Breathing Exercise helped me to sit during the 2-28-Rally in Taipei

On the 62th anniversary of the 2-28-incidence of Taiwan, the Taiwanese Professor Association 台教会 staged a 1000-people sit-in demonstration-and-ceremony at the Freedom Square 自由廣埸 in front of the Taiwanese Democratic Freedom Memorial Hall 台湾民主紀念館. These 1000-people fit into a word pattern, "勿忘 228" (Literally translates as Do not forget 2-28.) (See the attached photo). I sat on the slot, #506 with a red Taiwanese straw-hat 斗笠. I sat there for 2 hours--so were the other 999 persons on the square.

It was not easy for anyone to sit there for two hours. (If you don't believe me, try it yourself at home.) Fortunately, the organizers had thought about that problem and had this problem solved by hiring one meditation teacher to teach us how to breath and how to focus so that we can endure the body pain.

Amazingly, I almost did it. I sat there for 1 and 1/2 hour then changed the sitting posture to a kneeling posture for the rest of the time. So, did with most of the other 999 people on the square.

What had motivated us to stage such a rally? There are several reasons: First, the justice for the 2-28 killing and massacring had not been done. The war criminals of this killing such as Chiang Kai-Sheik 蔣介石, Peng Mun-Chi 彭孟剘 are still worshiped like heroes under Ma's administration. Ma even schedules to change the name of Taiwan Democratic Freedom Memorial Hall into Chiang Kai-Sheik Memorial Hall 中正紀念堂. What's an insult to the family members of the 2-28 victims. Second, Taiwan is under the threat of being annexed by China. With the current Ma's pro-China policy, the threat is very REAL. We all feel that if one day Taiwan is annexed by China, there will be incidences more severe than the 2-28 incidence happened 62 years ago.

If you love Taiwan, don't feel the same way?

She gave me joy--but, I cannot remember her name

The Wu-Feng Presbyterian Church 霧峯長老教会 is asking me to give a Faith Witness. I am planning to give several stories instead. If my congregation members believe those are good witness, then they are. Otherwise, they will be just part of my stories.

The first story I want to share is about a girl, my childhood friend. She had given me joy. But, I cannot remember her name. I will call her Miss Wu.

She and I grew up together in the same neighborhood of Chang-Hua, the most impoverished neighborhood of the city. The neighborhood did not have sewer systems; nor garbage pick-up. No asphalt road, only the dirt roads. There were 30-40 families clustering together; ignored, neglected or forgotten by the rest of the Chang-Hua city. Every family was struggling from one meal to the next meal. Yes, I had experienced those hard days in my early childhood life. So did she.

Summer days were hot and long. Because none of the family could afford the electric fans, we usually left our door open to catch some breeze. Once the doors were open, we all knew each other very well; especially our religion. In the folk religion, each family would put ancestors and other gods' images on the altar in the first room of the house. For a very long time, Miss. Wu's family was just like any other families, they also had ancestor and Buddha's images.

Then one day, those images and the altar were all gone from Miss Wu's family. Ms. Wu's family became a Christian family. That did not catch much of my attention until I noticed that she was helping her parent distributing flour, bread and butter to our neighborhood. What's a God-sent gift to all of us in the neighborhood for the bread and butter. They are the calories everybody needed. Apparently, her church had worked with American churches to distribute food reliefs to the needed Taiwanese families. That was the first experience we had with the charity and generosity of American churches and American people. Everyone in the neighborhood was deeply appreciated. During that time, she had also asked me to help her and her parent. I did , and I was very happy to do that. From time to time, she also invited me to attend children sessions of her church service. I did; I was specially motivated because the minister of the church would give us beautiful cards to keep if we could recite bible phrases in the sessions. I have gotten many cards and I had kept those cards for a long time. Those are the joyful times I had with my childhood.

Then suddenly there was an epidemic swept through Taiwan like a hurricane. It was the Diphtheria 白帿 epidemic which stroke very hard on the children under 15 years old especially in the neighborhood that had no money to afford the basic medical care. Schools and churches were closed for a while and I did not see her since then.

