bye, bye Taiwan; welcome new, enlightened life;

After I came to Taiwan, I had many strong impressions and wrote a lot about them in my blog. After about half the time, I started to see more details of Taiwanese life, and it became harder to draw simple conclusions. Also my language class changed the teacher, I was much impressed with the new one, and struggling between doing Chinese homework or working on my thesis -- with the result of not getting much done of either.

My blogging stalled for a while because I couldn't make any easy theories about Taiwan and the Chinese culture any more. I found out that many of the simplistic things that I had written before are actually not so true, but the actual more situation just eludes my ability to describe in written form. I think that's why most books and especially blogs will always only carry a one-sided view of another country and another culture -- the true truth is too hard to express. It is best not to make generalizations. But then we are left with an overwhelming pile of details.

I did not want my lack of understanding to prevent the written preservation of my adventures, so I started to write a diary instead of posting to this blog. I started a paper diary and an text file on my computer. Both of which I am still continuing to write today.

Already in the last days of my stay, I have made notes for a concluding post to this blog and now I resolved to write it.

The true religion for Chinese people is their own five thousand year long history. I think you could convince any Chinese of anything if you managed to make a good argument using a historical example and quotation.

My first day back in our grad student lab, one other student asked me the very smart question: "So what is your conclusion after having gone to Taiwan?" Although I had thought about the same question since the last weeks of my stay in Taiwan, I was surprised by her directness and how she got directly down to the matter. Puzzled, the reply I said was: "There are people who are very poor and who have to work very hard and still they are happy. So I should be happy, too."

In retrospective, this was a good reply and one of the main things I think really matter. The other main things are:

• My current purpose in life is to do research (and a little teaching) and to advance myself I have to face the challenge of turning my ideas (which look so great in a presentation) into something tangible and something publishable.
• According to the motto "Be the change that you want to see in the world." I shall try to incorporate into my life, the things which I like best about Taiwan. Two of those things are friendships and Taiwan's famous food. I have thus resolved to cook more for myself, especially try out new, different vegetables (which I think make up an important part of Taiwanese food's greatness).
• Replicating the Taiwanese attitude to social relationships is harder, if only because it's so intertwined with life, situations and personalities of people that I can't even describe it. But one thing that stands out is how often I have traveled in stayed over night in friend's apartments even those places were very small and the friends were sometimes not very close. I find that it is much preferable to sleep on a carpet or to share a large bed than to stay in an hotel. Cultural immersion. I want to offer the same opportunity for other people, too!
• Chinese people often react very enthusiastic when they notice that I speak a little Chinese. They feel good to see that a foreigner actually makes a real effort to learn their language. After coming back to Toronto, I have had a similar feeling whenever one of my fellow grad students spoke German to me. It is also a conclusion of my stay, that I will continue language exchanges with people to teach my language and to learn theirs. Language exchanges are not just a way to broaden your own horizon without spending money, helping somebody else to do the same, it is also a grass-roots way to promote the understand between different cultures thus to help accomplish one the goals of my religion: "to end all wars, forever". (After all, wars are always plotted by those in power who are tricking the common people to see others as their enemy. In a society where all are too smart to be tricked, there is no more place for war to spin his evil plots.)
  

Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many pass one way, a road is made. -- Lu Xun 鲁迅

As well, as providing me with a bunch of surprising insights, my Taiwanese adventure has also left me with more new questions than it has answered:

• Do I have talent for languages? Will I ever go back to Taiwan or China (except for visiting friends)? What use if any will my Chinese language have for me (and the world)? Will I ever elaborate and publish my invention of a new Chinese writing system?
• Both Taiwan and China are changing fast. What is the constant focal point amidst all that change? In some respects where they were far behind Western Civilization they have already caught up and even passed other developed countries. For one thing, Beijing's fight for clean air has passed the more developed Taipei by a huge margin! Can anybody predict where the voyage of those countries is going to go? Will China be peaceful and democratic one day? (Given how flawful Western democracies are, it is not hard to imagine that a newcomer to democracy will even surpass them.) One thing, I am sure of is that I will always keep in touch with my Chinese friend in Beijing and I also think that the situation in China will never be as bad as to force her to leave. So I'll have at least a foot in the door for eternity.
• Do I love the Chinese so much because there is a little bit of Chinese in myself? Is there a little bit of Chinese in everybody? Or is it just because Chinese are so different, yet so alike, and living there helps me to break free from my own cultural corset?
• Who am I? Where do I belong? Will I be able to contribute to society by –in Chunming's words– "living a happy life and being a good person"?
  

There's no place where I can be, since I found serenity.

war in China

From a recent article in the English section of the Taipei Times:

The Pentagon said in a statement: “On March 8, 2009, five Chinese vessels shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity to USNS Impeccable, in an apparent coordinated effort to harass the US ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters.”

Highlighting mine. This sound to me just like what I've heard about Mainland Chinese people's driving behavior!

