese ancestors. The museum has kept the treasures of one of the tribes of the aborigines (possibly the Ping-Pu tribe 平埔族凱達格蘭人 who had bypassed the bronze age to move directly from the stone age to the iron age about 1800 years ago. The place was accidentally discovered by a pilot who found an unusual magnetic field in the area during one of his routine flying experiences in 1955. Later, scholars in National Taiwan University made extensive investigations of the area and confirmed the first case of Taiwanese ancestors who knew how to extract iron from the minerals.

In the end, Meeilei and I, not only had a good walk but had received great culture education at Dan-Suei 淡水.

If you hear bird sounds around a running stream, it may not be a bird at all...

The Chen's party at the Toucheng farm got up at 5:30 AM to meet with a tour guide from the Farm for 'witnessing' the sun rise at I-Lan on January 20. It was pouring rain; of course, we did not see the sun rise. However, we did learn biology lessons from the tour guide. We were at a stream and heard sounds like birds' singing sounds. The guide told us that the sound was not from birds (It was dark and raining. Birds do not sing on rainy and dark days.) The sound actually came from frogs called the Swinhoe's frogs. They inhabit around the creeks and streams of northern Taiwan. The Mandarin name for the frog is 斯文豪氏赤蛙.

I must thank a lady, Ms.Tsai for the story. Ms. Tsai was on the same train when Meeilei and I were coming back to Banciao from Sui-Hong (瑞芳). She teaches Natural Science at a junior high school at the Taou-Yeun(桃園) county. We had small conversation on the train. When I mentioned about the frog and was not quite sure to pronounce the frog's name, she repeated the name, 斯文豪氏, in Mandarin to us. I got the chance to google-up and did some research on this type of the frog. Attached photo is taken from the website: http://89sky.net/vbb/showthread.php?p=15525.

Baking sweet potato and chicken, the beggars' way by Kon-Yau (烘燎)

Once upon a time, there was a beggar who was hungry. He went to the village to beg. But the life was already very tough in the village. No one in the village gave the beggar food to eat. In order not to die because of hunger, he stole chicken and sweet potato from the farm. He hid the food in the hole far away from the sight of the village. He built a temporary pot (烘燎) using clay bricks, bamboo shoots, wood, and paper. He lit a fire in the pot and make sure the pot was very hot. He coated the chicken with clays, and put the chickens and sweet potato's into the hole, collapsed the pot, and covered the hole with hot clay bricks and dirt. After few hours, the beggar dig out the sweet potato and the chicken. The sweet potato had special flavor; the chicken, not only cooked with a special flavor, its skin was also removed from the hot clay coating. This special baking method was then invented.

Today, there are few luxurious cooking places which use this method to prepare food for their customers. At Toucheng farm, Meeilei, Jau-Fu and I also built the pot and lit the fire in the pot. We had good times.

If Ko-Laiu (菇竂) is on fire,...

Locating at the northeast corner of Taiwan, I-Lan 宜蘭 county is facing the pacific Ocean on the east and surrounded by mountains on the west. The Great Snow Mountain separates I-Lan 宜蘭 and Taipei counties. Ko-Liau mountain is a relatively smaller mountain in the south of I-Lan. Fishing is an important industry at I-Lan county; interestingly the fish net used at I-lan is also called Ko-Laiu (菇竂).

The folks at I-Lan often says, "If Ko-laiu 菇竂 is on fire, then hope is all lost." It does not mean the 菇竂 mountain on fire. The word 菇竂 here means 'fish-net' ; not the 菇竂 mountain. When the fish-net is on fire then hope is all lost because 'fish net' (魚網 ) has the same Taiwanese pronunciation as 'hope' (希望) and read as 'Hi-Bang'. This phrase appears even more appropriate for I-lan fisherman whose livelihood is dependent on the fishnet.

Little poem about life from Lan-Yang-A-San-Khu (蘭陽阿山哥)

My wife, Mr. Ou Jau-Fu (meeilei's brother) and I were at Toucheng Farm on January 19 and 20. We had good time. The guide at the farm , Mr. Chang or 蘭陽阿山哥, was very entertaining. I will record few entertaining stories so that those stories would not get lost.