One night, I had seen a group of people gathering together at her house singing hymes. Other than that, I did not notice anything unusual.

The epidemic was over after three-week school and church recess. After that epidemic, she was not seen in the school; nor in the church. She was gone. The Diphtheria has taken her life away. That happened approximately 50 years ago.

She had given me joy in my childhood; but I cannot remember her name. I will call her, Miss Wu.

Three bowls of squid-rice soups魷魚粥--A story to commemorate the 2-28 incidence of Taiwan

The following story was told by Lee Ron-Chung (李榮昌) and was published in the Taiwan Church News 台湾教会公報, vol 2973 , entitled 'commemorating 62 anniversary of 2-28 incidence in Taiwan'. Lee Ron-Chung is 77 years old today. At the day of the 2-28 incidence, he was only 15 years old. He witnessed the day when his dad Lee Zuei-Han (李瑞漢), his uncle Lee Zuei-Fon (李瑞峰), and his dad's friends Lin Lien-Chung (林連宗) were taken away by the soldiers and never returned.

Lee Zuei-Han (李瑞漢), (a Taiwanese lawyer who graduated from Japan Central University日本中央大学 during Japanese occupation of Taiwan) was the chair of Taipei Lawyer Association 台北律師公会 . Lin Lien-Zon(林連宗) was a Taiwanese representative in the constitution reform committee. Lin Lien-Zon (林連宗) was also a classmate of Lee Zuei-Han (李瑞漢) in Japan Central University. Lee Zuei-Fon(李瑞峰) was a younger brother of Lee Zuei-Han(李瑞漢); he was also a lawyer. All three of them were Taiwanese intellectual elites at the time because in those days, not many Taiwanese went to universities, let alone becoming lawyers. The 2-28 incidence happened 63 years ago. In that incidence, thousands of Taiwanese were brutally killed or massacred under the order of Chiang Kai-Sheik representing Chinese colonialism and oppression in Taiwan.

Here is Lee's story:

In the afternoon of March 10, 1947 my uncle and my dad's friend, Mr. Lin were at my house. Mr. Lin lived in Taichung. The government imposed a curfew on March 10; Lin was not able to go home from Taipei. He stayed at my place; dad and Lin were very good friends when they were classmates back in Japan before the end of World-War II. The day before Lin was my house, my neighbor gave us some squid 魷魚; it was a precious treat at the time of material scarcity. My mom cooked squid-rice soup for the guest and for my uncle. My dad was just in a wonderful time having conversation with Lin and his brother when suddenly the wife of our village chief 隣長 took one officer together with four other plain-cloth 'investigators" to our house. After identifying names and persons together with the help of the wife of the village chief 隣長, the officer spoke to my dad, uncle and Lin.

"Our superior, Chen Yi 陳儀 (then the Commander of KMT in Taiwan), would like to speak all three of you" said the officer in Mandarin.

My dad, my uncle, and Mr. Lin were then taken away with the officer's military jeep. They even did not finish their squid-rice soup.

They never returned.

On March 12, there was a list of so-called "criminals" from the authority; there were also words from the authority saying that these "criminals" have to be properly punished (that meant execution in KMT language); my dad, my uncle, and Mr Lin were in the list. After that my mom was trying to identify any body she could find on the street (There were many bodies on the street at the time.) but could not find any of them.

Year-after-year, there was no news, no body, and no closure; only the grief.

How did my mom cope with that kind of stress? She taught us to have a faith in God, to always remember our dad. Every year on the anniversary of dad's being taken away, she cooks squid-rice soups for us, read Bible Psalm #23 詩篇卄三章 symbolizing the return of my dad.

My mom passed away on January 7, 2008. She did not see my dad since March 10, 1947.