After have read so much about China, I will finally go visit the Mainland a couple days from now. Stay tuned for first-hand reports!

PS: I don't think that I will go sailing, but I wouldn't miss out on an opportunity if it would present itself. :-)

PPS: On China's military expansion rhetoric:

“They claim Taiwan, obviously. They claim the Senkaku Islands, which are between Taiwan and Japan. Japan also has sovereignty over those at the moment. They claim the Paracels, which Vietnam claims. They claim the Spratlys, which Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia claim.”
“They claim lost territories basically wherever you can find a piece of Chinese porcelain from 500 years ago,” [Democratic Senator Jim] Webb said.

Taiwanese encounters

Unexpected rain led to three unconventional encounters. Here comes the summary.

一。I was packing up Bunny to take the MRT when suddenly somebody held the bike for me, so that I could easily wrap it up. I since I was bent down to hold I bag, I couldn't even see who was helping me. When we were done, the young man started a conversation with me (the typical where are you from... how long are you staying...) and after the most typical things were said he offered me to exchange contact information, so I can call him when I need any other help in Taiwan. He said that he might go to Germany at some point and would like to know somebody there. So this somebody would be me. He told me that he just graduated from school and wants to try to work in several foreign countries. He was really very nice and so we exchanged addresses.

二。In the MRT the train windows were steamed from inside since the rain cooled the outside down. A girl was drawing Tictactoe on the window. I drew a grid next to hers and we played a game. Of course it was a draw. After a short pause, I decided to start a conversation like Taiwanese do and asked "How old are you?". We had a short conversation and she couldn't guess where I was from. Unfortunately she got off at the next stop. Sometimes it is so interesting to talk to people, but unfortunately not many people offer such a nice ice-breaker as Tictactoe.

三。Off the MRT it was still raining a lot. I saw a man waiting at the MRT exit, waiting for the rain to subside I thought. What hope did he have that it will end soon? I asked myself. Maybe if he is waiting I should wait to. In great conversation mood I greeted him and asked: "Where do you have to go?" and another nice conversation followed. He told me many things of which I understood some. He said that he expected the rain to lessen in half an hour (but now, 90 minutes later, it still seems to be raining). After twenty minutes I decided to go and brave the rain and he parted, too.

I never had so much smalltalk with strangers on any day in my life before. But here in Taiwan it's really interesting. People are not the same as home and it's a way to get to know them. When I am waiting somewhere where other people are, I am always debating with myself to start a conversation or not. At home (be it Germany, France, or Canada) I usually don't do this kind of smalltalk and I am usually happy that way. Here it's different...

三个短篇小说

看繁體字

晚上约会

我们在朋友的家约会。我的脚踏车放在她的客厅里。一起去夜市吃晚餐。然后去買东西。回家。很好玩儿。

语言交换

我以前的语言交换同伴去高雄了。所以我要找新的。找到两个人。一个是男的，我们昨天晚上约。一起吃晚餐，然后去咖啡厅。说中文一个钟头，以后我就很累了。然后说英文一各种头，以后他很累。回家。再下个礼拜见。

其他的找到人是女的我们下个礼拜第一次约。

颐和园

昨天夜晚我看了大陆电影。他的发音很清楚，但是大部分我听不懂。有一个句子我听懂了我觉得很美丽。“我心里没有你。你心里没有我。” 很美丽，也很愁绪。

a ride out with Bunny

During the last week I rode more than 100km on Bunny, mostly along the shore of the various rivers which encircle Taipei: Xiandian river in the south, Danshui river in the west and Jilong (Keelung) river in the north.
Yesterday was my longest tour. I didn't even plan to cycle around, but I met somebody for language exchange and once being outside the weather was just to good to go back in. So I rode northward along the little park that's underneath / on top of the Danshui subway line and then along Jilong and Danshui rivers. When I thought I would soon arrive in Beitou (halfway between Taipei and Danshui), I was actually already arriving in Danshui itself. I later saw on the map that I had ridden more than 40 km this afternoon and was surprised about this until I remembered that a single commute to my Chinese class in Toronto was also 38km round-trip. That's probably why me and little Bunny passed most other cyclists on the way. Even those dressed in Lycra and riding big bikes. It seems that Bunny's lacking high gears are really not an issue any more.

• Some photos from the cycle path (more are in the photostream)
• Some photos of Bunny
  

the weather in Taipei

In short I could say "hot and humid even in winter". In the last couple of days the day time temperature was around 21°C, there were only one or two really sunny days in Taipei, since I came here, but also only one or two really rainy days. Most of the time it is just a grey sky and quite a bit of haze. I can understand why my friend likes (the central town of) Puli so much: the air is much clearer there and it is sunny much more often. It also was sunny on the two days on which I visited. So nice!
The coldest temperature here in Taipei was around 11°C during some of last week's nights. Since people here don't have a heating and poor isolation, this meant that the temperature in my room fell down to 15°C and I had to wear warm socks and a sweater at night in order to sleep.
On the other hands, when it gets sunny during the day, it can get so warm that I am at ease in shorts and T-Shirt outside! In every case, girls here seem to sense the weather before they leave their houses and don't miss a chance to wear the shortest of pants.
For the Chinese New Year (which means two weeks of school holidays for me starting tomorrow) a cold front has been predicted. Let's see how that goes!