Here is a little poem that was read by Mr Chang and I copied from his blog site: http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!lpXEEN.fHxlWyjg.6wQCFmZ1L8xp/article?mid=309&prev=331&next=300 The poem is about what do we do during our life. The poem is in Mandarin. English translation is followed after the Mandarin poem.

1歲登場亮相，5歲的有樣學樣,10歲的功課至上，
15歲青春超ㄅㄧㄤˋ,20歲的春心蕩漾,
25歲遠大理想，30歲的基本定像，40歲的處處吃香，
50歲的奮發圖強，60歲的告老返鄉，70歲的打打麻將，
80歲的曬曬太陽，90歲的躺在床上，100歲的掛在牆上.

At first-year old, you appear in the world. At 5-year old, you learn everything from whomever you can follow. At 10-year old, you set the school work as your first priority. At 15-year old, you are handsome and pretty. At 20-year old, you are romantic. You have a great goal of life at 25 years old. Your life is basically set at 30 years old. Your career sails at 40 years old and you you made the last dash at 50 years old. You retire at 60 years old and play Ma-Jang (a kind of gambling game) at 70 years old. You enjoy sun-bathing at 80 years old; but laying on the bed at 90 years old. At 100 years old, your picture will be hung on the wall.

How do Christians teach people?

About 12 years ago, my brother (David Ting-Kai Chen) was on a sabbatical leave in Taiwan. During the week day, he taught at Kaoshung University (south of Taiwan). On the weekends, he took train back to Chang-Hua to accompany my father. My father was in the early 90's. He walked; he also rode bicycle. My brother is a Christian; my dad is a Buddhist.

One day, my dad and my brother were side-by-side walking on a trail in the local school campus.

"How do you Christians teach people in daily life?" My dad asked my brother.

My brother was caught in a big surprise. After gathering some thought, my brother replied,

"Everything thankful; everything forgiving." my brother replied with a Bible phrase from St. Paul's letters to the Corinth church.

My dad died in 1999, at age of 94. Those words given by brother during that short conversation was in his will to teach his children.

If you want to know about me, know more stories about my brother.

I told my friends, and my students many times that the one person who had influenced me most is my older brother, Dr. David Ting-Kai Chen. My brother has many stories that I am going to share with my readers so that you can also learn more about me.

This is about a story how he survived pneumonia when he was an infant.

About five years ago, I went to his New York's house for Thanksgiving. He showed off an infant photo of him taken after he had survived a pneumonia attack.

Yes, he had a pneumonia attack when he was an infant. My brother is 10 years older than I. The time when he had the attack was the time during the World-War II and during that time, the medicine supply was very bad in Taiwan. The doctor told my parent that the infant's life may not be saved.

My mom asked my dad to run an errand to ask about my brother's fate from the fortune-teller living in the next village. My mom was very superstitious at the time. My dad obediently did and came back with a VERY GOOD news.

"Our son will live, the fortune-teller said." My dad said enthusiastically to my mom.

My parent rushed back to the doctor and begged the doctor to try "one more time".

My brother miraculously lived and survived the seemingly deadly pneumonia attack. The threesome immediately took the infant picture to celebrate saving the infant's live.

Later, my dad confessed that he never went to see the fortune-teller. He just made up the story so that my mom and he will have the FAITH again to save the child.

I shared this story with my students during our last gathering of English coffee social. It is the FAITH that gives us the courage to face difficulty in our life and to live every day with joyful celebration. Everyday of our life is a gift.

How do you divide NT $8,888?

I went to the choir practices of the Wu-Feng Presbyterian church last Saturday (January 10, 2009). The choir director, Ms. Chang, is a great story and joke teller. She told a joke that I chuckled violently that I decide to re-tell in English to share the joke with my American friends.

But, wait. You need to understand some basic Taiwanese culture first before you appreciate this joke. In Taiwan, the wife usually manages the money. The reason is that it is a wife or mother's job to cook, to shop, to make charity contributions, to pay for children's school tuition, to call and pay household repairing workers, etc. Thus even a husband is making a lot of money, the money goes directly to the wife's account. The husband will receive weekly allowance from the wife; not much different from the kids receive allowance from the parent except the amount a husband receives is substantially larger than that of a kid receives. The second Taiwanese culture you need to be aware of is that the number '4' sounds like 'death'; it is something to be avoided.