A Belgium-native catholic priest has a nickname of Tu-Ti-Kon ( 土地公)or earth god) at Yun-Lin County雲林縣

On February 3, I had written a story about Tu-Ti-Kon 土地公, or the earth god which is the most favored god in Taiwan even he ranked the lowest among all gods. A person can even have a nickname of Tu-Ti-Kon 土地公 if he is well-respected and well-loved by the citizens or fellow friends. At Yun-Lin County, 雲林縣, Rev. Georges Massin 松喬神父 was called Tu-Ti-Kon 土地公 of the Yun-Lin County, 雲林縣; and the hospital he led, Joselph Hospital, 若瑟医院, has the nickname of Tu-Ti-Kon-Temple 土地公廟. Please note, Rev Georges Massin is not a Taiwanese; the hospital is a Catholic-sponsored hospital. However, it doesn't matter because Taiwanese thanks Rev Massin from their hearts due to extensive devotion of Rev. Massin to the health care of the citizens at Yun-Lin-County 雲林縣.

Joselph hospital was set up in 1955 and was led by a Belgium catholics, Rev. Georges Massin. Rev. Massin came to Taiwan, December 3, 1955. He passed away and died in Taiwan, October 2, 2007. Like Dr. MacKay, he is loved and remembered by all Taiwanese.

Dr. Chen is hand-striking mosquitos (打蚁子) these days

Hello readers:

You may be wondering what else Dr. Chen is doing these days besides doing a high-level scholarly research in Taiwan? To be honest, I spent some time hand-striking mosquito 打蚁子 in my residence these days.

This is only late February and the temperatures in Taiwan are in the 80' and 90's. That is fine except the mosquito also find this temperature comfotable and find my kitchen and bathroom good places to sing and dance. They are small little black mosquito; if they don't bother me, they are kind of cute.

Do you suggest anything that I can do so that my kitchen and bathroom becomes less welcome to those mosquito?

Peggy announced an "Event Service Company" in New York City

You may be puzzled by the title of this post. Who is Peggy anyway?

Well, personally, she is my daughter-in-law. Professionally, she is one of the best organizers I have ever seen; at least, she is better than I. I consider myself a very organize person. If you suddenly drop-by my residence at Taichung, you will find everything from cooking to laundry IS ORGANIZED.

Peggy is married to Leo, my son who is a very good artist. When Leo was a young boy, I often complained about him watching too much DVD. Well, he graduated as a film major from New York University. He is now a free-lance film maker at New York city. I did watch several of his work. I can only say that they are very good. The couple will do a very good job if you have friends planning a wedding.

Peggy sent an e-mail to Meeilei who is my wife. Meeilei forwarded to me. I took the liberty to post here. If you have any friends planning to get married, do not forget to check the following note out.

Here is from Peggy:

Greetings! We hope you and your loved ones are doing well in this new year. We would like to enlist your help in spreading the word of our recent venture, CKY Occasions (https://webmailb.uwgb.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=0b1db0df1a4b4ca686bd3d1c61783dc7&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ckyoccasions.com%2f). CKY Occasions is a full service event planning company that specializes in unique weddings, elegant events and corporate functions.
CKY Occasions is based in NYC and the team has, collectively, experience in planning over 100 weddings and events. With backgrounds in event planning, management, hospitality, finance and the arts, every aspect will be taken care of with precise detail and care.
If you have any friends that are recently engaged or planning a wedding, please forward our information along. If your company is interested in throwing a corporate event, please do not hesitate to contact any one of us at our emails below.
To find out more about us, please visit https://webmailb.uwgb.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=0b1db0df1a4b4ca686bd3d1c61783dc7&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ckyoccasions.com%2f.
We hope this email finds you well, and we thank you in advance for your support.

Foot and mouth epidemic outbreaks in Taiwan

Taiwanese was alerted and panic with the news about the outbreak of the mouth-and-foot disease epidemic 口啼疫 in the hog farms of Chang-Hua 彰化 and Yun-Lin 雲林 counties on February 18. In 1997 when the epidemic ran rampant in Taiwan, Taiwanese had slaughtered approximately 3.8 million hogs and literally shut down a profitable hog-meat export business. This time, the authority said that they had slaughtered 677 hogs and had "contained" the disease.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (Aphtae epizooticae) is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral disease for animals like hogs, cattle, water buffalo, sheep and goats.. It is caused by virus. On rare but definite conditions, the virus can transmit to human through contacts. It has been recorded that the disease had killed two children in England in 1884.