I hope I just bought a bike...

... because I left NT$1000 as an advance and all I got is a receipt which I cannot read.

But the good news is: I ordered a bike plus extra parts and even haggled a bit on the price. If my Chinese does not again fool me then I will get a brand new Dahon Eco 3 with extra fenders and rack tomorrow. The Eco 3 is the cheapest Dahon model and not even sold in Western countries. It is more expensive than bikes from other brands, but looks like true Dahon quality. Especially the folding mechanism seems to be much better than the cheap competitors.

Brand new bikes sell for quite cheap in Taiwan (all made in China, I suppose), but Dahon's prices seem to be just like in the West. Gotta pay for quality, I suppose.

Buying the bike was a really interesting experience. The shop clerk even called his boss on the phone who tried to speak English to me, but in Chinese we seemed to have better communication. But of course, I have to wait until tomorrow to see how well we really understood each other.

stay tuned!

funny first dialogue with my Vietnamese classmates

They are two girls and four boys. The boys will study at another university, but were with the girls today, because their classes didn't yet start.
We didn't introduce each other, because we couldn't understand our names anyway (or know what word is a name and what word isn't). But generally it was very interesting because we carried out almost all our conversation in Chinese. It's good to talk to other students of the language, because they speak simply and slowly and are patient with me.
So one of them asked: "How old are you?"
"28" I said.
- "Oh, really, all of us are also that age."
- "hm."
- "Oh wait, did you say 28 or 18?"
- "I am 28."
- "Oh."
And they he said that they are all 18 years old. Wouldn't have been able to guess, since 28 year old Vietnamese people would probably not look much older than 18 anyway.
Later they asked me if I was married. Other culture, other focus...

Why I love Taipei

A non-exhaustive list...

• the subway has beautiful trains and gorgeous stations: big, clean, well-lit and lots of lines of sight. Can't get lost there. Can't feel sad there.
• the city has lots of huge, wide avenues with plenty of space for traffic to flow, for scooters to park and for people to walk. Think of Toronto's University Avenue. In Taipei all major streets are like this. In comparison Toronto's main streets (be it King, Queen, or Yonge) do look like small-town streets. (It seems that the layout of those streets was mainly done during the fifty years of Japanese rule 1895 to 1945.)
  
• spreading from the major roads are medium streets (sized like most streets in Toronto) and from the medium streets spread lots of lanes and alleyways, which are really, really small (sometimes not even space for one car), but which are very, very lively: here's usually where the good food is cooked and sold, shops extend into the street and leave little space for people which is all taken up by those stopping by. This is the natural / organic version of a shopping mall and it's much better. (Yes, I am a fan of natural things!)
• Many of the big and medium streets have building build over the side walk, which thereby becomes roofed over. I think this is an excellent way of building a city: the street becomes wider, yet buildings are close together, and of course pedestrians are shielded from the rain. It's amazing that this works in so many streets, although the individual buildings are all different in architecture. Gaps between the buildings are often roofed over by very simple means which look very ad-hoc, but do their job. It's like a lot of diversity which agrees in the point that's most important: keep people's heads dry.
• the food, oh yes, the food would deserve a couple blog posts of its own. I only want to highlight one thing: the food places which I like most are very small, independently run, often found together in a food alley, or scattered through town. They are very small (maybe just a stand in the street), all the food as fresh made; the venues are very simple, much below western standards, for example, customers sit on little stools in the street, but the quality of the food is so much better: fresh ingredients, freshly cooked, with a large variety of herbs and spices. Just the kind of food that I could eat all week, no need to cook at home or go to a fancy restaurant. Key to this scheme is first that all food places are very small and offer only a bunch of related dishes --that's why they can make it all fresh on the spot and still be cheap-- and second that many of those small shops are found together in one street, which gives hungry people a huge choice of different things to eat.

Maybe I'll add more things later...

我是老外，请说慢点。

When I am going out, mainly for buying food, I am in a conflict: I want people to speak Chinese to me (not English), but my Chinese is not really good enough to speak normally with people. And I really don't want to explain every time "Please speak Chinese with me, but please be patient."
So I made this little sticker written in Chinese characters and pinned it to my sweater. It says "I am a foreigner, please speak slowly." My teacher commented today: "Oh, you are so cute." Haha!

Similar news from going to a food place which usually displays a menu on the wall or on a little sheet of paper. Cook asking: "What can I get you?" Me replying: "I can't read. What do you have?"
Life can be so fun, if you admit your weaknesses upfront!