Here goes the story:

A couple was 'window shopping' a jewelry store. The wife admired very much a diamond ring displayed in the store. The ring costs NT $8,888, it is a lot of money for a working couple. Because it costs a lot, the wife is hesitating. The husband detected his wife's admiration and hesitation of buying the diamond ring.

" I will buy the diamond ring for you." said the husband.

"Wow, you are so sweet," the wife said, "but wait, where do you get the money?"

"I saved the money from the weekly allowance." said the husband.

" Dear, that is so sweet." said the wife, " Why don't we divide this amount in half ?"

" Yes, that can be done." said the husband, "but since NT $4,444 is a bad number for both of us, why don't you take the first two 88 and I take the last two 88 for sharing the cost of NT $8,888?"

Respecting a beggar's dignity

My friend, Dr. Huang Jin-Teh (黄金徳) over the Jau-Yang (朝陽) University sent me a power-point file telling a story in Mandarin about the moral responsibility of respecting a beggar's dignity I was so moved with the story that I decide to re-tell the story in English so that my American friends can also enjoy the story.

Over a busy district of Kyoto, there was once a fine eatery place which usually was a gathering place for the well-to-do Kyoto citizens. One day, a beggar appeared at the door step of the eatery. He was immediately stared by other customers in the eatery. Many customers turned away because the beggar smelled. Some of them were even uncounciously self-guarded because the beggar might begin to ask for money.

"Don't be worry", said the beggar. "Today, I am here to buy not to beg."

"I have heard the good reputation of this eatery", the beggar continued, "I therefore save every penny gathering enough money to buy the fine food in this eatery."

The owner went out to greet this "beggar customer" with a big bow. The owner served this beggar with the food the beggar ordered while his employees served other well-to-do customers.

When the beggar finished eating, he gave the owner the money; and the owner accepted with a thank you, a-li-ga-to.

"Why did the beggar received with such 'red-carpet' treatment from you?" the owner was asked by his son.

" Of course, we treat every customer with respect." the owner said, "It is easy for other well-to-do customers to buy food here and enjoyed the meal. For the beggar, it is a different story. He needs to save every penny to buy the food here. It means that our food quality is so good that it worth his efforts to save the money and to buy the food here. The beggar is really a treasured customer. He deserves a special treatment from me."

"Then why did you accept his payment? Why didn't you give him the food free?" asked the owner's son.

"He came here to buy not to beg. That is his dignity. If I did not receive his payment, I showed my disrespect to his dignity. That is exactly something I want to avoid."

The owner's son later became one of the most successful business man in Japan because he always remembered this story about how his father was respecting other people, including a beggar's dignity.

Snow Storm and Freezing Rain in Wisconsin

While I am enjoying a very mild winter (or relatively warm winter) in Taiwan, Wisconsin has a record-high snow fall and a freezing rain two days ago. Here is my wife's story about the freezing rain and snow fall in Wisconsin.

Meeilei's story

last night (1/4/09) we had freezing rain and my driveway is a sheet of ice. you can ice skating on! I didn't go to church today. I have not seen anyone drive on my street whole morning till around 11:00 am. The city just salted the street in front of my house. I am debating if I am going to my recorder practice this afternoon! Actually we don't often have freezing rain. we do have snow though. the snow pile at end of my driveway is taller than me now. My neighbor has been helping me a lot blowing snow for me. I have a snow blower but when it is heavy snow my little blower won't help much especially for the pile that the snow plow brings along!

Here is a something "fun" or whatever you want to call it. couple weeks ago, we had about 4" of snow Saturday night. I had to go to church at 8:00 to rehearse bells. we had to play bells for both services so I got up at 6:30 and blow myself out of the driveway and didn't bother with the sidewalk. when I came back, my neighbor has blowed my driveway for me but since the snow plow came after that so there was a pile of snow at end of drive way instead of blow it again I began to shovel. Right after I finished shovel that small pile, the plow came again and dump another foot of snow on the driveway. I looked at it and looked at it and was going to blow it but the snow that come from the plow are usually pretty heavy and my snow blower doesn't work well so I decided to at least shovel it first then maybe blow it afterward. Well, I have not even get half of it, another plow came from different the cross street turned at my corner and came with a pile of snow TALLER THAN ME! Holding the shovel on my hand, I was standing there looking at the guy on the plow (about 10 feet above the ground on his plow!), STUNNED! the guy looked down at me and STOPPED. He backed off, pulled the blade on the right side (the one pushed the snow towards the side of the road which will be ended on my driveway) and turned the left-side one straight and pushed the snow forward. I waved at him and shouted "THANK YOU!". if he pushed that pile towards my driveway I will be there whole day just to get myself out of my driveway.