Shall Taiwanese relax because the authority had claimed the situation is "under-control"? We just have wait and see. Both mouth-and-foot disease and bird flue virus disease are originated from China. Taiwanese has many good reasons to be alerted because of increased contacts between Taiwanese and Chinese under the new administration policy.

Meeilei said that "Good tea requires good tea-pot"

Meeilei wrote the following story which you can appreciate about the art of tea-tasting in the Eastern Asia, especially in Taiwan and Japan. I also need to say that Taiwan produces tea; tea made in Taiwan is the best. I will write more stories about Taiwanese tea in the future.

Here is Meeilei's story about the art of tea-tasting:

When I was back in Taiwan, Ou5 (Jau-Fu at Banciao, Taipei) and I shopped couple of places for tea pots. I was not a serious tea drinker in the past and was not really serious about getting a 'real' tea pot to make a good pot of tea. I thought tea is tea. Quality tea leaves will make good tea. I do have some good tea ; but not those really expensive ones. I would say that they are just the mid-grade. Anyway, in the past, I used coffee pot to make tea at home and I have a $3 tea pot to make tea at work and I was pretty happy with them.

Well, in this trip to Taiwan, I kind of want to get a 'good' tea pot. At least something 'looks like real tea pot' anyway. That's why my brother and I went shopping for tea pot. You can ask Ou5 about this, I bought things here and there at the spur of moment, nothing of major. The only thing I put my mind to was to get tea pot! So, anyway, we went to the 'Flower City' on a weekend and we looked while we were in Shi-Tou when PQ and her boy friend took us there. We also looked around at BanChaiu too. We ended up finding something we both liked (Yes, Ou5 ended up buying one too because he liked it) in BanChiau.

When we were buying the tea pot, the salesperson did mention that tea pot (not just tea leaves alone) will make tea tasting different. At that time, I didn't believe him. I thought, "Well you are the sale man. Of course you would said so. But, when I came back to the U.S. and I made a pot of tea with the same tea leaves I always have and 'wow, it does taste different! and it is BETTER' .

I advise all of you to get a nice tea pot and try it out yourself.

Photo shows some of the tea-pots you can consider to upgrade your art of tea-tasting.

A Whole Baffalo Cart's Dowry, 嫁娤一牛車

This story is about three-week late. Two days ago, Meeilei sent me these two photos we took at Tou-Cheng Farm on January 20. Those water buffalo and the story behind them are so cute that I decide to write a story about these three water buffalo.

The lower photo shows three water buffalo: a baby Buffalo at the far right, dad-buffalo in the middle and mom-buffalo on the left. Mom-buffalo gave birth the baby buffalo in August of 2008 without a proper 'wedding ceremony'. There was no doubt who is the dad-buffalo because there were only two water buffalo in the farm last year (2008). The owners of the Farm decided to throw a wedding party for the couple and the baby. They also prepared a 'wedding ceremony' on January 20, 2009 for two water buffalo so that their baby has a proper home.

The upper photo shows both the baby baffalo and the dowry the owner had prepared for the bride-buffalo. In the old Taiwanese agricultural society, the groom family usually asks for dowry from the bride family. How much of the dowry was prepared? A whole buffalo cart !! 嫁娤一牛車. This would be a proper answer from the bride family.

Dr. MacKay vowed to live or die with the people of Tamsui during French Blockade in 1884

About a week ago, I had written a story describing Taiwanese war with the French in 1884. Failing to succeed in the battle field at Tamsui on October 8 of 1884, French blockaded the island for 6 months. During the blockade period, French did allow English war ships to transport foreigners of European, American and Canadian origins out of the island. Dr. MacKay of Canada, a Presbyterian minister in Taiwan at a time refused to board the warship. He said, "My precious belongings are the Taiwanese on this island." Dr. MacKay vowed to live and die with fellow Taiwanese during the French blockade on Taiwan in 1884.

Who is Dr. MacKay? Every Taiwanese knows him as 馬偕医師, and thanks him for his ministry, and his medical and educational services in Taiwan. Many Taiwanese believe that Dr. Mackay loves Taiwan more than many Taiwanese born and raised on the islands.

Dr. MacKay was born and raised in Canada. He graduated from Princeton seminary in 1870. My Presbyterian friends in Appleton, Wisconsin can relate this part of the story. Pastor Chuck's daughter also went to Princeton seminary few years ago. (Pastor Chuck is the pastor at Memorial Presbyterian Church (my church) in Appleton, WI.). I also went to Princeton University 1971-1977. Princeton Seminary is a 5-minute walk from the place I used to live (called Princeton Graduate College, which is actually a place for graduate students to live) in Princeton.

Dr. MacKay set up a hospital at Tamsui in 1880, and a woman Oxford college in 1884. In that women college, he offered free tuition and living expenses for women students in his school. Dr. MacKay even had his Taiwanese name as 偕叡理, or Kay-Jun-Li. Last year, Taiwanese had made an opera play with a title of Dr. MacKay to commemorate his life and devotion in Taiwan. The hospital was the first Taiwanese modern hospital that helped Taiwan become one of the nations in the world with the reputation of medical excellence. The woman college was also the first in Taiwan. Today, men and women are treated the same to receive education; not at the time when Dr. MacKay set up the women college. In earlier days, parents did not send girls to school. The Oxoford Women college had provided many social functions in achieving gender equality in Taiwanese history.

Dr. MacKay, we thank you.

Photo shows the statue of Dr. MacKay at Tamsui.

Begging is ok on supreme god's天公 birthday, or January 9 正月初九 of the Lunar Calendar

Begging is a part of religious practices in Buddhism. It is called Fa-Yeng 化緣 in Buddhisms language, or transcending in English language(Not quite a good translation yet. Readers, if you are good both in Buddhism and in English, please help.). It is transcending for both the giver and the beggar. The givers are transcended because they get joy out of giving (Christians also say the same thing: To give is to get joy.) The beggar is also transcended because he helps the giver to get transcended. Buddhists' monks are required to beg to help other persons to transcend or to Fa-Yeng 化緣.

But Buddhism is only a small part of Taiwanese folk religion and begging is not usually a way of life of any dignified Taiwanese. However, on the birthday of the supreme god 天公 on Lunar Calendar January 9th 正月初九(It is actually February 3 in the international Calendar.), some Taiwanese do beg at the supreme god's 天公 temples and it is ok. The givers are usually the believers who are offering at the temple celebrating the god's 天公 birthday. Both the beggars and the givers believe that they are transcending each other on this special day. Because the economic hardship this year, there are more people to beg this year than those in previous years.

The photo shows the Kaoushung 高雄 citizens lined up to beg on Feb 3 at the supreme god's temple, 高雄玉皇宮. Photo is taken from http://www.ftv.com.tw/.

Taiwanese borrows money from god for 'good luck'

Liberty-Times (a daily Newspaper in Taiwan) on Feb 9, 2009 ran a headline " 景氣差 神明銀行人氣旺". It translates: In time of economic recession, citizens are borrowing money from 'god's bank' for good luck.

This headline caught my attention. What is exactly 神明銀行, or 'god's bank' anyway? I therefore got into some research to find out what is 'god's bank' about.

The story went back to 1988 when there was a Taiwanese called A-Wen 阿文 who went to Taipei from Nan-Tou for business. For good luck, he borrowed NT $2,000 from the "puple-south-temple"紫南宮 of Nan-Tou. Of course, the god in the "purple-south-temple" is Tu-Ti-Kon 土地公, Taiwanese favor god which I have run a story about it few days ago. A-Wen 阿文 made a fortune out of that good-luck money of NT $2,000. Tu-Ti-Kon 土地公 of the "purple-and-south temple" was really a blessing god. The news went out fast. Other Nan-Tou citizens began to borrow the so-called 'good luck' money from the temple every year. Other temples also followed the practice. Thus, we have the so-called the god's bank, or 神明銀行.