That's Wisconsin. I know, I know, all those West coast guys are going to say, 'Move here!' well, I just might leave Frank here while he can enjoy his teaching and I can enjoy the sunny California :)

Ma Ying-Jiou (馬英九) is building his dynasty persona

When I was in Taiwan 38 years ago, I remember I saw statues, money bills, coins and stamps built with both Chaing Kai-Sheik or his son Chiang Jin-Kuo's images everywhere. No one in Taiwan would ever believe that anyone without the last name of 'Chiang' could become a President of ROC. Then Taiwan miraculously moved into democracy when Lee Tung-Huei succeeded Chaing Jun-Kuo to become the first Taiwanese president. After Lee, another Taiwanese, Mr. Chen Suei-Pein, succeeded him as the president. Neither Lee nor Chen had ever attempted to build their persona in statue, stamps, or money bills.

Ma Ying-Jiou succeeded Chen about 7 months ago. Even Taiwanese economy has hit the bottom and Taiwanese international statue has retreated to become a 'regional' representation, Ma is not slow to build his dynasty persona. The photo shows the stamps with Ma and Hsiau's images issued in Taiwan in 2008. One can clearly see the difference between a government for Taiwanese or a government representing the Chinese colonialism.

We picked grapes and enjoyed watching over plum blossming at Hsing-I Village

I participated in a field trip sponsored by our Wu-Fong Presbyterian church to visit a grape farm at "A-Pwiu-Sky Farm (阿肥天空農場)" of Feng-Chiu (豐丘) and a plum garden at Gu-Tiau-Ken (牛秱坑). Both Feng-Chiu and Gu-Tiau-Ken are in the Hsing-I Village (信義鄉) of Nan-Tou County (南坄縣). (Map is attached.)

At the Sky Farm, I appreciate Taiwanese Farmer's ingenuity. The grape grows over a slope that are constructed for grape vines to grow and receive plenty of sunshine. Shining ribbons are tied here and there to scare-off the birds (better tactics than fake owls as often used in the United States). Empty plastic bottles were used to put insect-hormone and insecticide to attract and kill the insects without overspreading insecticide over the grape vines and fruits. We ate sample grapes given to us by the host. It was delicious. I also bought 4 bottles of grape-wine. It tastes so good. I am wondering if there will be still any wine left-over by the time my wife come to visit me in late January of 2009.

The plum garden was quite a site. It is neatly maintained with a size of approximately half of the golf course of Princeton University. The owner of the garden is so generous that he allows all visitors without admission fee. Some of the plum is at least 100 year old. We saw quite a few professional photographers taking pictures of plum flowers. Mr. Huan Jin-Teh told me that for plum, the leaves grow after the plum blossom ends. It is interesting to know that such a sequence is quite different from other flower trees.

Photos show Mr. Huang Jin-Teh, A-Sui buying grape wines, Frank Chen next to a plum tree and the map of Hsing-I village.

I shared thought to my students on the New Year's Eve

On the New Year's Eve of 2008 (December 31, 2008), 10 students gathered at my residence to reflect and to share the inspirational thoughts for 2009.

The inspirational thought I shared with my students are two words: courage and honesty. I further shared a hymn note, "God does not promise" (The text in Mandarin is attached.) with my students.

The hymn notes say: God does not promise that sky will always blue and life will be all smooth. However, God does promise that we shall live a respectable life and will have nothing to hide. God also promises that when life challenge comes, we shall have the strength to endure it.

I told students that I was not there to preach the Christianity (None of my students in the party is a Christian.). But I told students that with these two characters of courage and honesty, we will live a respectable life and will have a strength to endure any challenge in the life. I also stressed that courage and honest do not necessarily guarantee our life to be smooth all the way. I was short to say that the current Ma's government is cowardly, dishonest, and put every Taiwanese with conscious into shame.

Photos show copy of the hymn note, and students gathering at my place for the New Year Eve's party.