Today, the good luck money is NT $600 (~ US $20) for a person for one year. There is no formal contract; only a written note. The temple has no enforcing power to make sure the borrower will return money after one year. Would the money run away because the borrower 'forgot' to return? Maybe. However, every year the temple receives more money at the end of the lending year. For example, in 2008, NT $250 million was lent out, NT $300 million was returned; obviously with NT $5 million was paid as interest. So, Taiwanese may cheat on each other; they will not cheat on their gods.

So exactly how many citizens are borrowing the 'good luck' money this year? An initial estimate is 450,000 people, an increase of 70,000 people from last year. Photo was taken from the Liberty Times showing good crowd of citizens borrowing the 'good luck' money from the temple.

Taiwanese rebuilt Sun-Link-Sea 杉林溪 after 921 earth quake

Sun-Linked-Sea 杉林溪 literally translates as "a stream running in cedar forests" in Mandarin. The place is located at Nan-Tou county and is a canyon itself. The canyon is nothing grandeur as the Grand Canyon of Arizona which every American will show-off to their foreign friends. Yet, Sun-Linked-Sea 杉林溪 is out of tourists' beating paths. You will have a great vacation at this remote site of Taiwan.

Meeilei and I received a royal-like reception during our vacation of Sun-Link-Sea 杉林溪 on February 2, 2009. We stayed overnight at a very comfortable hotel (the only hotel in Sun-Linked-Sea) and enjoyed one 5-course dinner and one great Taiwanese country breakfast. How much does the hotel and meals cost? It was NT $1000, or approximately US $32/person.

Hard to imagine, this place was a dirt after Taiwan had a century great earth quake in 1999, or the 9-21-Earth Quake (as it is often called because the earthquake occurred on September 21, 1999.) whose quake intensity measured at 7.5 levels. Witness accounts that building collapsed on one another; for example, a second floor of a building collapsed and sat on top of the next building's first floor. In that quake, Taiwanese lost about 2450 lives. Yet, shear resiliency of Taiwanese rebuilt Sun-Linked-Sea 杉林溪 and other places. Indeed, the rebuilding efforts have earned great international respect. I remember at one occasion, Pastor Chuck of Memorial Presbyterian Church of Appleton has openly praise Taiwanese for their rebuilding efforts in one of his sermons.

Photo shows our great moment at Sun-Linked-Sea and the neighborhood of Sun-Linked Sea immediately after the earthquake (the third photo).

Taiwanese has fought French in 1884 and it is called The French War Turmoil, or 西仔反

The day before Meeilei went back to U.S. or February 5, 2009, she went shopping in Taipei but I visited The Red Hair Castle 紅毛城 of Tamsui 谈水. The castle was built by the Dutch who had one time occupied Taiwan. Taiwanese called Dutch, The Red Hair people because Dutch is hairy (red hairs) in Taiwanese eyes.

The time I was at the castle, the museum had an exhibit of Taiwanese-French War in 1884, 11 year earlier than the Taiwanese-Japanese war in 1895. I was amazed and shocked, because I did not know about this war until the day I visited the castle museum.

The war was provoked by the French spread from Vietnam to Taiwan. By getting control of Keelung 蜝隆 and Tamsui, the French troops thought their indemnity would be guaranteed. The battle of Tamsui occurred on October 2 of 1884. The Taiwanese defeated the invaders. Later in 1895, the Hakkas used the same strategy to fight againt the Japanese invaders. The startegy was to bait the invaders to get deep into the bamboo forests where neither guns nor cannons of the enemy absolutely had any use. The Taiwanese then used swords and other Kung-Fu skills to defeat the enemy.

Failing to succeed in battle, the French changed the strategy by blockading the island. The blockage continued for 6 months forcing the Ching 请 government to talk on the negotiation table. Taiwanese refers this part of the history, The French War Turmoil: in Taiwanese it is called Sei-A-Fan 西仔反. The character Sei 西 is an abbreviation of Fran-Sei, 法蘭西. Fan, or 反 means rebellion or turmoil.

The Taiwanese even had a song to celebrate the victory of the battle. The song read as:

The French attacked Tamsui, our town. 西仔攻咱淡水城
But our people stood firm and unafraid. 台湾百姓攏毋驚
Swords drawn and artillery fired, 刀槍火炮佮伊拼
We won! We won! 嘿嘿, 咀贏

How come I did not know this part of the history until the day of museum visit? I think it is much due to Chinese colonialism education system in Taiwanese schools. In school, we leaned very much about Chinese geography and Chinese court history, but very little in Taiwanese geography and history.

Meeilei said that she is "A woman fool who moves the water" 愚婆移水;

After 3-weeks of vacation in Taiwan, Meeilei went back safely to U.S. Today, when we had a Skype-phone conversation, she told me a funny story. She described herself as an old and foolish woman who moves the water, or 愚婆移水.

However, you need to understand a bit of relative Chinese legendary story, 'An old and foolish man who moves the mountain' or 愚公移山 before you appreciate her story. The "old and foolish man who moves the mountain" or 愚公移山 story teaches children the virtue of persistence; because an old man can eventually move a mountain by shear persistence in removing the dirt of the mountain, one bit at a time. So this old man is not a fool at all; he is wise and persistent.

Every Taiwanese learned this story when he or she was a school child. Nevertheless, to move a mountain by shoveling dirt one bit at a time, it takes A LOT of energy and time. Today, Taiwanese refers this term as a laborious and tedious work in a funny way.

Three weeks in Taiwan, Meeilei enjoyed very good weather in Taiwan while the Midwest of the US was suffering sub-zero cold weather. The next day when she arrived in US, Appleton suddenly had an Indian summer of 40 F. The ice melts at 32 F; so our drive-way is flooded with water. She watches neighbors connecting water channels to direct melting water into the underground sewage water system. But first, she must find the opening hole of the sewage channel; those holes were covered by thick ice. It took her a while yesterday to find the hole and almost an hour to finally dig out the sewage drain. 'that was cool' she said, BUT, although the drain was open, the water was not going to go down from the driveway to the drain automatically. First of all, the driveway is the lowest point of the street and the water doesn't go upwards. Secondly, we live in a corner house and the drain is on the other corner of the house. She needs to open a channel to direct the water to the drain. So, it took her another hour to chip the ice to open up a water channel. Okay, here comes the most amazing part. Since our driveway is the lowest point of the street, when she push the water towards the drain the water would run back down towards the house again so she has to run faster than the water to get them towards the drain. even that she still only get about half of the water she pushed towards the drain each time. that's when she really feels like 'fool-woman who moves water!!!or 愚婆移水.

When a neighbor passed by, Meeilei had asked the neighbor to take a photo pictures doing the laborious work battling the ice and water. The neighbor replied,

"Probably it is not a good idea for Frank to see this 'laborious picture', because Frank would never come back", said John, the neighbor.

Meeilei's story was pretty funny. If you don't feel funny in reading this story, you probably want to ask her to re-tell her story in her own words.

If you are lost on Taiwanese street, do not follow Tu-Ti-Kon's temples 土地公廟

This story is a few weeks old; but it is better reported than left forgotten. Meeilei and I were hiking on trails of Wu-Fong 霧峯 mountain and on Wu-Fong city streets with my church friend, Dr. Huang Jin-Teh. At some place, I was arguing with Dr. Huang about the direction. It turned out I was wrong with the direction because I had used a Tu-Ti-Kon temple 土地公廟 as a landmark; and in Taiwan, you never use any Tu-Ti-Kon temple 土地公廟 as a landmark because those temples are like 'Main Street' in the United States. They are everywhere.

I believe I have reported that Buddhist temples are everywhere in Taiwan few months ago. Actually, I was wrong; it is the Tu-Ti-Kon temples 土地公廟 that are everywhere.

Why Tu-Ti-Kon temples 土地公廟? To understand this, some knowledge about Taiwanese folk religion is useful. In Taiwanese folk religion, gods' rank and their closeness (to ordinary citizen)follow similar rank and closeness of old Taiwanese political system. Thus, in old Taiwanese political system, there was emperor, followed by the province governors. The county chief ranked the lowest but the chief also has a close relationship with the citizens. Follow this logic, the heavenly god, or Tihn-Kon 天公 is the supreme god. He reins the heavenly world. After Tihn-Kon, 天公, it is the Sheng-Hong-Ya 峸隍爺. The temple of 峸隍爺 looks like an old day interrogation office of a province governor. Tu-Ti-Kon 土地公 ranks the lowest; though it is Taiwanese favor god because it is Tu-Ti-Kon 土地公 that gives Taiwanese everyday's blessing and protection.

A question for the folk religion: Today, there is no emperor but the president in the political system. Shall the Taiwanese folk religion also evolve in the future?

You might be dead before you discovered medicine, the Chinese agricultural god's or 神農 way

The Chinese folk lore praises their agriculture god, 神農, who discovered many precious Chinese medicine by eating hundreds of wild plants himself. Don't learn from him in Taiwan; because if you do, before you discover anything new, you might be dead.

In the wild of Taiwanese mountain, many plants look innocent in the eyes are actually poisonous. Photos show: mountain Taro 山竽, (Colocasia konishii ); witch taro 姑婆芋, (Alocasia odora (Roxb.) C. Koch); biting cat 咬人貓, (Urtica thunbergiana Sieb.& Zucc.) and Ban-To-Lo 晏陀羅. All of them are poisonous. The mountain taro is the least poisonous; and is edible. (The third in the picture.) Not for the others, especially for Ban-To-Lo, 晏陀羅.

Poisoned by Ban-To-Lo 晏陀羅 (The first picture with flowers.) is like poisoned by the cyanide. You are guaranteed to die and to meet the legendary god, 神農 in your next life. If your skin touches the leaves of the biting cat, 咬人貓 (The second photo.) you will feel like to be bitten by 'hundred mosquito' not by single one mosquito. I don't know the impacts of being poisoned by the witch taro, 姑婆芋 (The last photo.). One advice is that you do not mess around with anything having a name of witch.

Can you tell the difference between the mountain taro (second photo) and witch taro (the last photo)?

The tallest tree in Taiwan, 台灣杉（Taiwania cryptomerioides）

What is the tallest tree in Taiwan? The answer is the Taiwanese cedar which is also called 台灣杉(Taiwania cryptomerioides).

How tall can Taiwanese cedar grow? According to Professor Yang KuoJueng 楊國禎 of Jin-Yi University 靜宜大學, this tree can grow to 90 meters http://e-info.org.tw/topic/plant/2004/pl04082501.htm. The Wikipedia online dictionary reported that the tree can grow to 80 meters; http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/台灣杉 [ However, as I had mentioned this data to my relatives in Taipei, they raised doubt about this number; because 90 meter tall means the tree is equivalent to a 40-50 story house. That seems like an exaggeration. I do not know the number yet. Readers, if you have better data, please let me know. Thank you.]

Taiwanese cedar tree is actually a native to Taiwan. The other places that you can find the same cedar tree is in the Yun-Lan 雲南 province of China. But the same cedar tree grew in Yun-Lan雲南 is still called the Taiwanese cedar because when Japanese scientists discovered this particular cedar tree, they named the tree the Taiwanese cedar. This discovery and naming happened long before the Chinese discovered their equivalent cedar trees in Yun-Lan.

Japanese has a passion on their own cedar tree which is called 柳杉（Cryptomeria japonica), or the Japanese cedar. The Japanese initially imported the Japanese cedar tree into Taiwan; later they discovered that the native Taiwanese cedar was actually superior to their Japanese cedar when the trees were used for construction. The Japanese cedar can grow only to 40 meters.

You can find both the Taiwanese cedar and the Japanese cedar at Hsi-Tou 溪頭 and Sun-Link-Sea 杉林溪. You can distinguish both cedars by their external shapes: The Taiwanese cedar tree looks like a Christmas tree while the Japanese cedar doesn't look like a Christmas tree. You can touch the leaves of the Japanese cedar, but not the leaves of the Taiwanese cedar because the leaves of the Taiwanese cedar are needle-like.

By the way, by looking at the photos posted in this story, can you tell which one is the Taiwanese cedar, or 台灣杉（Taiwania cryptomerioides; and which one is the Japanese cedar, or 柳杉（Cryptomeria japonica)?